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News & Features
Aboard the Betty L
Story and photos by Caroline Norwood
For Points East
Madeline Vreeland knows her way around canal locks and seaway channels. She and her husband Bob negotiated some 55 locks on a voyage last year. They embarked June 20 from Buzzards Bay on a cruise that took them up the Hudson River, through numerous canals, up the St. Lawrence Seaway to eventually land at Quebec City. From there, they began a leisurely trip back down the St. Lawrence, stopping to see whales at Tadoussac, past the Gaspe Peninsula, around Cape Breton Island to Halifax, Nova Scotia.
Stopping there to let Hurricane Danny blow by, the couple slogged their way through thick fog around Cape Sable, crossed the Bay of Fundy to hit the big Pirate Festival in Eastport, Maine, and thence southward toward their home in Sandwich, Mass., on Cape Cod.
That's a summary of their three-month saga. Now here are some details. Their vessel is the 38-foot power cruiser Betty L. The wooden hull was built by Covey Island Boatworks – when it was based in Petite Riviere, N. S. – for Colin and Helen Ray. They had the hull trucked to Peterborough, Ontario, where the couple worked together to create the cruiser they wanted. They launched their boat, named Cohessence, in 1994.
Bob Vreeland said the original name was meant to encompass "the essence of Colin and Helen." Cohessence was described in a feature article in "WoodenBoat" magazine after she was launched.
Fast forward to 2006. Bob and Madeline were thinking retirement and cruising. Bob was a 4th-grade teacher; Madeline worked as a speech pathologist in the local schools. They were looking for the perfect boat, and they found it in an ad describing Cohessence, noting she was designed by Spencer Lincoln. "I had just been dreaming of such a boat," said Bob. "I loved her lines. We went to Canada to look at her at the Collins Bay Marina in Kingston, Ont."
It didn't take the couple long to decide to buy the boat. "We named the boat Betty L after my Aunt Betty," said Bob. "I inherited some money from her. Without the inheritance, I could have had a boat, but not this one." He said Aunt Betty never had any children but was very much a part of his seafaring life when he was growing up. "She loved the sea and boats," said Bob. "I grew up on Barnegat Bay in New Jersey, and I knew boats from an early age."
Though Bob knew boats, he said his previous seafaring knowledge mostly involved smaller boats, adding, "To go from the size of boats I'd been using to this one was a big jump." Both he and Madeline took advanced Coast Guard navigation courses to prepare them for their summer cruise. Neither had ever made such a long trip before.
During an interview at Westport, Brier Island, N.S., Madeline checked dates in the logbook. She said they were in New York City at the W. 79th St. Marina for the Fourth of July celebrations. They traveled the Hudson River to Waterford, N.Y., then entered the Champlain Canal and headed north. "There were so many interesting stops along the way," she recalled. She especially noted their stops at New York's Fort Ticonderoga, on southern Lake Champlain, and the French-built Fort Saint John in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Quebec, 31 miles south of Montreal.
They entered the Chambly Canal which took them to the St. Lawrence River at Sorel. "We arrived in Quebec City on July 19 and stayed there for four days. "It's a remarkable city," Bob noted. All along the way, he said, they were joined by family members who traveled with them for short periods of time. His sister, who he said is a "sailor" found time to meet them at two different locations to enjoy some time on the Betty L.
The couple saw whales at Tadoussac, at the junction of the St. Lawrence and Saguenay rivers, and were amazed by the fjord of the Saguenay River. At the Bay of Eternity (Baie Eternite), they saw the famous statue of the Virgin Mary high on a cliff and marveled at the effort it must have taken to get the statue to such a height.
"From there," Bob continued, "we went on the south side of the St. Lawrence to Rimouski, along the Gaspe Peninsula, around Bonaventure Island, across the Bay of Chaleur to Shippigan, Shediac and eventually to Summerside, Prince Edward Island." He and Madeline took time out from cruising to watch the musical "Anne of Green Gables" while in Charlottetown. They also enjoyed a tribute to the late chanteyman Stan Rogers. "I'm a big fan of his music," Bob added.
They were snug in St. Peters on Cape Breton Island when Hurricane Bill blew through. "We stayed at the Lions Club Marina there," Bob said. "Some of the friendliest people you can imagine."
He paused here to praise people generally who offer assistance of every kind to traveling boaters. "Everywhere we went, people would offer to drive us some place, or give us the keys to their car and tell us to explore." He spoke of a man at Riviere-la-Madeleine on the St. Lawrence who met them saying, "Hi, I'm Jean Paul, official greeter," who then took them on a lovely trip through the forest to see the Grand Sault salmon migratory pass. "If they know you're from a boat, shopkeepers will often close the register and drive you back to your boat," he added.
While on Cape Breton Island, they visited the Alexander Graham Bell Museum in Baddeck on Bras d'Or Lake. "My father and my aunt were both Bell employees, so we had to see the Museum," said Bob.
They started down the Nova Scotia coast, arriving in Halifax in time to take shelter from Tropical Storm Danny. They departed Halifax when they thought seas would be moderate but instead faced 14-foot waves, then thick fog. "Our boat is equipped with stabilizers, so that did help us," Bob added.
They stopped at Covey Island Boatworks office in Lunenburg, where they were warmly welcomed, and later visited the Covey Island boat shop in Riverport, a few miles south of Lunenburg, where they were given a tour of the facilities.
The Vreelands were in Westport, preparing to cross the Bay of Fundy, when I spoke with them. Madeline said they wanted to be in Eastport, Maine, in time for the Pirate Festival. Their son John had graduated from The Boat School in Eastport, the oldest boatbuilding school in America.
When asked about plans for the winter, Madeline smiled broadly: "We're going to ski!" She grew up in Westbrook, Maine, and skiing is a big part of her life. She and Bob do volunteer work at Sunday River and also work with the Maine Handicap Ski Program. So they will be busy with all the activities that come with winter, including making plans for another cruise next summer in the Betty L.
Caroline Norwood has been secretary of the Westport Harbour Authority since it was formed, and a member of the Harbour Authority Advisory Council for four years. She was a commercial fisherman for seven years, and worked on an inshore longline boat.
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