Port Dalhousie June 26, 2015

Knowing it was going to be a big day, I was up at 5:20 in anticipation of our 7:00 departure for the Welland waiting area. Checking the weather was the first priority. "Gale warning in effect", was the first thing I heard. Oh No! Fortunately it was for Saturday. Winds NE at 15 today, 20 tonight  and 35 tomorrow. I was so glad we moved our trip up one day!

We left for the Colborne City Docks a little early, and arrived there at 7:00. We shared the Welland with some big friends.

You never know how long the wait will be. I bought my pass, ($240 this time, compared to $200 in 2011) Seaway Welland said it would be 10:00 or 11:00 before we could leave. It turned out to be 1:45. What a long wait.

Don adjusting his 4x4 canal fender

One of the things I did when I was up so early was to sharpen my knives. A safety precaution is to have a sharp knife handy when handling the Welland ropes, so that they can be cut should they become caught. Fortunately they were not needed.

Jim got turned around in the first lock! The wind caught his bow and all of a sudden he was coming back at us as we were entering. It was really funny. Some good boat handling on his part saved the fiberglass. The eyes of the lock hands got really big during his maneuver. As he went by I shouted, “Jimbo, Lake Ontario is the other way!”

It turned out to be the longest trip through the Welland for us. We did not clear the last lock until 9:45 PM. We arrived at Port Dalhousie in the dark at 10:15, exhausted and in need of a big rum and tonic. Several times in the trip we had to wait for freighters to pass. We really had no problems in the transit. James was a big help and we were so glad he was there. Jim and I rafted in the locks so all 5 of us were available to assist the boat on the wall. Since Annie is better suited for locking by design, I took the port locks which meant I had five on the wall, while Jim just had two (The first lock is just a leveling lock, and boats do not tie up). Following are some random shots from our transit.

We used our spotlight for the first time last night. It has a remote control so Kerry stood on the foredeck as we entered the marina and tried to light our way for us. It really worked well and we were quite glad we had it. The weather held for us and we were able to dock with almost no wind which was a relief. We all agreed none of like motoring at night, but the lights of Toronto on the horizon were pretty spectacular. The total trip was 26.9 miles. 

The following pictures of the Welland Transit were provided by James Dudt and his family - thanks!