Wednesday, August 10, 2011

August 9, 2011 Port Colborne


Well, today is the day for the dreaded Welland Canal trip up to Lake Erie. The Welland Canal consists of 8 locks that equalized the 325’ difference in height between Lake Erie and Lake Ontario. It is 27 miles long. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welland_Canal


The trip up bound from Lake Ontario to Lake Erie is much more difficult than the down bound because of the turbulence in the lock, as millions of gallons of water are pumped to fill the lock in within a few minutes time. You need to control your boat using only two rope lines thrown from 50’ above, as the water tries to mush part of it into the wall and push it away at the same time. At the top of the lock, the water is almost 80’ deep. Locks 4, 5 and 6 are right next to each other, and the exit of one is the entrance to the next. I posted a picture from lock 6, looking back. I never sleep that well the night before an up bound transit.


I got up at 5:45 since we were leaving at 6:30. I noticed the red sky in the morning, and remembered something about sailors taking warning . . . I turned Fox news on about 6:05 to raise my two sleeping crew members, then went into the locker to dig out my Welland gloves and 8 4x4 bumpers. Then I removed the center section of the cockpit cover for better visibility in the canal. We shoved off right at 6:30, just when it started to rain. When we left the harbor we saw a large freighter leaving the canal and another one anchored outside the mouth of the canal. I thought that did not appear to be a good thing for us, if one was waiting to transit.


We were at the small boat waiting area by 7:30. We figured out how to use the credit card machine where you pay the $200 cost for the transit, and then called Seaway Welland, who told us we had at least a 2 hour wait. For a while I sat in the cockpit and read with a gentle rain falling. Then I decided to join Kerry for a nap in the V-berth while we waited. After a while a man, also waiting to transit, came by and said Seaway Welland told him we would be moving at noon, or after lunch. Bummer.


A large freighter, Capt. John Jackman pulled up to the wall across from us. I thought it may have been the one anchored in the channel. We could hear his conversation with Seaway Welland over the radio on channel 14. Capt. Jack needed to fax in a security form before he could transit. Unfortunately for him, his internet connection was down and his fax used that connection so he could not fax in the form. He was stuck which turned out to be good news for us as we got cleared to transit starting at 10:45.


Lew chose to take the starboard side when we transited. That means he would be on the wall for two locks and I would have five. One lock you just float in and don’t tie up. We raft together going through and then we don’t have to move bumpers when you have to tie up on a different side of the lock.


The transit was actually pretty easy until the last lock, number 7, my least favorite lock. It rained for over half of the trip, but then stopped and became sunny. The wind was light which also helped. It seemed to us that they were filling the locks a little slower this time which reduced the turbulence. I posted a coupe of pictures of the water as it started to boil up from the floor of the lock. On one lock, I laid down my glove to take a picture. It got sucked into the windlass and remained there the entire trip. It got ripped to pieces eventually and Kip and I had to disassemble part of the winch to take out the remains.


Some of the wooden 4x4 bumpers got chewed up pretty well on the walls. Kerry did her best to clean the dirty water and canal filth off Excalibur throughout the day, a job made harder by all the rain.
In lock 7 one of the fenders got caught in a hole in the wall. Before it came loose it bent one of my lifeline stanchions which will have to be straightened if possible, or replaced. This lock has the most turbulence. The water rushes across the lock and just smashes the boat against the wall. It’s almost impossible to get it away from the wall, which has large holes in it that reach out and try to snag your fenders. It was the only damage we suffered.


We exited the canal a little before 7:30, making it a 12 hour trip from the time we entered the canal. We had about 3 delays, where we had to sit and wait for maintenance being done on the canal, on bridges, and for no apparent reason at the last lock. After lock 7 there is a stretch where you motor for about 2 hours before you transit the last lock, where you don’t tie up and just float. We took the opportunity to enjoy some much needed rum and tonics and microwave popcorn.


The marina staff helped us dock. Lew and I walked the long distance to sign in, while Gretchen made a great pulled pork dinner and Kerry made martinis. After dinner and a shower we called it a night. About 1:30 all hell broke loose in the form of a huge thunderstorm. I thought my bimini was going to leave the boat. Excalibur was heeling at the dock while being smashed against the bumpers. Fortunately we had the air conditioner on and the boat was all closed up. The storm hit so quickly that we would have been flooded before we would have been able to get closed up.


We have plans to go west tomorrow, but the forecast is for winds up to 25 knots from the west, so we may stay another day in Port Colborne. The forecast is only a little better for the next day.










1 comment:

  1. What an adventure! Love the pictures! Everyone looks great! Thanks for all the details! Wishing you sunny skies and fair winds!

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