History: Welland Canal Marathon

False start:
Well after a night of juggling cars back and forth between Buffalo, Port Colborne, and St. Catharines we were ready to go. Unfortunately our engine was not prepared for the 9:00am start, literally. So we had our first of many engine "episodes" as the engine was all sooted up and the valves were not functioning properly and the engine was just not co-operating. We managed to make it halfway to the fuel dock and drifted in nicely after the engine stalled.
I have not included a picture of confused/angry Atomic 4 owners staring at their engine as every marina has atleast one A4 and I am sure you are familiar with the sight. Eventually we got the engine started, for no discernible reason, and we moved over to another visitor slip as the PC marina mechanic said they were backlogged for forever. Fortunately we got a travelling mechanic to stop by and he said we would be fine as long as we could "blow out the carbon" periodically.



Check in:
So we made it around to the to the check in booth at 13:00 prepared that we may piss off every lockmaster down the length of the canal. But apparently we were to wait yet another 2 hours and phone back in. Fortunately this gave us time to fully investigate the misfunctioning microphone on the mounted VHF. The handheld worked very admirably all day fortunately. So at 15:00 we got the good news that we could proceed after the next laker came through the first bridge.

On the move:
So around 16:00 we started down the canal, yes it is late but we are still trying to meet a schedule, usually an 8-12hr journey. Yes if you do the math it doesn't look good, but Abbey will make it to her friends birthday party the next day.








The locks were no problem downbound although we got held back a few times so eventually it got dark and everyone got tired.








Eventually the late hour took it's toll. We got held up for a few hours at the last two locks, and were begnning to feel it.








By the time we pulled in bleary eyed at 4:00am the kids were fast asleep but this is pretty much how the adults felt as we tied up and struggled into a berth for a few hours sleep.

Home at last!

Snow Day Crew