We drove from Niagara-on-the-Lake to St. Catherines. On the way we stopped at one of the many orchard fruit stands for supper. We bought two kinds of juice, a carton of fresh-picked cherries and some awesome muffins. As we drove through the Canadian countryside, we spit the cherry pits out the windows and tried to hit the signs as we passed.
The Welland Canal is the part of the St. Lawrence Seaway that bypasses Niagara Falls. The canal is about 26 miles long. It includes eight locks and raises ships a total of 326 feet from Lake Ontario to Lake Erie. There’s a visitor center and viewing platform at St. Catherines, the Lock 3 Complex. We toured the museum and spent several hours watching three ships lock through.
Here’s the lock from the platform looking north (left) and south (right).
The first ship was the Algowest, a bulk carrier (probably grain) with a Canadian registry that was heading south (going downhill). The tankers that use the canal are built to the maximum size that can fit in the locks, which makes for a pretty tight fit. As it locked through, sprinklers were spraying the deck.
As the pilot cabin floated by, the captain and his wife stood in the window and waved to us on the platform.
The second ship was the Stolt Aspiration, with a Panamanian registry. Its cargo was listed as “unknown.” It must have been something volatile — there were “hazardous cargo” signs all over the place. The ship was heading north (going uphill). It wasn’t as large or as clean as the Algowest. In the photo on the left, it has just moved into the lock (giving a good indication of how deep the lock was). The photo on the right shows the lifeboat hanging next to the main structure on the ship (look at the panorama to see the same lifeboat on the left). My friend’s silhouette is on the far left — mine is near the top of the stairs.
A couple of Panamanian-looking crew members were leaning against the rail pointing to and commenting on the girls on the viewing platform. After the Stolt Aspiration locked out, I was ready to leave. But there was one more ship on the schedule, and my friend wanted to stay and see it. He relaxed on the platform while I walked around taking photos. When the “ship” finally came, it was an anticlimax — a small tugboat, called the Lac Vancouver, pushing a barge. It was also heading north, so the lock had to be emptied before it could enter. A tiny motor boat rode down with the water and was totally dwarfed in the lock.
