Well, not quite, but it seems that way locking up in front of the Parliament buildings. This morning the wind is blowing 20 mph out of the west, right UP the locks. That makes for some very interesting boat handling, as we are a big sail being pushed into the locks. I hummed, and hawed about going through and climbing the 79 feet. Advised 3 fellow boaters on their way not to come, as it would be real tough.Susan and I walked it a couple of times, and SHE said; Lets go for it. Susan is the new tough sailor in this family.
As we enter the first lock, the wind gusts to around 25 (i was not looking at anemometer) and we entered at 5 mph. Way too fast so I put the boat in reverse, and steered to the wall using reverse thrust on each engine. Worked great.
Basicly this became the pattern for the rest, push off by hand, give a little forward on engines to get moving, and let the wind, and reverse do the rest. 7 out of 8 times it worked great, but lock 5 got ornery, as we had a side swirl from water leaking out the gate, so took a hard bounce off the wall. Thats what fenders are for! The one other bit of excitment was that Susan was directed to hook on to one of the verical cables going down the wall, to hold the bow. She did this, and 30 seconds later, our line was free in the water! The lock staff directed her to throw the line again, and again passed it through the cable, 10 seconds later, it was again floating in the water. What had happened is the bottom of the cable had snapped off and was allowing our line to slip free. All in a days locking!
Overall, it was extremely scenic, with the Parliament Building on one side, and Chateau Laurier Hotel on the other. There were two school groups, and probably 100 Japanese tourists snapping away on their cameras, so now we shall be famous overseas!
The Bytown museum is the old Commissariat building, the oldest remaining building in Ottawa.
The photo today is looking down at the locks being repaired after we found the broken cable.