We departed RMYC at 7:30 am for our long journey north .
Just after 8:00, we were approaching St. Andrews Lock and Dam. We had heard from the Lock master that there was not much water in the navigation channel, but we were shocked to see how little the entrance to the channel had. The Pelicans were a good indication of where the shallowest part was so we ran hard over to starboard and slipped safely into the channel with 2.8 ft of water under our depth sounder.
We cruised on in nice and slow, but the rest of the channel ranged from 3 to 4 feet, so it was no problem.
Once inside the lock, we could certainly tell water levels were low. This is usually what it looks like when you are heading up river, not entering to be lowered down.
You can tell by the wet mark inside the lock that they only had to drop us about 4 feet, from the so called high side to be down at the so called low side.
Then of course the next challenge as they opened the lock gates, was to shoot the rapids created by the rush of flood waters that they are letting through. Dan gave her full throttle and plowed through those rapids as quickly as we could. It was quite a RUSH!!
I was sooo excited I forgot to take a picture while we were right in the thick of it. Just suddenly remembered as we were pulling away and I was starting to relax. Dan wasn't the least bit worried about that part, like I was.
The rest of the journey is just a long, long trip, with each bend in the river showing just another bend in the river. it's very tedious. By noon, we were approaching the delta, which can be a little confusing when the water is really high like this. It all looks a little different with high water. Some of the little grassy islands you're used to seeing, have suddenly disappeared.
But, all the channel markers were there for us, even extras that weren't there last fall, which was quite helpful as the concrete channel markers are underwater with just the light standards sticking out of the water. Within an hour Winnipeg Beach harbour was in sight. All in all a long but good journey north.
WITH ALL THE HOLD UPS WE HAVE HAD THIS YEAR, MY SUMMER CAN START NOW
