Kriste's Adventures: Freighter Fun at the Welland Canal

Ahhh, I have found that the best thing about going on vacations that are spontaneous and not meticulously planned is that you can find adventure anywhere! I know, spontaneous is soooo not my style, but I'm working on it. After my wine tasting I was headed toward Niagara Falls on the QEW and drove across a rather large elevated bridge (in the far backgr

ound) only to see a roadside sign mentioning this was the exit for the Welland Canals Centre. Hmmm, it piqued my interest and in a millisecond I veered across 2 lanes and onto the exit ramp! It was ok, not too much traffic & no one flipped me off or anything. After all, I did use my turn signal! Anyway, the town of St. Catharines is rather quaint and the people quite friendly! I found my way to the visitor center at Lock#3 about 1 hour before the 492 foot freighter Stephan B. Roman was expected from Lake Ontario headed to Lake Erie. Here it comes now! This is the 4th "revision" of the Welland Canal that connects the 2 Great Lakes and is 27 miles long and has 8 locks. Lake Erie is the higher of the 2 at 572 feet above sea level, and Lake Ontario is only 246 ft above sea level. Lock #3 raises (or lowers) the vessel 46 1/2 feet while in its 856 foot long chamber!

Slow & steady the captain maneuvered the freighter into the lock as workers above threw ropes down to tie it up to large round yellow cement objects then used a large winch to mechanically secure the ship from violently crashing about while in the lock.

After this was completed the motion of the ship was halted as it belched this awful mixture of coal, diesel and who knows what else into the air and my lungs!

All was secure at the front end, so shortly after alarms started sounding to warn of the closing of the gate on the Lake Ontario side. Surprisingly up to this point, only perhaps 5-10 minutes had elapsed it was quite a smooth operation! I am not sure what the purpose of the large crane like structure is that was lowered as the lock was closed.

Water ports then began to open filling the 859 by 80 foot lock with 93,000,000 liters of water or about 22 million gallons or about 600,000 bathtubs full of water! Surprisingly it only took 9 minutes to fill 'er up! I would have expected a lot longer process. I also found out that a freighter would expect to pay between $5600 to $29,000 per passage to use this 27 mile shortcut. The fee is based on gross tonnage, cargo and number of passengers. If you were just a recreational boater, you could expect to pay about $200 for access. I suppose its not a bad deal considering the only options would be to either unload or go

over Niagara Falls! Hmmm, a pretty good deal I suppose!

Here we are about 1/2 way done, at this point the water became quite turbulent and the ship started to migrate around in the lock. Sure glad they tied it up well! Below the Stephan B. Roman is raised up to its target and the south gate will soon open!

The north gate remained closed. This was the last freighter of the day so, I'm not really sure what happens to the water from here. I am guessing that hopefully the next one will come from the opposite way and the process will reverse draining the water out into a holding tank possibly and allowing passage to Lake Ontario.

One more really cool thing, as I went back to the car to get back on the expressway I had to cross a bridge, I didn't pay much attention to it on the way over (probably because I was excited), but it was one of 5 vertical lift bridges on this waterway (there are also 3 tunnels). As a freighter approaches it is cranked skyward parallel to the water, unlike drawbridges which I am familiar with!