Mahi Mahi- Tue Jul 1; The Welland Canal Part 2

Yesterday, June 30th, we completed the highly anticipated Welland Canal ✔️

You may remember from the last post, that on Sunday we were in a nice anchorage just outside of the Welland Canal, but had moved to the Pleasure Boat Waiting Dock, just in front of Lock-1 on the canal.

During the evening we saw a couple Freightors pass by. While we were sleeping, about every few hours – there was another Freightor passing by the boat. The Freightors were actually very quiet & put up very little wake. I did wake up in the middle of the night and looked out of the starboard window, to see a large Freightor that was lighted up like a small city (sorry no photos).

When Monday morning came, our first action was to Check-In with the Welland Canal Port Authority, to let them know that we were stationed at the Pleasure Boat Dock & that we had a reservation for an Upbound Lockage at 9am. I made this call about 7:30am. We had our last solitude on the Pressure Craft Wall.

Between 7:30-8:30am, all the other boats signed up for the 9am Lockage started arriving at the Pleasure Boat Docking Wall, 7 other boats beside the Mahi, it was a bit of a circus. There was; the Tall Ship Liberty Clipper (that we had seen in St Johnsville), a Sailboat full of young kids on an adventure, learning how to sail (not thru the canal), and 5 other cruiser Powerboats.

Then the Customs Officers arrived – good thing that we had called in Sunday night. The officers asked for our “Arrival Number”, said thank you, and went on to the other boats.

Then we met a guy named Tom. Tom has an interesting job, in that he is a “for hire, Welland Canal Guide”.

We didn’t know it when we first met Tom, but he turned out to be a very important person. Tom was a hired, 3rd deck hand on one of the other cruisers & Tom’s buddy was also a hired 3rd deck hand on another cruiser.

You may remember, that the on Welland Canal, there is a minimum 3-person crew requirement ; Captain, Bow Line, Stern Line.

Tom says that it’s a good hobby for “beer money”. He makes $400 CAD per day, but it’s a long day. I don’t like his hourly rate.

So do you remember from the last post (Welland Canal Part 1), all the stuff about – when you enter the lock, the lockmaster will point to you with his finger or use shoulder taps, to tell you where he wants you in the Lock ?

Well, that’s a lot of BS !

Before we left the Pleasure Boat Dock, Tom came by and told us that we would be rafting off of the 50ft boat that he was hired on to be the 3rd deck hand. Initially, I’m thinking “who is this guy”, I’m gunna wait until the lock operator tells us where to go. But as I watched closer – everybody knew Tom. All the customs guys knew him, previous Welland Canal customers knew him. And as it turned out, Tom ran the whole show, we didn’t communicate with the Lock attendants at all. The lock attendants just dropped the lines down to the boats on the wall and that was it. No communication on the VHF Radio, nothing.

They didn’t tell us that in the handbook.

So after our 7:00am alarm to call in to the Welland Canal Port Authority at 7:30am. We were highly anticipating the passage thru the 1st Lock at 9:00am. We had a reservation right ?

Well guess what, there was an downbound Freightor that did not get thru Lock-1 until about 10:15am. We were not in Lock-1 until about 10:30am.

Entering Lock1 was no big deal thanks to Tom. He told us that we would be the 4th boat to enter the lock, and that we would tie up to the boat that he was on. And By- George, that is exactly what happened. In this video, you can see the boats “Worldwide” & “Buckeye Nut” in the Lock before us, getting ready to raft off. The 3rd boat is “Tops Optional”, the boat that we rafted off of, with Tom on board. Note – Locks #1&2 are starboard side tie ups, Locks #4-7 are port tie ups. This is due to where the water enters the Lock. The starboard/port tie ups are intended to use the water flow to help keep you pressed against the wall vs being pushed off of the wall.

Ok, so now we are in lock-1, we were rafted off of the boat Tom was on, as Tom had told us. It was actually very easy for us. It was much harder for the boats like the one Tom was on, because they had 2 jobs. The boats on the wall, had to retrieve 2 drop lines from the lock personnel & then they had to help us raft off of them with our docking lines.

We ended up locking all day, thru 7 locks with only 5 other pleasure boaters. The 2 large sailboats had to wait for the next lock after us.

I got to know Denny from the boat “Tops Optional” quite well. He was a big Tigers fan from Grand Rapids.

Locks #1&2 went fine, just like every lock we had been thru before, except for rafting off of another boat.

Between locks #2&3, we had to pull off to the side and wait for a down bound freighter to pass.

Lock #4 was the most interesting, I think that I will call it – Niagara Falls 👍 . Very wet for the 2 lead boats. Our view was great.

After Lock-4, we had a nice rain down pour. It rained from Locks #4-#7 and made for a very long day.

Speaking of that, remember the Welland Guide that said to plan on a 12 hour transit. Not so true again. We hear from Tom that it could take 12 hours, but usually 8-10 hours. It depends on how many Freightors are coming the other way & how quickly the boats on your group can get tied up. Our transit was relatively quick – entering Lock-1 about 10:30am & exiting Lock-8 about 7:30pm for about 9 hours.

BTW – I think that I have referred to 7 & 8 Locks. We had to go thru only 7 locks and #8 was an open drive-thru. Lock #8 is only used to control high water fluctuations from Lake Erie.

That was about it, 326ft of elevation rise from Lake Ontario to Lake Erie over 9 hours.

To me traveling thru the Welland Canal was a great experience, another feather in my boating career. But much like the Dismal Swamp in North Carolina, it was something really cool to do one time, but I much prefer the Trent Severn Waterway Locks.

Thanks to Jerry & Deena for giving me another lifetime boating experience.

Hope you enjoyed the blog post.

xoxo,

Mike, Deena, and Jerry.