Sun July 25: Deep Bay to Valcour Island Butterfly Bay ancorage

In which we meet French Canadians!

In the night, which was like trying to sleep while on a bronco underwater in a bathtub, Rick finally gave up and just sat on the couch, and I gave up and played Two Dots on my phone.  It was scary and also exhausting - which is always a great combo.  We should have skipped Deep Bay and gone straight to the protection of Valcour Island - which we immediately rectified.  The passage was pretty bouncy, and I had to lie down for a bit.

The ferry didn't care that we were in a hurry - yielding is up to us.

Valcour Island is considered a hidden gem, and that's exactly how we felt when we anchored in one of its many protected bays.   It was completely calm water, with a gentle breeze and a lovely wild shoreline.  I immediately felt well enough to go have a walk. This is the first time we have pulled the dingy up on shore, and it was successful - although I forgot to take a picture of it.

We had hoped to follow the trails around the island's 7 mile circumference. But 'trail' turned out to be a generous, perhaps needlessly optimistic, take on reality.  The reality was more a 'waft' of trail, done in pencil and then partially erased.  Add in very healthy flora and give it a good stir with poison ivy.  It ended up seeming like too big a risk, so we only made it to the lighthouse.

No really - there is the HINT of a trail here.

The 'outhouses' were also a suggestion only.  His and hers.

On the way back to the boat we were waved down by a French Canadian couple, who shanghaied us into a couple of drinks. Regis and Danielle were super nice, and seemed to have no problem coming and going across the boarder.  Once we started to notice the Canadian flags, we saw that the other two boats in our bay were also flying them.  Our Featured Boat Name, Knot @ Work, and we stopped by to say hi, since they had been with us in Deep Bay.  They had not slept either - with all the rockin and rollin.

It was a lovely, quiet night - look at how calm the water is.  Whew, we needed that! Rick ended the night watching Discovery of Witches - he liked the books.  No, I didn't see that coming either...