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Splash Down on the Blue-Line
Lock Dock |
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Chris & the Brick at the Flight of
Eight Lockss |
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| Inside the first of eight locks |
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| Looking down from fourth lock |
We didn’t sleep well at all last night. Our anticipation and trepidation about Chris’ flight to Ottawa, Canada was on our minds. Brian awoke first when his phone dinged alerting him he received a text from Chris letting us know he was at Dulles International Airport. First thing Brian did after getting a cup of coffee was to get on his computer and stalk Chris’ flights using the website called Flight Aware. Chris had a 50-minute layover in Toronto and our concern was that he’d miss he is flight to Ottawa. We went so far as to look at other flights he could take to Ottawa if his plane from Washington to Toronto was late. We tried to occupy our minded by doing a few chores to get Splash Down ready to go underway. Chris tried to call to let us know his status several times. The one good call we got was that he was on the bus heading from the Ottawa International Airport to the bus stop closest to the Flight of Eight Locks. This was around 12:40pm. Despite tracking him on Flight Aware and knowing he was at the Ottawa Airport, we couldn’t anticipate how quickly he’d get through baggage claim and be in route to us. We fired up Splash Down and got underway at 1:00pm. It’d take us about an hour to get to the blue painted lock wall dock below the Flight of Eight Locks. (Boats tied to the blue painted section of a lock wall dock signals the lock master that you want to lock through.)
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| Chris' pic of Niagara Falls |
Chris was waiting on the dock when we arrived at 1:50pm. Yesterday the lock master said we should be at the lock wall dock no later than 3:00pm - we satisfied that requirement. As it turns out, those boats at the lock wall dock by 3:00pm would be allowed to lock up. Boats that arrived later would have to lock up tomorrow. Chris told us about his trip. He relayed his story how he accidentally got into TSA’s pre-approved security screen line and was passed through by TSA without them checking to see if he was on the list. When he landed in Toronto, he was able to get his bag, go through Canadian customs, check his bag for the flight to Ottawa, board his plane, all in 30 minutes. The rest of his trip was uneventful. At 5:08pm, we finally entered the first lock. We were the biggest boat of the three locking through. The other boats were 22-footers with cuddy cabins. The Canada Park Service puts the larger boats in first filling in the spaces with smaller boats. We locked up on our port side and the two smaller boats were on the other lock wall. We exited the series of locks around 6:30pm. Yes. It took us an hour and a half to go up. It would have taken us longer if the lock master wasn't able to adjust the water levels in locks 2 and 3 such that we skipped locking up in lock 2. We made it to Dow's Lake Marina at 7:00pm.
