Lake Champlain - Mallett's Bay warning

[Theresamarie11]

If you're in the northeast, you know how much water we've gotten this spring (in Vt, 10" over typical the last 60 days). Lake Champlain has been over flood stage for I think more than 45 days (don't quote me though) and the rivers have been pumping all kinds of debris into the lake and it's bays.

We finally put our boat in at one of the few Marinas open on the Vermont side in Mallett's bay (many are too far under water). And we ventured out on the Bay/lake for a few rides this weekend.

What we found in the Bay is scary for any boater. There are 100's of logs and trees and stumps and lots and lots of branches in the bay alone. I had to stand watch while Chris drove at 9mph the entire time in the bay. The logs seem to aggregate in certain spots, which makes it even more dangerous because it lulls you into false security when you go for a mile or two and don't see anything, then get up on plane only to run into one of these log and stump fields and end up with a broken hull or drive/prop.

If it's calm, daylight, you're careful, go slow (off plane), and have someone stand watch you should be ok. Going out at night would be suicide for a boater in Mallett's bay until the some of this debris clears. Also, as the wave action intensifies, it becomes harder and harder to differentiate and pick out the debris from the whitecaps, so be extra careful on those days.


Anyways, if you go out, be safe!

 

[SillyKnot2]

You must be at The Moorings or Marble Island. I'm supposed to be at Champlain Marina but they have said no boats until the lake hits 99', my guess is I may have to cancel the trip to Montreal scheduled for July 5th - the 10th.

Something to think about- NO GAS or Pump Outs available in the Bay as far as I know (did hear MI may install a temp PO)

I was just ready your thread about your generator. My 7.2 Westerbeke crapped out last fall when the controller on my HWH fried. Bought a new capacitor and may attempt that real soon, may have to hook a hose up to the custom strainer caps I had fabricated to test it.

 

[Theresamarie11]

You must be at The Moorings or Marble Island. I'm supposed to be at Champlain Marina but they have said no boats until the lake hits 99', my guess is I may have to cancel the trip to Montreal scheduled for July 5th - the 10th.

Something to think about- NO GAS or Pump Outs available in the Bay as far as I know (did hear MI may install a temp PO)

I was just ready your thread about your generator. My 7.2 Westerbeke crapped out last fall when the controller on my HWH fried. Bought a new capacitor and may attempt that real soon, may have to hook a hose up to the custom strainer caps I had fabricated to test it.

We're at marble island. We usually never really let the tanks run down, so we'll get our gas over at treadwell bay or Ladd's landing well before we really need to fill up and pump out at the same places. It's not always convenient, but we'll have to do whatever we need to this year. I think for many, it's going to be a non-season.

To test my generator out of the water, I purchased this thing that looks like a plunger with a extend-able and locking handle, which has a water hose connection on the head. Works great to run both the air and gen before I put it in the water.

Good luck with the generator. I am not familiar with the 7.2Kw, but my 4.5 purrs like a kitten and runs great now. The westerbeke diagnostic and technical manuals are pretty good.

 

[VTSeaRay]

I finally launched today in the Inland Sea out of Van Everest (Milton Georgia border boat access area). The water is incredibly high still 102.22' when I left this morning (100' is flood stage). There are concrete breakwater barriers at the end of the ramp that I was hoping to push off from today that are normally 2' or so above water at the end of summer. Today I could hardly reach them under water without having my head under! The parking lot at the access only has a little water (maybe 20' or so long 6-8" deep ) right at and across most of the entrance to the parking lot now. But there is debris across the entire parking lot. I took the boat up by Burton/Ball Islands, by Knight, Dameus and Butler Islands, then across to North Hero down into N. Hero City Bay then along Grand Isle, Savage, Fish Bladder and Cedar Islands to SandBar and then back up to the Launch area. Incredibly, I didn't see 1 log/stick, and I was keeping a close eye! There was a light 5 mph or so wind out of the NW with 4-8" small waves on the lake. I only saw maybe 10-15 or so other boats, mostly fishermen. I did see one oddity though. Someone had hired a barge(maybe 15'x40' or so with a small crane on it, loaded it up with framing lumber and were having it towed out to one of the islands. (heading towards Butler looked like from down near the West end of SandBar.) It was being towed by an old '70's vintage glastron looked like. Very strange to see that on the lake.

Last week, I couldn't launch here, nor could I launch @Mallett's Bay, without some difficulty. I went to Mallett's Bay last week (the public launch area) and watched (with my boat ready to drop in if it looked viable) other boats come/go - but most of them were aluminum fishing boats, and fishermen and the State Police were telling me about the large amount of logs out there. So, I decided not to launch. Later I heard a story from a sail boat out there, that they were doing about 5 mph, and saw a wooden front entry door go floating by about 1/2" under the top of the water!

I'd still keep an eye out for logs and other debris! I think I just lucked out today when I was out.
-VtSeaRay

A pic of one of my friend's camp (I have a couple friends with similar situations) I've heard the count is about 5-600 houses under water, and 3,000+ camps. The water/wind/waves has ripped off their decks, and pushed the camp off it's footings. Water was at least 3" above the floor inside. I'm thinking they might have to destroy and rebuild. The boat lift and dock are in their winter storage positions where they are normally on dry land during the spring thaw!