June 30 was quickly coming to an end and there was no doubt that we would be traveling through the canal & locks until early next morning (July 1 & Canada Day).

Bristol Bay entered Lock 7 first, followed by Eagle & then Santosha. By this time we also had another pleasure craft join our group – a 58 foot Sea Ray.

The photo above shows Bristol Bay exiting one of the locks after we have been lowered approximately 50 feet.

I was really nervous approaching Eagle for our first raft up. Before we left the wall we discussed with each other how we would accomplish this. Both boats had lots of fenders positioned along the sides. Eagle would get set up along the lock wall & then I would come alongside for the raft-up. Catherine and Emily would pass lines from our boat over to Eagle’s crew & they would secure the two boats together.

Eagle has all the latest & greatest technology aboard. The Captain could handle this boat with a joystick & the twin diesel engines combined with bow & stern thrusters allowed him to make the boat do just about anything he wanted. Meanwhile, little Santosha has a single engine & a small bow thruster.

As I said before, Eagle is a beautiful boat. Earlier in the afternoon I did some research online & determined that she is worth about 35 time more than Santosha (yes, that’s thirty-five times)! And now I would be rafting up against this boat 4-6 more times in the dark! No pressure there, eh!

Despite my nervousness, I managed to raft up with Eagle through all of the locks without any incident. Emily & Catherine & Eagle’s crew did a great job with the lines & tie ups.

The photo above shows how we were rafted up during each of the lock passages. The boats drop approximately 50 feet during each lock operation & there is generally a fair bit of turbulence in the lock that causes the boats to shift around & to try to move away from the wall. Eagle’s owner did an awesome job holding our two boats in a stable position in each lock.

It was all a bit surreal going through the locks in the middle of the night with echoing voices coming over loudspeakers & vhf radios & the sound of water moving through the locks & engines revving up & down.

Finally, about 4:00am we entered the last lock on the canal. As the lock gates opened we said our goodbyes to Eagle & her crew. The owner was very kind to let us raft up with him. He was bound for Cape Cod & he told me that he had been through the Welland about 20 times – so he truly knew the way.

We entered Lake Ontario about 5:00am & headed for Port Dalhousie Marina about an hour away.

We had been up for 23 hours & our journey was not quite over.

Cheers!