Click for Mulder Click for Cross Click for Delta Click for Nordhavn Click for Burger

Welland Canal

Discussion in 'Marinas & Waypoints' started by Rodger, Jun 28, 2011.

You need to be registered and signed in to view this content.
  1. YachtForums

    YachtForums Administrator

    Joined:
    Dec 22, 2002
    Messages:
    20,353
    Location:
    South Florida
    Rodger, I reduced the size of the USS Wichita to 800 pixels, much to the dismay of the US Navy. That boat looks like a handful in a crosswind!
  2. Rodger

    Rodger Senior Member

    Joined:
    Mar 23, 2005
    Messages:
    832
    Location:
    St.Catharines
  3. Rodger

    Rodger Senior Member

    Joined:
    Mar 23, 2005
    Messages:
    832
    Location:
    St.Catharines
    Welland Canal Opening
    The canal opened on Tuesday March 26/19. There are fourteen vessels stuck up bound in the canal since Tuesday as in Port Colborne Lake Erie has pressure ridge of ice fifteen + feet plus and two ice breakers are trying to make a cut out eight miles to open water. Around noon today they have cut a channel to open water and all ships should clear by midnight tonight.
    There are four vessels waiting at anchor about thirty miles from canal in Long Point Bay down bound they should be at canal Thursday morning. One of them is an old USCGC Bramble jumped the gun and got here a bit early which is now a private motor yacht. She is heading out the seaway to Mobile Alabama ship yard then to Miami to replicating the circumnavigation of North America in 1957 including traverse of North West Passage.
    A bit of history on the Bramble
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USCGC_Bramble_(WLB-392)
    Ice on Great Lakes
    Capture.PNG
    Last edited: Mar 27, 2019
  4. Rodger

    Rodger Senior Member

    Joined:
    Mar 23, 2005
    Messages:
    832
    Location:
    St.Catharines
    Capture.PNG Just checked AIS and up bounds are under way for canal. The purple boat is Bramble Bay
  5. Rodger

    Rodger Senior Member

    Joined:
    Mar 23, 2005
    Messages:
    832
    Location:
    St.Catharines
    Bramble stayed at anchor for three days in Lake Erie do to ice conditions, she cleared Welland Canal Saturday, she is now heading for Montreal more ice. Bramble 1 Bell.jpg Bramble 7 photo good.jpg Bramble 5 escort.jpg Branble 4 ice.jpg
  6. MBevins

    MBevins Senior Member

    Joined:
    May 23, 2008
    Messages:
    1,162
    Location:
    Windsor On. Canada
    Rodger
    The Bramble has been a fixture in the mid Great Lakes since I can remember. I pass her home dock every year on my way North. Do you know what/where she is heading?
  7. Kevin

    Kevin YF Moderator

    Joined:
    Nov 25, 2004
    Messages:
    3,049
    Location:
    Montreal, Qc, Canada
    I haven't looked at the St Lawrence this week but all the ice in the adjacent rivers is breaking up quickly... one day to the next, I see more and more open water. It'll be ice-free very soon.
  8. Rodger

    Rodger Senior Member

    Joined:
    Mar 23, 2005
    Messages:
    832
    Location:
    St.Catharines
    Whale in Lake Ontario
    A whale was spotted in the St Lawrence River headed out into Lake Ontario today, Ontario Fisheries are claiming the left the lock gates open to long trying to bring lake level down. Whale  Lake Ontario.jpg
  9. Rodger

    Rodger Senior Member

    Joined:
    Mar 23, 2005
    Messages:
    832
    Location:
    St.Catharines
    Had a yacht come from Rochester to the canal yesterday. They pulled the ice boom on Lake Erie at Buffalo last week and now the ice is going over the Niagara Falls and down the Niagara River out in to Lake Ontario.
    When he was approaching the Niagara river there was ice for about two miles wide and out as far as you could see, it took him about 1.5 hours to get through it. Now we have to wait until Saturday to go through canal as the harbor in Port Colborne is full of ice. The first picture is the Lower Niagara River second picture is mouth of Niagara River looking out in to Lake Ontario. You can see Toronto in the back ground. Capture.PNG Capture.PNG
  10. MBevins

    MBevins Senior Member

    Joined:
    May 23, 2008
    Messages:
    1,162
    Location:
    Windsor On. Canada
    Sure has turned into one nasty spring on the Great Lakes.
  11. PacBlue

    PacBlue Senior Member

    Joined:
    Jan 9, 2009
    Messages:
    1,988
    Location:
    Dana Point, Ca
    Spring on the Great Lakes - do they even have one? JK
  12. Bill106

    Bill106 Senior Member

    Joined:
    Jan 9, 2010
    Messages:
    390
    Location:
    Beaufort NC
    Sure they do! It's the day before summer and two days before fall! :rolleyes:

    I grew up in Buffalo, kept our Richardson (one of two left in the plant when they closed) a half mile up Ellicot creek from the old plant. It used to be quite the event when they dropped the log boom each spring. Many would line up along riverfront park and watch the stripped cars float by, evidently car thieves used to (still do?) drive them out on the lake, strip them and leave them for the melt.
  13. Rodger

    Rodger Senior Member

    Joined:
    Mar 23, 2005
    Messages:
    832
    Location:
    St.Catharines
    I made my first trip up the canal yesterday, on the 13 mile run from lock 7 to lock 8 we had to keep and eye out for small chunks of ice.
    Note: The toll machines at lock structures are not working and also the online ticket purchase is not working also the seaway will no longer take cash.
    The Seaway put a notice out today they want you to use this App (Secunik)
    There is no ticket to print as when you get near the lock it will display on the lock master screen.
    Keep in mind you must have data on your phone for this to work.
    The Captain yesterday data would not work in Canada so I had to call his credit card information to Seaway office in Cornwall and wait for a return email before we could transit.
    I will post when every thing is back on line. Capture.PNG
  14. Rodger

    Rodger Senior Member

    Joined:
    Mar 23, 2005
    Messages:
    832
    Location:
    St.Catharines
    Had a good trip up canal today but sailboat was having a bad day. Capture.PNG Capture.PNG
  15. Rodger

    Rodger Senior Member

    Joined:
    Mar 23, 2005
    Messages:
    832
    Location:
    St.Catharines
    Erie Canal and Oswego Canal opened on Tuesday, and yachts now arriving at the Welland Canal.
    Took up a new V65 Princess today and on Sunday I have 105' Sailboat Whitehawk has air draft 110'
    Mast was removed in Main and weighs 8000 lbs and was trucked to Oswego NY and will be reinstalled tomorrow for her trip up Welland Canal. Here is a picture of Whitehawk in Erie Canal. Capture.PNG Capture.PNG
  16. Rodger

    Rodger Senior Member

    Joined:
    Mar 23, 2005
    Messages:
    832
    Location:
    St.Catharines
    Yesterday we got Whitehawk 105' Sailboat up the Welland Canal, I was aboard the owners motor yacht following her through canal.
    Rafting along side me was Yacht Forum Member Capt Tilt delivering a new 51' Azimut
    it was about a nine hour trip.
    Capture.PNG Capture.PNG Capture.PNG
  17. Rodger

    Rodger Senior Member

    Joined:
    Mar 23, 2005
    Messages:
    832
    Location:
    St.Catharines
    WELLAND CANAL PLEASURE CRAFT SCHEDULE
    Starting July 15/19
    Anything would be an improvement.
    Effective July 15, 2019, the St. Lawrence Seaway Management Corporation is implementing a pleasure craft schedule for transits through the Welland Canal.

    The service offering will be based upon the following schedule:


    Upbound Transits – from Port Weller to Port Colborne

    Transits are available on Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday.

    On the day of transit, pleasure crafts must be in position at the Port Weller small boat dock with payment confirmed and registration completed with the Seaway's Operations Control Centre by 9:00 a.m.

    **Pleasure crafts registered after the 9:00 a.m. cut off time will not transit until the next scheduled operating day.**


    Downbound Transits – from Port Colborne to Port Weller

    Transits are available on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday

    On the day of transit, pleasure crafts must be in position at the Port Colborne small boat dock with payment confirmed and registration completed with the Seaway's Operations Control Centre by 9:00 a.m.

    **Pleasure crafts registered after the 9:00 a.m. cut off time will not transit until the next scheduled operating day.**

    During transits, pleasure crafts are to communicate with the Operations Control Center (OCC), utilizing Seaway working frequency Channel 14 (unless otherwise instructed by the OCC).

    To receive updates concerning Pleasure C
  18. olderboater

    olderboater Senior Member

    Joined:
    Sep 2, 2013
    Messages:
    7,132
    Location:
    Fort Lauderdale
    Looks like a workable solution if they'll stick to it. I'd certainly be ok with it.
  19. MBevins

    MBevins Senior Member

    Joined:
    May 23, 2008
    Messages:
    1,162
    Location:
    Windsor On. Canada
    Just about anything is better than what they had.