(Sunday Aug 14 - Dist: 27.6 mi; Locks: 8; TTT: 9:50 hrs)
We got up early, 5:30 AM (no vacation today), in order to meet Dino at 7 AM at the pleasure craft dock below Lock 1. Our hired gun was sitting on the dock wall, hair down to his shoulders, a scrawny hippie. After my initial impression he went into action and was a god send. It turned out to be a stress free event. He was interesting, well travelled, very knowledgeable and above all very helpful. Right from the get go he got our $200 pass from the machine and called Seaway Welland with all of our information. He adjusted all of the fenders and tied them to the bases of the stanchions so that there would be no damage to the rail.
Some facts before I tell you how our day went. We did not get any photos at the low end of the lock because it was too busy and things moved quickly once we entered the actual lock. It is unfortunate too, because it is an eiry feeling to be entering a concrete chamber with walls 42 feet high. The Welland Canal system actually took us from Lake Ontario up 99.5 metres (326.5 feet for my American friends) to Lake Erie. Basically it allows us to get around Niagara Falls. There are 8 locks with the last being a short leveling lock to maintain the level with Lake Erie. Each lock is 24.4m (80') wide and 233.5m (766') long. The maximum ship length is 740 feet. Ships are scheduled so people do come out to the observation decks to watch us??, the bigger ships. We passed 6 ships on our journey.
Before we could push off a sail boat arrived which also wanted to transit the canal. They had little information but Dino stepped right up and handled their check in as well. Dino was disappointed because the sail boat would slow us up; at least an hour from his experience. Since he has 27 years of experience with Seaway Welland, now working at Lock 6, he knew that the two boats would have to travel together and he even insisted that they go in the locks first and take the preferred locations. His reasoning was that we had much more manoeuvrability then they did.... and he was correct.
The turbulence is strong and unpredictable especially in the first 25 feet of filling. Think about it.... 21 million gallons of water rushes into the lock to fill it in about 14 minutes. Our boat, no so insignificant, was tossed about like a cork. I was actually at the helm driving the boat in an effort to keep it parallel to the lock wall and to prevent it from rushing forward or backward. The two line handlers, Linda on the front and Dino on the stern, each had a line looped around a cleat so that they could provide the necessary tension to keep the boat near the lock wall so that the fenders could do their work We fared quite good especially compared to the 36 foot sail boat.
The sail boat had 4 persons on board and were struggling hard to prevent damage to their boat. They had fenders and a fender board but it was dragging so hard against the wall that they needed two people to constantly push against the wall so that the fenders could slide up. They were very tired by the end. We know because we both stopped at the free Harbourview Dock which is used to begin the down bound journey and we shared a few beers.
If you think our journey is impressive, their journey is 10x so. They started 8 days before Linda and I ... from the Netherlands. They travelled around the coast of Portugal to the Azores and then over to the Caribbean, up the US coast to the Hudson and Erie Canals and through the Welland like us. They are headed for the far end of Lake Superior where they will have the boat shipped to Washington State. Next summer they will travel to Alaska, then back down the Pacific coast and through the Panama Canal so that they can head back home. Can you imagine?? We had a great evening together telling stories and comparing notes.
One does get close and personal to the passing ships. With Dino on board he knew many of the crew on the ships and of course every person at every lock. We were quite popular.
Sadly all that is left for us is Lake Erie.
No comments:
Post a Comment