One of the doors to get into the lock was broken, so we had to fit our 19-foot beam (width) through a 26-foot opening instead of the full width. Not a problem at all.
I had the fenders and line ready to hook up at the center of the starboard side. We noticed that they had their own lines, which I had to quickly swap out for ours. We also had to tie up at bow and stern instead of just at the center. The parts that go in and out of the water were slimy and I didn't have time to grab my gloves before making the exchange. Ew. Once again, our well-oiled machine has to change when we finally got it down. The rules constantly change on us. Such is the boat life.
A manatee locked through with us, which made the time go by faster. We all kept watching for it to surface. The kids got activity pages from the lockmaster. They were not as impressed and said it was nothing like the Parks Canada booklets they loved last summer. We shared the chamber with one other recreational boat.
Worth noting: these locks have their own set of rules that are different from everywhere else we've locked. No passing boats in the chamber, bow and stern ties required, and if lightning strikes, they shut the locks and stop operating. (I'm pretty sure there were similar rules in our other locks this summer, but they weren't enforced like they are here.)
We pulled up to Ortona Lock at 2:20 to find it was shut down due to a lightning strike. We anchored to wait and see if they'd get us through before the end of the day. We got through at 3:00, so it wasn't too long of a delay. At that point, we knew we wouldn't make it to Julian Keen Jr. Lock before the last lock of the day at 4:30, so we backed off the throttle a bit to save some fuel and arrived around 5:30.
The water level was too high to anchor, so we tried to tie up to some pilings. I had a heck of a time with a vertical cleat and got Moose to help, but the line kept slipping off. Ben was trying to manage the boat while simultaneously planning for any water level changes, fender placement, parts of the boat rubbing on the pilings, and the bow position. He had a lot of changing variables to predict and process all at once, and was frustrated. He even wondered about doing an anchor and stern tie instead.
While Ben was maneuvering the Cartermaran, the boat hook we were using fell in the water. Fortunately, it was the floating one. We used the other hook to work it close enough to the back step to grab it. I was terrified that my hand would come back missing a few fingers due to all the splashing attracting alligators. Luckily, there were none!
Eventually, we ended up tied to the lock wall at Julian Keen Jr. Lock in Moore Haven for the night.
Locks today: 2
Locks of the summer: 44
Locks of the loop: 158
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