Niagara Falls and the torrents in the gorge beneath present a massive natural barrier to passage between Lake Ontario and Lake Erie in southern Canada. The Falls are bypassed by the 20 mile Welland Canal, one of the largest ship canals in the world. There are eight huge locks, each lifting an average of 50 feet and taking 20 million gallons of water to fill. Few yachts go this way. Everyone in nearby Toronto told us how difficult it would be - but no-one had actually been though themself.
"a massive natural barrier"
Early on the 8th August 2007 we sailed into the bottom entrance of the Canal, in the south-east corner of Lake Ontario. Although yachts are permitted, the locks are so high and the inrush of water so strong that there must be at least three people aboard. We had aboard Darvin Dolyniuk and Marsha Cutting, both of whom live not far away and had kindly agreed to help us out. Darvin we had met back in April at a remote marina in North Carolina, where we were both stuck with engine trouble. Marsha is an old friend who once sailed with us in England. She used to live in Boston, so we were pleased to find she had moved here.
Our first task was to find the spot where yachts have to phone to announce their presence. At first the operator said there would not be a slot for us until late afternoon, but eventually he relented and said we could enter the first lock when the downward bound ship left. We could see it in there and hastily got ready. But it was nearly an hour before the lock gates
"dauntingly high locks"
opened. Again we jumped to it, but the ship crept out so slowly we could barely see it moving. It was another twenty minutes before the green lights came on and we could enter. The Great Lakes ships are designed to fit exactly in the locks, so there was no possibility of going though with a ship. Each lock we did alone. As we entered, two ropes were dropped down the high wall for us to grab and hang on to, one fore and one aft. We had a wooden plank tied outside of our fenders against the wall, which was not as rough as we had feared. Darvin had the forward line, Andrew the aft, Marsha watched the fenders and pushed against the wall with her gloved hands or feet, and Lyn manned the engine. It was tiring as it could take twenty minutes for the lock to fill.
"the ship crept out so slowly"
There was little over a mile between the first three locks and then four, five and six were a flight. This means the exit to one lock is the entrance to the next, so the lock gates are dauntingly high, twice the height of Sentinel's mast. As we entered lock four it took a long time moving slowly to the end before we could see where the ropes were being sent down. It was right at the end of the lock, almost touching the lock gates, where the water cascaded down. It was hard to control the ropes here, so we routed them onto our winches which made life a little easier.
At the exit of the flight we had to wait two hours for a ship to come down the next lock. Lock seven gave us a new surprise. Evenly spaced around the walls were holes about three feet square. As the sluices were opened a deafening roar came from the holes as wind and spray was forced out. It seemed as if at any minute a cataract of water would rush out from the hole above us and deluge the boat. Lyn moved away, but Marsha was caught by the spray (luckily it was a hot day). The noise
