Day 10 – Lock n’ Roll

Yesterday, we weighed the anchor and headed on to to our first “real” locks, the Eisenhower and Snell locks. They are called the “American Locks” because they are the only two (out of the seven between Lake Ontario and Montréal) that are situated in US waters. You don’t have to clear immigration and customs for these border crossings, as long as you remain in transit.

These locks were built in the late 1950s and are quite amazing. Check out this website for some interesting facts.

Unlike Canadian locks, which publish an approximate schedule, the US locks are a waiting game. Commercial freighters have priority and pleasure craft are “squeezed” in. We waited a total of 4 hours for the two locks, rolling around in the basin until cleared to enter. A freighter exiting the Snell lock inched along, taking almost an hour to clear the lock, something that should have been 10 minutes. The captain slowed up to make sure the next lock would be ready, the official reason, but we suspect he was just being passive aggressive, deliberately making us wait.

We continued 20 nautical miles down the river and anchored near Pilon Island. The current is getting stronger and takes some getting used to. True North was pushed around a little, right into a floating navigational buoy in one case! No damage, other than pride, but we will definitely keep more distance from obstacles!