Day 6 was spent in Brockville, planning for the next legs of the journey. Shortly we will enter the first of 7 locks along the Saint Lawrence Seaway. These are huge commercial shipping locks that accept pleasure craft between freight ships. Timing travel is tricky given that lock entry wait times can vary from 0 – 4 hours, although we’re hearing from boats further down the seaway that the wait times have been lower than typical.
Down-locking is easier than up-locking because you enter the lock full and it empties fairly gently. With up-locking, you enter the lock empty and it fills, causing tremendous turbulence and it’s hard to control your boat and keep it from banging against the lock walls. Each lock has different rules, protocols and line handling arrangements. We’ll post more on the locking experience in a few days.
The main reason we held a day in Brockville was to give our friends Jon and Cheri a chance to catch up to us. We met Jon and Cheri, a lovely couple, last year in Cobourg aboard their newly acquired Beneteau 48 Oceanis “African Queen IV”. We admired their courage as they were new to sailing, but they decided to sell their house, quit their jobs and live their dream of living aboard and exploring the world for a few years. We also discovered that we had similar plans to do the Down East Circle Route this year, and agreed to connect periodically as we make our way. We’re excited to form a flotilla with them!
