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Boot
Key
Harbor An On-Line
Cruising Guide for the Florida Keys & Cuba |
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Judy Baumer's version of the Boat trip through the Welland Canal, June 2001 Here is the story of my trip: After getting lost in St. Catherines because
Canadians don't know how to design, mark, and map highways, I followed the lake
until I found the St. Catherines Marina. I spotted Rich's white head from
the road above. They had just gotten in and were refueling. I
thought that Pete Castranova and his family from Williamsville were supposed to
come but just Pete showed up. Another family from Cleveland was coming,
too so Rich and I were going to bunk together. I stepped on board and was
given a bath by Sam and Cassie the black labs. Cassie also tried to
perform the Heimlich maneuver on my intestines which I enjoyed (NOT)! She also
gave my tongue a greeting with her tongue when I turned my head. It was
like having Mandy and Snickers around. Rich took me below to
stow my gear (sounds nautical doesn't it!) and Cassie had peed on the floor in
the salon. Cap'n Greg was cleaning that up and Rich was struggling and
sweating through making a bed for me in the aft-berth. I looked down and
realized that I was standing in dog poop (hey, it blended in with the oriental
rug Rich had just vaccumed)! I told Greg that Cassie had done something else on the rug and that I was standing in it.
(I had only been there 30 minutes!) Greg wiped my shoes off and then had
me take them off and carry them up on deck where he gave me a bucket of water
and a scrub brush to clean them with. As I was standing there in my socks,
which got wet from the bucket water, he told me that this was the poop deck -
literally! That is where the dogs go while at sea!
AAAAAARRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGG! In the meantime, the Cleveland family called and said
they couldn't make it. So Rich, Pete and I drove down to Port Colborne to park Pete's truck for the ride back.
On the way down we were in front but we missed a turn so we followed Pete.
Then Pete became unsure so we stopped. The 2 guys were looking at a map
outside while I waited. I then picked up a map and found where we
needed to go so Rich got back in and Pete followed us. Then the numbers on
the map were too small for Rich so I had to stop and read the map again.
Thanks, again, to the Canadians' highway designing and mapping abilities a 1
hour trip turned into 2 1/2 hours. The men had not eaten so at
10:50 when highway 58 disappeared, I pulled into McDonald's.... as they shut the
light off!!!!! I drove a little farther and found a pizza place. We
met a couple a couple of Canadians who could have been straight off of Saturday
Night Live. They told us about every road in the area that ends abruptly
and then starts somewhere else miles away, eh. Sounds pretty funny, eh?
We then had to wait for the pizza to be made and cooked and these guys just kept
on going with the roadway trivia, eh. We got back to the marina and the
gate was closed. Pete ended up climbing over the barbed wire to open it.
When we finally reached the boat, Greg had made up the v-berth for me after Rich
had struggled through making our bunkbeds! They ate their pizza and Rich
and I went to bed in our separate berths. Then, Greg accidentally left
Cassie on deck all night. Everybody but Greg heard her all night long.
Click, click, click, THUNK! And of course, I was sleeping under the poop
deck! She sleeps all day so she was wide awake. She
finished off the pizza and some of the box, too. I had about 2 hours of
sleep! We got under way at 6:00 am. We had to boat over to the
waiting area for the canal and call them from a land line. We did and they
told us we had to wait 2 hours. So we did. Then the
radio crackled to life and sent Greg back over to the land line. Now it
would be another hour because they wanted us to wait and go through with a Coast
Guard ship. In the meantime, Cassie is showing Rich that he doesn't need
Maggi. Rich kept fending her off but to no avail. She licked him on
the mouth, neck, and ear, rubbed him, and chewed on his feet. This was not
Rich's fantasy date! Finally, we got the go ahead! It was cold at
first and then it warmed up and I got sunburned. Yes, I had sunblock on.
It was great!! It was all worth the trouble! We zipped
through, which they said never happens. There is about 2 hours
between the last 2 locks. We got to last lock and we had to park and wait
for a freighter. What are the odds we would have to sit in front of a
flour factory for an hour? We did! Finally, we made it through the
last lock and docked in Port Colborne. While Greg and Rich took turns
showering, we heard this terrible banging which made the dogs bark. It
turned out under the pier was a hinged manhole-type lid that was unfastened.
No way to reach it. Then I read a sign on the bar across the street that
said 'Live band every Thursday night'. So I have a feeling Rich didn't get
much sleep, again, last night. Greg says he sleeps through anything.
You should have seen these guys trying to help me up onto the pier. We
were sitting about 4 feet below it so I had to climb on over the boat railing,
onto a wooden ledge, up a foot onto the concrete and then over a railing. Ugh!
We had a nice dinner, though. Then Pete and I left to go back to St.
Catherines. Pete took a wrong turn when I wasn't looking and didn't believe me
when I said we weren't on the right road. We ended up doing the 1/2 hour
trip in 1 1/4 hours. Again, the marina gate was closed and Pete had
to climb over. When we left, my highway entrance was closed, Pete went the
wrong way again so I ended up working my way to another highway entrance.
I did make it home! |
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Boot Key Harbor website created and maintained by Capt. Gregory
T. Absten, Marathon. - A Boater's Guide to the Florida Keys & Cuba |