Today was spent navigating the Welland Canal. Yes, I know I was calling it the Wellington Canal, I was wrong. Not sure what happened, maybe I’ve had Beef Wellington on my mind lately. But, I’m not going back and fixing it.
We spent the day navigating the 8 locks of the Welland canal. We were part of a pleasure craft flotilla, which consisted of 4 boats: 3 sail and one power.
The seaway wanted us to go through the locks 2 by 2, meaning 2 boats on the wall and 2 boats rafted up. Fortunately, we were one of the rafters, so we didn’t have to do any line handling as the boats lowered down the locks.
We also got lucky because we we were rafted up to a 60 foot race boat. The captain had been through the canal more than 30 times. He was the pack leader, handled all the radio traffic with the Seaway and lead the way.
The passage went smooth for the most part. The only issue we had was a strong crosswind had us pinned against one of the walls in the lock. Going sideways is not a sailboat specialty. After several unsuccessful and embarrassing tries, I was finally able to use prop walk and the bow thruster to get me off the wall.
We’re spending tonight on the pleasure craft wall on the Lake Ontario side. We’ll deal with the new lake tomorrow.
Thanks again to Brian on Suspect for helping us out.
And some photos:
Rafted up to Suspect in one of the locks
Tomorrow we’re heading to Toronto for a night. Sue and I both want pizza so we’re looking forward to being back in civilization.
Kurt & Sue Sail 
Kurt & Sue –
I’m vicariously enjoying your adventure via your nicely detailed Captain’s log. On a typical map, it isn’t evident how one sails between the Great Lakes to access the St.Lawrence Seaway.
Thanks for clarifying who the mystery sailor, Steven, is…not Mary-Lou’s husband.
May fair weather continue for you 🤗
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Laura,
We’re glad you’re enjoying our posts.
Here is a link to a map that shows the route: https://binged.it/31vOi4f
As you can see we have to keep going north before we can head south. It’s already getting cool in the evenings where we’re at. We’re in a race to beat the cold.
The other option we have is to take the Erie Canal to New York City. There are several places along our journey where we can bail and take the Erie. Just past Montreal is our last chance.
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Thanks for the continued posts and pictures. It’s a great way to keep up with your adventures. Hopefully, the weather stays warm until you start heading back South. Pizza in Toronto won’t be as good as Chicago pizza, but I’m sure it will taste really good.
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Thanks Dave. We did get our pizza today and it scratched our itch.
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