Blue Horizon Adventures: Wed July 19: Glen Ross Lock 7 to Campbellford Marina wall

We can't remember what happened today - it's all a blur of waiting for other boats to lock, waiting for the lock to cycle, waiting for the lock to open, locking through and getting to the next lock. Rinse and repeat…

Here I am in full locking regalia. I drive in, Rick grabs a cable and walks it back, I make sure the nose is on the wall, turn off the engine and sprint outside to grab a front cable. Sometimes I even have time to put my gloves on. None of this would happen without Rick's expert instruction. I'm sure he could lock better than I am doing, but we are like superstitious baseball players - except he can shave during the boating year - and want to keep to what has worked before. Rick even packed the same red sweatshirt he has never worn, just in case …

Cutie-pea lock house - 1914.

With this many locks, and this many boats, you get pretty familiar with the group you happen to fall in with. Only so many boats will fit in the lock, so you end up in little groups. Our group currently is three boats, and we have to be ON TOP of this boat in front in order for the boat behind us to fit. This set of locks is a starboard tie-up, which means we can all only tie to the right hand wall. This is because the mechanism to fill the chamber is in a certain place such that when the water rushes in it creates such a bounce-back that boats on the port wall can't hold on. Just to keep us on our toes, each lock is different, so the lock master tells you what to expect (port or starboard) in the lock coming up, and then Rick rushes around like a mad person on deck, moving floats and lines so that we are ready, while I drive. Right now we are (slowly) doing 6 locks a day.

We spent the night on the wall last night with this boat, Second Chance, and they have seen us lock. Which is good because they really have to trust us. Our 20,000 pounds plus anchor have to get right up over their little hand-crafted dingy. And we have to hold in place while the water filling the lock bounces us around…

This cute family joined us, locking up. Once we were all in place they crept in and hung on to the boat behind us. The boat behind us, Motioned Denied Again (can you tell he is a judge), is much faster then all of us but can’t sprint ahead since then he would only have to wait while the group of boats in front of us lock through. Sadly for all of us, EVEY time he was in the lock with no breeze his carbon monoxide alarm went off LOUDLY and CONTINUOUSLY.

The final lock of the day was a ‘flight’, so the upper door is huge. That door opens directly into the lock above-so it is holding back a whole pool of water.

FINALLY we arrived into the cute, and very welcoming, town of Campbellford. We have never had a harbor master greet us with a personalized sign! The ‘marina’ is the walls of the town, but there is power and we are happy to be here….

This is the largest number of looper boats we have seen; and while we did a lot of talking about missing the ‘companionship’ of boaters in the early days, now…..well-the jury is out. I think it would be different if we weren’t spending so much of our time waiting on boats to lock through. We have been spoiled by traveling out of synch and/or out of season with other loopers in all the other canals, and have so often been alone on the water and in the lock.