TripSailor.com® Sailing Blogs

We all got up early in the morning and left for the Welland Canal Transit.  I had no idea what to expect but had been through the Panama Canal on a big ship but in a sailboat it was totally different.  Dave’s Daughter and family were with us and that was a huge benefit because we needed the extra people to tend lines, move buffers, and fend off the sides of the locks of the canal.   We had 8 canals to transition and WOW! what a drop.   We would motor into the lock and they would throw us a line that was about 100 feet long then we would wait.  Soon the water level started to drop and down we went like a cork in a bathtub.  We had to watch carefully that we didn’t bump the side of the lock and soon we were 40 or more feet below where we started!  Straight down that is.  Then the doors of the lock would open and we would motor out to the next one to repeat it all over.  After 8 of these I was bushed and ready for some down time.  Once we got through the canal lock system, we entered Lake Ontario and man was it rough.  We didn’t have far to go fortunately and soon put up for the night.  The weather was pretty accommodating for us the next morning and we left to move eastward on the Lake.