Tug Restless in Ont Can
BrewerArrivington NY May 9th, after crossing Lake Oneida - a two day delay was necessary awaiting the opening of Lock #23. Although disappointing, I had already learned during conversations with various lockmasters, that it is a rare thing for the Erie Canal to meet its target opening date. It was obvious that I was pushing the system, as I had been alone in every lock of the canal up to this point. Three days after leaving this lock astern, it would again be temporarily shut down as a result of high water on the system.
I spent but two nights at Oswego NY, getting underway early May13th with the full knowledge that the Trent Severn Waterway would not open for nearly a week. In view of the long-range forecast for dirty weather, I decide to be in place at Trenton Ontario, early to be certain of making its target opening date of 18 May.
The Trent Severn Waterway Commission guarantees a minimum of five-feet of water within the channels of the canal system, and while tied up at Fraser Park in Trenton, awaiting the waterways opening date, I got an idea of how serious they take the matter.
The Canadian Ministry of Parks, Research Vessel: Red Bay, would tie up, opposite my position May 17th. Having a towed Sonar Array, the likes of a Fast Attack Nuclear Submarine, she is in her final season of completing a bottom survey, of the entire Trent Severn Waterway. Her next assignment; off King William Island in Cambridge Bay of the Northwest Territories, in search of the lost Franklin Expedition. Two ships, and one hundred and thirty four men, who sailed from England in search of the Great Northwest Passage and disappeared into the oblivion of the Artic, in 1845.
On the surface of the water however, there is a bit of a different attitude that prevails within the administration. With the elimination of 185 charted buoys from the Trent Severn Waterway, beginning with the 2007 season, one might get the impression that, Parks Canada, has decided to jump start the Ontario Industry of Propeller, and Shaft Repair.
While I fully acknowledge that the old system may have had a certain degree of redundancy in various areas, in light of the numbers involved; one has to ask, “Why were they then placed there in the First Place?”
Paper charts of the waterway lack a Latitude Breakdown Scale, which make obtaining, or the plotting of accurate coordinates, a rather gray area. As a result, interpolation is left to the users imagination, and the tools they have available.
Transiting the Trent Canal between Balsam and Mitchell Lakes, May 21st, is thru an area, which you do not wish to meet someone going in the opposite direction. Having been blasted out of solid rock, it averages only 45 feet in width, and a proportional depth, having a mean of only: 5 feet 6 inches. With my 5-foot draft, I ghosted along thinking that perhaps awaiting the monsoon might have been a better idea. The slightest bottoming here, of what is probably Canadian Shield, would have the most unforgiving consequences. Looking over the side of the boat is enough to make one close their eyes in fear of pending doom. As a result of the water’s clarity, a depth of 6 feet looks more like 6 inches.
After clearing the Hydraulic Lift Lock at Kirkfield, the colors of aids to navigation on the canal swap sides, as if there is some significant meaning to being 49 feet closer to sea level. By my reasoning, if such catch phrases as, “Red Right Returning are to have any meaning at all, then perhaps we should also have one which states: “Red Right Ascending!”
A half-mile beyond Kirkfield Lock, the waterway enters Canal Lake. The first half of this lake is not only exceedingly shallow, but laden with thick weeds like a flooded forest, whose peaks lie within only an inch or two of the surface, and renders a depth indicator useless. Feeling my way along blindly, these weeds would fully engulf my displacement hull, like the tentacles of an Octopus. My initial speed of 3.5 knots - reduced to a near stop. With an increase of power, I was doing turns for what should have produce a ground speed of 6.5 knots in still water; yet had a GPS readout, only slightly above 3. One entire hour is spent traversing this near three miles of infested lake, before finally breaking free and clear.
The high point (not in elevation) of the Trent Severn Waterway has always been transiting the, “Big Chute.” Securing to the mooring cell, near noon May 22nd, I observed its carriage parked at the top of the hill, looking like some; over sized, “Medieval Torture Rack,” that had been brought out of retirement from the dungeon of a European Castle.
I have always been fascinated by how it’s operators essentially; “Catch a Boat on the Fly,” and within minutes, have it secured, up and over a hill, aboard a one of a kind Marine Rail. Years ago, I observed the loading of four Sea Rays, with such expertise, that the entire apparatus appeared to have been, “Taylor Made,” for just that one operation.
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