The Eye of the Needle

Back at work on the water and there has been very moderate temperatures and not much wind so far considering it is the month of November. The working area to date has been along the St. Lawrence Seaway between Beauharnois and Brockville so perhaps the wind gods are holding back till we head up to Lake Ontario later in the week.

One of the more challenging and interesting tasks given the size of my ship and the amount of windage created by its superstructure is to transit the various locks in the Seaway. It is by no means as difficult as a Seaway pilot trying to maneouvre a 'Saltie' into and out of a lock (as shown below), but it can be stressful enough on a windy day.

Part of the difficulty is that, compared to the larger vessels, my ship is only 50 feet wide. With the Seaway locks being 80 feet wide, a laker or Saltie at 75 to 78 feet can slide along the approach wall and just squeeze into the lock keeping the fore and aft alignment of their vessel in line with the lock. The extra room on either side of the lock when my ship enters or leaves means room for the stern to get pushed a-kilter by the wind. Fortunately, those problems were for another day as the wind was light when passing through the American Locks.