42 49.867 N
73 59.588 W
Wet and windy day. Five boats headed out to the first lock (Lock #2!) at 8 AM. From the beginning the 5 boats did not play well together, and the weather was lousy. The sail boat was first - it was slow and did not move deep enough into the lock. (And slow is a problem for Tide Hiker and Cavara - we need to be moving to maintain control and overcome wind and currents - we do not drift well.) The second boat was a large power-cat - with maybe 25' beam? It secured itself behind the yacht, and because it was so bloody wide no-one could get past it in the confines of the lock. That left very little of the lock for the three trawlers.
We squeezed in. At this point the lock keeper needs to call all the boats on the radio and sort them out for the next lock - at this point of the canal there are 5 locks in less than a couple of miles. All boats should be monitoring Ch. 13 in the locks. Nothing but silence.
The next lock was worse - the wind had picked up, making it very hard for the trawlers to stooge in very confined space while the yacht and the catamaran cluttered up the next lock at a snails pace. At one point a strong gust of wind hit Tide Hiker and pushed her 20' sideways into the canal wall - all I could really do was use the engines and bow thruster to keep her parallel to the wall so the fenders could absorb the impact. Fortunately we "bounced" off, with no damage.
Cavara does not have a bow thruster and had a harder time maintaining control in the wind at slow speed. As she entered the second lock the swirling wind grabbed Cavara and at one point she was pushed 45 degrees to the lock with her stern pinned on the wall. Somehow Don extracted her, but with some minor damage to her rub rail. Still no leadership from the lock master.
In the meantime the rain continued. The dock lines where covered with mud and slime, and that collected on us and the decks. Deidre had just about every towel we owned in service on the floors and seats. We both looked like drowned rats. I was still having fun - not so the Admiral!
I have no photos of this mess because we were keeping a busy. We were lucky and made it thru the first 5 locks in one piece. Called it quits after 7 locks and about 18 NM.
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| Hunkered down in the wind and rain. Note that the mast and all the aerials are down. Fenders ready for the next lock. |
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| Amtrak in the rain |
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| One of the locks - Cavara in the lead |
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| Settled for the night - bulkhead Lock 8 |
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