Latest Message from Andy; Now in Lake Ontario

This morning, via gmail, but it didn't come through until 9:05 tonight:
"In Canada, about to proceed to the first lock.  Shutting off phone in a few, as I got another warning from Verizon "


Andy called me tonight after he could turn his phone on and when they were out of the Welland Canal and into Lake Ontario:


"On our way to Wilson, just got out of the Welland Canal about an hour ago.  It was a long day.  We got to Port Colborne, Ontario,  and bought the canal ticket at 9:00 this morning.  There was another pleasure boat waiting to go, so we didn't get going until noon, then went through the first lock.  We were in the first lock for a half hour.  The locks actually not a big deal, once we learned the system.  We pull up to lock, they have lines laid out for us, we had a guy on bow and stern, and they hold onto lines to keep from floating away from the wall.  We were going down, so when the water is gone, they open the gate and we go out.  It's like pulling the plug."


"We didn't get through the second lock for about two hours.  At the last lock, a freighter almost ran aground, had to drop his anchor, and they held us in the lock for a half hour, but everything was okay."


"We are kind of tired, it's been a long day.  We are going to head into Wilson, NY and anchor in the dark.  The new inverter is being shipped to a Wilson marina, we are going to put it in tomorrow.  It's the same inverter that I have, so we can just plug it in where the bad one was." 


"Our plan is to proceed as planned to Oswego, NY.  The farthest west lock that's closed is 19 by Utica, so we will go there and see what's going on, and that's all we can do at this point.  Hopefully it will be fixed by the time we get there, or soon after.  We are five to six days away from Utica."


"Gotta go, I'm driving the boat and there are some lights up here we have to pay attention to."

First Bridge, Welland Canal