We spent the morning and early afternoon at For Ticonderoga today.
It is a great place to visit. Along with the fort are pretty gardens and a house that was built by the Pells, a couple who bought and restored the fort.
We arrived back at the boat around 2pm and travelled to Whitehall, which is at the base of the Champlain canal and 12 locks we’ll go through in the next 2 days.
When we got there we spent about an hour and a half re-measuring the height of our boat above the water. Our previous reading had been 16’3” and we got about the same reading. There were a few fixed bridges along our way through the canal, that were reported to be 15.5’ clearance. We talked to the nearest lock master and he told us that the clearance was at 17’ and we should be able to make it without bringing down our bimini. (If we took our bimini down our air draft would be about 13.5’.) He did mention though that a bridge between lock 4-lock 3 was measuring 15.5’ and if we could give those locks advanced warning, they could bring the river down. (I still don’t know how that happens but think they increase to flow if the dam to do it)
After the conversation with the lock master, we decided to leave the Bimini up and only collapse the center rib, which reduced our height about 3 inches.
The marina we stayed at was in so-so condition and owned by a 60 year old character. He is a mixture of NJ Italian energy/Florida keys Beach mellow/mind altered forgetful. A really nice guy trying to make a go of his business.
We had a really good dinner at the restaurant, cooked by the chef/bartender/deck hand. She seemed to be the glue for keeping things together at the marina.
Dinner was enjoyable interacting with the locals (who were serving themselves at the bar) and fellow boaters. We got some intel on the locks and bridges we were going through from the boaters. Those boaters had boats that were taller than ours and traveled through the locks/bridges by the skin of their teeth but made it. That left us somewhat comfortable about the days ahead.