Niagara and the Welland Canal

Monday, July 2, 2018

We say farewell to Toronto on a beautiful, sunny day.  Calm seas follow us for an easy 32-mile crossing of Lake Ontario.

Lake Ontario with Toronto in the background

We arrive at our next stop, Niagara-on-the-Lake, at the mouth of the Niagara River.  We are staying at a sailing club and must wait for the kids' sailing class to launch their boats right next to where we will tie up for three nights.  The current in the river is swift, maybe 5 knots, and we are definitely aware this spot is only 13 miles downstream from Niagara Falls!

Niagara River

Fort Niagara is across the river from our slip, but our marina is in Ontario and the Fort is in Youngstown NY.

Fort Niagara and US Coast Guard Station

We settle in for the evening, enjoying a nice sunset with the Toronto skyline barely visible on the horizon.

Tuesday, July 3, 2018

Robert has never seen Niagara Falls and I haven't seen it since I was a kid, so off we go to play tourist.  We've rented a car for a day and will drive around this interesting area.  The Falls is only 15 miles from our marina.  First, we see the American Falls.

American Falls, Niagara NY

And the Horseshoe Falls.  That's a tour boat at the base of the falls.  We opted not to take the boat ride.  Still magnificent after all these years!

Horseshoe Falls, Niagara Falls ON

Here's another tour boat headed toward the Horseshoe Falls.  The rainbow would come and go, depending on the way the wind blew the spray from the falls.  The American falls are visible at the far left.

Niagara Falls

We drive back to the boat along the Niagara River.  Hard to believe this view is just a few miles below the falls; this is a really beautiful area!

Niagara River

This region, along the Niagara escarpment, has a good climate for growing fruit, especially apples, cherries and cold-hardy grapes.  The area is packed with wineries; tasting rooms abound!  We didn't have much time to explore, but stopped at several to try the local wines.  We found the white wines much better than the reds, similar to our experience in upstate New York.

Jackson-Triggs Winery, Niagara-on-the-Lake ON

We are obviously too early for the harvest.

Jackson-Triggs Winery, Niagara-on-the-Lake ON

This wine-growing region is known for its ice wine, a desert wine, very sweet, made from grapes frozen before harvest which concentrates the sugars.  While not a fan of ice wine, we enjoyed some exceptional appetizers at this winery restaurant.  Of particular note were beets marinated in ice wine.

Trius Winery, Niagara-on-the-Lake ON

Wednesday, July 4, 2018

The town of Niagara-on-the-Lake is a charming, upscale, touristy town with great restaurants, shops and theaters.

Niagara-on-the-Lake, ON

Flowers are everywhere in this beautiful, clean town.

Niagara-on-the-Lake, ON

The town is known for its summer-long Shaw Festival, with 3 theaters presenting plays by George Bernard Shaw.  Unfortunately we were not here on the right nights to partake.

Niagara-on-the-Lake, ON

A large city park graces the corner of downtown Niagara-on-the-Lake.

Niagara-on-the-Lake, ON

We are spending July 4th in Canada, so we didn't really expect to see any fireworks tonight.  We, along with several boats docked next to us, kept waiting to see fireworks from Fort Niagara, across the river in the US, but it was not to be.

Thursday, July 5, 2018

We must finally leave this delightful area to begin working our way to far northern Lake Huron - Georgian Bay and the North Channel.  We will need to transit the Welland Canal system to get from Lake Ontario to Lake Erie.  The Welland is a major Canadian canal used mostly by large, commercial ships.  The locks will lift us a total of 326.5 feet to the top of the Niagara Escarpment, an extension of the cliff that Niagara Falls drops over.  Pleasure craft are allowed to transit the canal, but the system is not set up to easily handle smaller boats.  Our locking fee of C$200 is a small fraction of what the big ships pay.

We are required by canal authorities to have 3 people on board, since we are locking up and turbulence in these large locks make handling the boat challenging.  A group of retired canal employees hire out as crew and we have arranged the services of one of the group.  We are advised to arrive at the staging wall by 8 am to wait for the okay to begin locking through.  Our crewman will meet us there. 

Commercial traffic is given precedence; once we begin the passage, there is no place to tie up to wait or spend the night.  Regardless of when we begin our transit, we must continue all the way through the 8 locks, even if we end after dark!  We have heard horror stories of 20-hour transits and long delays and also of easy transits.  The shortest trip we can expect is about 7 hours.  The entire Canal is about 24 miles long but the first 7 locks are within the first 7 miles; our crewman will leave the boat after lock 7.

With all this to anticipate and little sleep overnight, we are up at 5:30 for the 90 minute run from Niagara-on-the-Lake to the Welland staging wall.  We arrive at 7:30 and tie to the wall; our crewman arrives shortly thereafter.  He calls the Canal traffic controller to check in.  A short time later they call back to tell us to expect to begin locking at noon.  Our crewman goes back home, leaving us to cool our heels, waiting, tied to the concrete wall.

Finally, about 12:30, traffic control calls to tell us to be ready to go at 1:00.  Hooray!  Our crewman comes back and we are ready!  And we wait, and wait, and wait ...  Just before 2:00, we are told to proceed to the first lock as quickly as possible.  When Robert hesitates to wait for a large cargo ship to pass, he is berated by traffic control for delaying the operation.  It appears we are locking through alone.  NOT off to a good start!

Inside Welland Canal lock

These locks are huge, measuring 766 feet long by 80 feet wide.  Once we are inside the lock, lock staff drop 2 ropes, tied together, down to us that we must untie and take one to our bow and one to our stern.  Our crewman and I will use these ropes to help control the position of the boat as water rushes into the lock.  These are our only means of connection to the lock wall.  Our lift will be 43 - 49 feet per lock and the lines we are given are more suitable for a boat half our size; some are badly frayed.  Hmmm ...  As water starts entering the lock, Robert is struggling to keep the boat straight using our thrusters. We also realize we must educate our crewman as to what we need him to do.  Don't think he has ever locked through on a boat this size and he doesn't understand the limits of what Robert can do from the controls. 

The white water in this photo is turbulence caused by millions of gallons of water rushing into the lock chamber.

Welland Canal Lock

Locking up takes about 30 minutes.  We exit Lock 1 and have to wait for this cargo ship locking down in Lock 2.  While waiting, Robert must keep the boat in the canal channel as the edges get shallow quickly.  Suddenly my cell phone rings; the caller asks for the "master of Sauvy B".  I tell him I am the first mate and should I put the captain on?  The caller proceeds to tell me he is with Canadian Customs and was driving beside the canal on a highway when he saw our boat.  He wants to know if we checked into Customs when we arrived from the US, where and when we checked in, our authorization number, and where we've been.  Wow!  I answered his questions and that was that.
 

Looking back at Lock 1

The locks come in quick succession with little time to recover from the 30-minute ordeal.  At least we have a 15-minute or so wait in each lock while the lock crew drives to the next lock.  The canal system is totally automated for the large commercial ships.  Large plates with suction cups attach to the sides of the ships to keep them positioned in the lock and the water flow valves are controlled from a remote location using cameras to monitor the operation.  We've been told the staff dropping lines to us have come only to assist us today.  They are driving from lock to lock as we progress, slowing us down somewhat. 

We have little leverage using the ropes at the bottom of the lock so our crewman and I are working hard to pull on the ropes to keep us parallel to the lock wall.  Despite wearing heavy gloves, I will have blisters on my hands by the end of the day.  Robert's job is more mental than physical, but no less challenging. 

Here we approach triple locks 4, 5 and 6.  The end gate of lock 4 is the entry gate to 5 and so forth.  The stair-stepped gates are visible in the photo.  So no break for 90+ minutes.  Did I mention it is blazing hot?  We get a little bit of shade at the bottom of the lock, then we are exposed to the blistering sun the rest of the time.  Temps are upper 80s and heat seems to reflect off the metal walls of the locks, making them feel like ovens.  This is NOT glamorous!

Approach to Welland locks 4, 5 and 6

Canal staff positions us at the calmest part of each lock.  Mostly we have been at the back with water coming in closer to the front.  For the next three locks, we are positioned right at the front, uncomfortably close to the gates.  Looking up at the gate to the next lock is very intimidating!  The concrete sill, or ledge, visible at the base of the gate, sticks out very close to our bow.  As the current pushes us around, we slide dangerously close to this sill.  We breathe a sigh of relief as the water gets deep enough to cover the sill to a safe depth.

Part way through the 5th lock (lock 2 of the triple locks), we have drained the batteries powering our thrusters, which are a big help keeping us straight against the wall.  Oops!  Now we have much reduced maneuvering ability.  Robert does a great job getting us through the remaining locks and safely to a marina at the end of the canal.  We tie up just before dark for a total transit time of just under 7 hours.  We will stay at the municipal marina of Port Colborne ON for two nights to recover from our ordeal.  Lake Erie lies ahead!