3. Through the locks

We have to be careful with spreaders in the locks as they extend over the sides of our boat. We spent the night just past Lock 1 ready to go in the morning.

Our trips through the locks have been pretty smooth. The walls are not as dirty as we read in all the books and we rinse off the dirt off the fenders after every lock. That means lowering a bucket into the water while we are underway and pouring bucket by bucket over the fenders.

When we were in Brewerton just before Lake Oneida, we went for a walk into the little town. The local firemen were having an "all you could eat roast beef dinner" We met so many great people. The food was delicious and I had three homemade pies and squares -- you know that I love my sweets! The fire captain gave Roman a old fire hose which Roman cut up for chafing pieces and shared the rest with the boats we were travelling with at the time- 2 boats out of Ashbridges Bay. The forecast was rain in the afternoon the next day so we left at 6:45 to get across the lake while it was still calm. We were in Sylvan Bay on the other side of the lake by 9:45 - great timing! and no rain for the rest of the day.

Since Ilion we have been travelling with Falcon's Nest out of Barrie which is captained and crewed by one man. He has a unique system all rigged up to go through the locks. Neccesity is the mother of invention. Everything went well until Lock 4 when Phil on Falcon's Nest lost power. Roman towed him through the last 2 locks as there are no anchorages or stops allowed between Lock 6 and lock 2. It was pretty tricky because I had to untie him just as the boat went into the lock so he could drift to the port side. We always used the starboard side as our motor (5 hp dinghy motor) is on the port side. Then we had to drift towards each other and catch the line to tow him again. Of course as I write this, Roman is helping him to bleed his engine. The other boat is a home built trimaran called Sulis out of Pictin. It took Ken, the owner, 17 years to build this boat and this is her maiden voyage. He had just hooked up the stove at Ilion where we met them and still has the water tanks to hook up. It is a work in progress. The family doesn't seem to mind. They eat out all the time we are in port. The son who is a software engineer is trying to work off the boat. A little frustrating as we have found little WIFI access. Usually the libraries are closed when we get to port. The daughter just graduated from university and is taking a year off to sail with her parents. The mom has it easy as both the kids are crew!