Once we were within the Welland piers, we located the pleasure craft dock. I headed to the phone booth contraption that held a communication link to Welland control, and a payment system. In the fog of the morning (mental fog that is), I became a little frustrated with the interface, and put my wallet down on the top of the machine while I sorted out the sequence of buttons to push to make my credit card payment. Once that was sorted out, and I spoke to the operator at Welland control, grabbed my printed ticket and credit card and ran back to the boat to get moving through the locks with the other boats waiting nearby.
Shortly thereafter we got a call on channel 14 asking for "Chris Walmsley" ???? Apparently I took my credit card, and my ticket, but left my wallet on top of the machine. This guy from another boat in our group picked it up, and we exchanged it down in the first lock!
We have completed 7 of 8 locks. Almost no traffic, commercial or otherwise. Going upstream in the locks has been quite varied. Some locks have been easy and manageable, others have been a torrent of swirling water and currents trying to drive us into the walls. We seem'd to have found our rhythm with the use of snatch blocks to help manage the control lines, gloves and boat hooks. Our Fender board, and big round fenders have worked quite well. The lock walls are rough and slimy. Fender, boat hooks, and gloves are all getting pretty beat up.
For Lock 8, we are in queue behind a freighter, and then we'll be looking for a slip at the Port Colborne Marina where we plan to catch up on sleep, clean up the boat a bit, and enjoy a nice meal, and a quiet evening.
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