Captain Mark and Sidekick Sue both woke up earlier than planned without an alarm. They had a lot of nervous energy looking forward to going through their first commercial-sized lock. It was a 2-mile trip from where they anchored to the waiting area for recreational vessels. The lock only accommodates recreational vessels twice a day, one pass in the morning and one pass in the afternoon, so boaters have to arrive and just wait until called. As the Explorers approached the waiting area, they saw that all the available spaces on the dock were taken and boats were already starting to “raft”. Rafting is when one boat is tied to the dock and another boat pulls alongside and ties to the docked boat. Then another boat pulls alongside the rafted boat and rafts to them, and so on.
The crew on one of the docked boats gave a wave to the Wayward Explorers to invite them to raft alongside. Captain Mark (did we say he had nerves of steel?) cautiously and successfully pulled alongside this beautiful luxury yacht that is worth at least 8 times the value of the 1988 Wayward Explorer. Sidekick Sue worked with the yacht’s crew to make sure the boats were tied together securely and the fenders were placed well to prevent the boats from bumping into each other. Then, the Explorers waited for another boat to come and raft on their other side. In about an hour, a couple dozen boats had accumulated in the rafting configuration with a few more hovering nearby. A signal blasted from the lock, the doors opened, and large container ship exited. The only commercial vessel waiting for passage was a small steamboat-looking vessel that looked like it might be a river cruise. This was the first vessel allowed into the lock, and then an announcement in French seemed to indicate that recreational vehicles could enter. The Explorers didn’t understand the message, but it was clear from the way everyone started un-rafting and jockeying for position that this was the morning passage for personal vehicles. With ticket in hand, Captain Mark joined the group, hanging toward the back since he commands a slow-moving vessel, but more importantly, he needed to assess what was going on.
The Explorers watched the loading process from afar. The locktenders directed the first boat to the wall on the port (left) side and dropped down long lines for the crews to cleat to their boats. Then the next two vehicles rafted to the first, and the process started again. Loading the lock was a slow process (took over an hour) and the lock was nearly full when the Wayward Explorer (Boat 1) entered and was directed to the wall. Sidekick Sue caught the first line and cleated it, while Captain Mark jumped down from the fly-bridge and grabbed the second line. After cleating the line, he returned to his controls to shut down the engine, while Sidekick Sue moved to the starboard side of the boat to catch lines from the smaller boat (Boat 2) that needed to raft to them. Once secured, the crew of Boat 2 moved to their starboard side to wait for the next boat to raft (Boat 3). Up until now, the process had been orderly and uneventful.
The captain on Boat 2 caught the line at the bow (front) of Boat 3, but then things got awkward. It quickly became clear that Boat 3 was not prepared with lines and fenders; it appeared they only had one of each. To make things worse, Boat 3 had a huge stainless steel rack containing fenders that protruded off the side of their boat and would “crunch” the side of the Boat 2 (the Explorers later learned that none of the fenders had ropes on them, which is why they weren’t actually using them). With only one line secured, Boat 3 started to do a 180-degree rotation, turning sideways in the lock, barely missing the other side of the lock wall, until it was backwards in the lock. To avoid damage to his own boat, the captain of Boat 2 released the bow line and Boat 3 started to drift into the boat behind Boat 2, which was a beautiful luxury yacht. The entire crew of the yacht jumped into action to push Boat 3 away. By now, everyone in the vicinity was watching this action (and getting their boat hooks ready to push Boat 3 away if necessary). People had their phones up in the air, filming the scene and Sidekick Sue wondered how long it would take for this video to reach the internet. The captain of Boat 3 finally got turned around again and made another attempt to raft to Boat 2. On this attempt to move alongside Boat 2, he once again started to flip around 180-degrees (the Explorers later learned that Boat 2 had two side-by-side engines and only one was working, so it made sense that he was rotating). This time, the captain of Boat 2 was able to grab the rail of Boat 3. Sidekick Sue was able to give the bow of Boat 3 a push with her boat hook to straighten it out so that it was parallel to Boat 2 and the captain of Boat 2 was able to use his own lines and fenders to secure the boat. He was clearly not happy about having to deal with a reckless driver who was completely unprepared for rafting, but he was happy that the boat was backward in the lock so the fender rack wasn’t hitting his boat.
Once the excitement was over, the lock doors closed and the water level began to go up. Because they were tied to the wall, Captain Mark and Sidekick Sue had to pull tight on their lines to keep the whole “raft” of 3 boats close to the wall. They watched an experienced boater (Captain Mark said he looked like he should have been in a Discovery Channel series) in front of them to see how they ran the line around a cleat to give them more leverage; it worked like a charm. Once the water stopped filling the lock, the front doors opened and the whole process worked in reverse, with the boats leaving one by one. When it came time for the Explorer’s row, of course the boat on the end was backwards, so they had to wait while Boat 3 got itself turned around (again narrowly missing the lock wall). Everyone breathed a sign of relief as they headed toward the next commercial lock. The captain on Boat 2 let the Explorers know that Boat 3 (luckily) was headed to a marina, and not following to the next lock. Phew! Captain Mark did his best to steer clear of Boat 3 until it turned off and headed toward a marina.
At the second commercial dock, there wasn’t much excitement at all. The walls were much taller, so the lift was much higher. The Wayward Explorers weren’t place on the wall this time; they were instructed to raft up to a huge luxury yacht which turned out to be the same neighbors from the morning before the first lock. Their friend in Boat #2 rafted up on their starboard again, so everyone was jovial and friendly. This lockage was easier because the Explorers did not have to manage any lines once everything was tied and secured. They were able to talk with their neighbors, share their journeys, and gather recommendations of places to visit. The water was a bit rougher as it filled the dock, jostling the boats around more than the first lock. It appeared that they were rafted right near where the water was entering the lock.
After the big lock, the goal for the night was to get to the lock at Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue, which is a small dock for recreational vessels. It is the gateway to the Ottawa River, obviously heading to Ottawa. When they arrived at Sainte Annes, they found the dock in front of the lock was nearly full, mostly because a large stretch of the concrete wall was actually under water. They managed to find a spot where they “almost fit”, where their front end would be sticking beyond the front of the dock with nowhere to cleat the bow line. They figured that the water was calm and it would be secure if they used a springline. Just as they were tying up, the personnel from the dock came and moved the vessel that was behind them, so they were able to pull the boat back and tie up properly. Now they had time to explore Saint Annes.
It turns out that this area of Saint Annes is a hopping place for night life. There are numerous restaurants along the waterfront, and apparently many people come to tie up and party, some spending the night and others disappearing before morning. The Explorers set off to get some exercise after not being able to leave the boat at all the day before. First, they found a pub-style restaurant (Annies) and had a great burger and some beer (and recorded the Wi-Fi password for future use). Then they explored the area, finding a small grocery store where they picked up some ice and Leffe beer, which was one of their favorites when they traveled to Belgium. After a nice long walk around town and around the park, they settled in for the evening with a few beers on the fly-bridge. There were groups of young people in small boats rafted three astride, blasting different techno music in front of them and behind them. They also noticed that they were very close to a highway overpass and a train bridge with regular trains. Saint Annes was not going to be a quiet place to sleep. When they retired for the night, they thought it would be a long night, but apparently all that nervous energy from the lock passages had subsided, and they fell asleep instantly and slept through the techno music, the traffic and the train.
