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An interesting contrast of the very modern building and an 1832 lock. |
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Another waterfall over a lock gate. This seems to happen often when its a double or tripple lock. Note here the lock sill is clearly visable as the lower falls. When this chanber is full the sill will have 5 or 6 feet of water over it |
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We stopped at Hogs Back and walked to the falls.
The lock keepers everywhere have been very friendly and helpful, but at Hogs Back, keeper Guy Theriault, was exceptionally helpfull, explaining a lot of the details about the lock and the surronding area. He even gave us Rideau Canal hat pins. |
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Once past Hogs back the scenery changed a lot, as we got out of the city and into the surburbs- obiously this is not one of the low rent suburbs! |
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As we arrived at the Long Island lock we met our first down bound
boat. This one is from Texas, an obvious live-aboard. We only had a minute
to talk, but he said he built the boat and they had spent the winter in the
Bahamas, Then up the ICW and Hudson River, Erie Canal.
When I got home I found Boatbuilder Magazine had a 3 part series on this boat with some nice details on its design and construction. |
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We got to Burritts Rapids lock just in time to lock through before the
closing time at 4:30. It was tough getting into the lock as we had a very strong
tail wind.
This photo shows the hand operated winch that operates the locks gates. The long horizontal pole is pinned to the end of the gate and is pulled open or closed by a chain on the winch. Note the two lock gates must close together to form a tight miter joint. The pressure of the water against the gates drives them tightly closed. The stone sills are cut to the same miter angle so the lower end of the gates press against the sill. |
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This is the winch that opens the water gate in the downstream gate. It is used to let the water out when locking down. The up stream gates are arranged to channel the water through a U shaped passage built into the lock wall. This lets the water rise up from the bottom of the lock, keeping the turbulance down and making it eaiser to hold the boat in place. |