We finally made it out of Malletts Bay on Monday 9/19 at 1 pm thanks to the able assistance of Linda and Nile Schnieder on Sunday and Bruce and Pam Foshay on Monday in securing the mast on deck for the trip.  We motored down to Kingsland Bay on Monday to anchor for the night.  We put up the dodger and bimini (canvas covers over the cockpit for you non sailors) as we anticipated rain on Tuesday.  Good thing as we encountered t-storms on Tues at Tigonderoga and would  have been miserable without the canvas.

We arrived at Whitehall at about 2 pm Tues which is the start of the Champlain Canal which would take us to the Hudson River.  There are 11 locks on the canal and Whitehall is Lock 12 (go figure).  Actually, there is no lock 10 as the builders found out they didn't need 10 afterall.  The first three locks are up going south.  This means you enter the lock, the gates close and the lock starts filling with water.  This water pushes the boat against the coarse concrete wall while the boat is rising all in an attempt to sandpaper the fiberglass.  Our first up was not so smooth as it took tike to learn how hard to push off the bow from the without pushing the stern into the wall.  By the third up lock, we were pretty proficient in keeping the boat off the wall (both ends simultaneously.  The fourth lock was our firt down lock and it was much easier as the water rushing out of the lock pulls the boat away from the wall.

We spent Tues night tied to the wall below lock 8.