Hi All,

I had no luck finding an internet cafe in Port Dalhousie, but I'm now sitting in one here on main street Port Colbourne, so I'll send another update.

Adam arrive at the dock by taxi at about 5 yesterday, we messed about and left about 6:30. The guys at Welland control had told me that traffic would be really light at night and they could run us straight through without delays. They weren't kidding! We were between the entry lights at Port Weller at 7:30 and we were tied up at the dock in Port Colbourne by 3:30 in the morning with almost no delays at all. Two things slowed us down a little.

First off, control was so eager to get me zipping into lock one as soon as I called in from the checkin dock that I left my documents pouch leaning against their little phone booth, which I only realized between locks 1 and 2. Adam got off at lock 2 and went back with one of the guys in a seaway truck. We went on and he rejoined us on the pier just below lock 3.

The second is the reason we were tied to the pier at lock 3. We got a radio call to pull in at the pier and assist Latvis (Contessa 26 that was locking through with us) in docking because they had a medical emergency. By the time we were secured and they were approaching the dock was aswarm with police, fire, and an ambulance with all the guys that go along with that, so we just stayed away and let them get on with their thing. They took somebody off on a stretcher and headed for the hospital at a leisurely pace. We both continued on up the locks, and heard from them later that they were keeping whoever it was in hospital overnight, so I guess they were OK. We didn't find out any more details.

Going up is more work than going down, as the water rushes into the locks with considerable force and tosses boats about. The only casualty was some sore back muscles all round and a bent BBQ bracket. Nothing else touched the walls except the fenders. I snapped a few quick pictures, but we didn't have a lot of time to hang about, unlike the downbound journey last fall.

They were right about very little traffic. We caught sight of the funnel on Algo Soo as the were going down opposite us in the flight locks and we were just rising above the lip and we passed Canadian Ranger tied to a pier not far below lock 8.

We must have been tired because we all slept past 10.The weather forecast is great for continuing out into Lake Erie, so we will set off a little later in the day. We had shrimp for breakfast, will eat lamb for dinner tonight, and I'm going to pick up some steaks just to make sure we don't starve. Next stop will be Scudder on Pelee Island, probably late in the day tomorrow.

Having a lovely time! I hope all is well with the rest of you.


More later in the trip,

Rick / Dad