Jammin Jane Travels: One Word...VIOLENT!...The Welland Canal

The Welland Canal is a ship canal in Ontario, Canada, connecting Lake Ontario and Lake Erie. About 3,000 vessels (ships from the Great Lakes and the ocean) transport cargo yearly via the Welland Canal. Locks 1-7 are 80 feet wide and 766 feet long raising/lowering between 43 and 49 feet. There is only one other lock canal larger than the Welland and that honor goes to the Panama Canal. To travel through the lock system on the Welland you have to be over 20ft and more than 1 ton, pay a fee for the pass to transit, have a third person if locking up (which we are), and clear customs as the Welland Canal is located in Canada.

Docked on the free wall at the north end of the Welland

As soon as we docked, the captain called from the booth to clear customs. They check passports and ask a few questions about what we have on board. We were given a doc number to display in our window. Since we are legal, I can get off the boat and walk Crocket.

We cleared customs so Ben is taking down the yellow flag and hanging the Canadian flag. You fly a yellow (quarantine) flag until you are cleared from customs.

Ben and I thought we were schooled with our experience transiting locks, having completed some 60+ locks prior to the Welland. We felt pretty confident. What can be so much different about theWelland compared to the locks on the rivers or the Erie or the Oswego canals?

Well let me tell you! We were in for a big surprise! We knew the Welland was going to be a bit more challenging going up compared to our experience but NOT as challenging as we learned!

This is Norm, we are having a last minute pow wow before entering our first lock of the day.

Because of the extreme water turbulance coming into the locks while raising up (we are traveling south), you are required to have three people on board. Check! We hired a captain to help us transit and gain knowledge from his experience. What we didn't expect is how fast the water comes into the chamber. It rose us 43 feet in only about five minutes (We are used to raising avg 30 feet in about 15-20minutes)!!! I had to do everything I could to hold on to the lines (dropped down to us by lock master) (I made an 's' loop around a cleat to help hold the line). I kept my spot on the stern (after two locks with me on the bow, it became clear it was the harder of the two positions) as close to the lock wall as possible while Norm, our hired help, handled the bow and Ben was at the helm. What was new to us was that in order to keep the boat on the wall Ben had to use the throttles and the thrusters. It did not help that we had 20knot winds that were trapped in these chambers tossing us about with each gust. We had to do this 7 times! Not ideal or fun. At one point the boat was heeling over, like a sailboat, from the rush of water coming into the chamber hitting our keel. This was the worst part as when the boat tilted sideways towards the lock wall, it smoothed our fenders so much that they were not helping fend us off the wall. Thankfully we have a rub rail around our entire boat, and we only suffered some scratches on it. But, we suffered a bit...my arms were sore, my hands blistered (I wore leather gloves to prevent this) and bruises were forming on my thigh from using my leg as leverage with the lines. Ben had a headache from having to look forward and backward multiple times to keep the boat steady. Wow! This was totally NOT what I was expecting! Thank goodness I had no idea how scary it was beforehand, otherwise I would have had the worst stomach!! I feel pretty proud to say we traveled the Welland Canal. It really was gratifying to know we traveled one of the largest and biggest lock systems...AND survived without major injury or damage to the boat!