Passaging the Locks.

September 16 - 20, 1991.

The sereneness of the location was overwhelming. The water was so flat we took several photographs of the reflection of Blue Grace. We went off exploring the local area, complete with man made water runoff and cows, found wild grapes and picked enough to have for lunch the next day, but nobody else would eat them. So, most of the grapes went overboard sometimes late next afternoon. We took photos of the crew and sat around having a good time, eating and talking about the day. We were really on our way.

Day Three started off calm and dry, but overcast and the clouds were full of water, just ready to let loose.

And let loose they did, for the next three days solid. The rain kept us under a tarpaulin and inside, which gets a little cramped with four people on board and very few games to play.

Bill and I tried to occupy ourselves with small minor repairs that were necessary and we seemed to have a lot of time available to do stuff.

The next few days were spent under a tarpaulin, cold, very wet and very tightly packed together, but fortunately, we all knew each other and got along relatively well, because during the period of three days, our excitement consisted of retrieving the dinghy when it broke loose from the back of the boat , counting the number of bridges we went under and avoiding the dams, which would be marked by a single floating buoy, that if you didn’t see, made it possible to simply sail over the dam, some of them being about a fifty foot drop.

So we watched our way carefully. The locks became less exciting but I did manage to keep some excitement in our days by once accidently getting pulled off the boat and standing on a ladder twenty feet from the top of Lock Six.

It was quite funny.

When you are passaging locks, it requires four people to work the lines that secure the boat to the wall, as the water flows into the lock, or out as the case may be, and the lines have to be continually adjusted for height. From where I was, behind the helm, Admiral Bill was at the helm and assumed that I was under control... but a knot stuck the line I was holding to the pipe at the top of the lock and I tried climbing up to untangle it... which I did but upon trying to put my feet back on the boat, I discovered that she was not there any longer.

I was not going to let anybody see me if possible, so I tried swinging back onto the boat holding the line, to no avail and I finally had to say something, “Excuse me,” I hesitantly said, “but you're leaving without me... Help.” And naturally Admiral Bill gave me one of his looks and before I knew it, I was back on Blue Grace.

Leave it to me to create excitement where none existed.