Voyage overview
- Year: 2019
- Destination: Lake Champlain, USA
- Boat: Loose Cannon
- Vessel type: Jeanneau 51
- Distance sailed: 196 nautical miles
- Skipper: Mike Scrivens
- Crew: Chris Robson (“AChamp”), Simon Tyler (“DChamp”), Warren Creates (“Warchamp”), Boris Ulehla (“Borchamplain”), David Ashfield (“Dachamper”)
- Notes: David’s final voyage
Logbook Entry
Lake Champlain was a graceful blend of American charm and Canadian calm — a place of wide horizons, quiet anchorages, and, as always, memorable company.
This was to be David’s final voyage, though none could have known it at the time. His steady hand and quiet humour filled the decks of Loose Cannon as the crew navigated from the southern stretches of the lake to the Canadian border.
Sailing under a bridge with less than 30 centimetres of clearance tested everyone’s nerves; a sudden gust later tipped the taffrail and Scriv into the lake for an impromptu dunking. The crew pressed on northwards, including a blazer clad wander through picture book Burlington — a perfect town of music, craft beer, and Ben & Jerry’s ice cream.
In the northern most barely navigable reach of the Lake, the buoys happened upon an empty bar with sport tv’s awaiting viewers, and there they watched the Toronto Raptors win their first NBA title — a celebration that, in true Phat Buoy style, felt perfectly timed with the spirit of the voyage.
Ashore, ahead of the trip we met in Montreal, drove south across the border, almost lost some of the crew to the US immigration controls. Post trip we drove back north stopping over in the wilds of Adirondack, visiting White Face mountain and the decaying leftovers from the 1980 Lake Placid Winter Olympic Village.
The Brit Buoys were giving a find send off party at Warboy’s with a treat for David from celebrity chef Joe Thottungal (Cocount Lagoon and Thali restaurants).
