Hastings

This blog will chronicle our (Pat and Patty Anderson's)

cruising adventures on the Great Loop!

DAY 100 - July 9, 2017

Today was about the cruise, not the destination! We had to transit 6 locks today on our way to Hastings. There were a LOT of Loopers at Campbellford, so we left early to be among those first in line for the first lock, Lock 13. We had left Lock 7 at Glen Ross early on our way to Campbellford, and we were the only boat in Lock 8, and in each of the following locks, which is a lot less stress than having a lot of other boats in the lock at the same time. No such luck today!

We were among five boats waiting for the first transit of Lock 13. The lock master came down and told us the plan, three larger boats would go in first, second and third, and the two smaller boats, us and another one, would then enter the lock and raft to the larger boats. We transited 13, 14, 15, this way. Because of currents, the lock master directs which wall to tie to, port or starboard. We needed to wait for the larger boats to get securely tied before entering and rafting, and more than once the larger boats had a very difficult time in the locks getting secured to the cable on the wall. We had to "tread water" out in some pretty awful currents waiting for the big boats to manage to get securely tied. Patty did an outstanding job of treading water in the current and then just getting us right alongside the big boys inside the lock, and I took care of passing the lines to raft. In locks 16/17 (a flight of 2, one right after the other), and lock 18 we did not need to raft, although we had to wait for the big boats to get securely tied before we could enter. 

This, I need not say, was NOT a stress-free day in the locks! Currents pushing us around, and even pushing the big boats around, makes for very a very exciting time in each lock!

When we exited Lock 18, we were at our destination, the Upper Lock Wall of Lock 18. We were anxious about whether we would be able to get a spot here, but need not have been  - except for one small runabout, there was nobody tied to the wall! One of the big boats we had been rafted to tied up, and we pulled right in behind it. By late evening, the wall was full.

The Upper Lock Wall is right in the middle of "downtown Hastings" - which is not saying a lot! This is not Trenton or Campbellford! There is nothing, so far as I can tell, that is photo-worthy here!  However, within a few blocks of the Upper Lock Wall, there are a liquor store, a beer store, a fairly good sized supermarket, and a hardware store. We walked the short distance to town, and saw that the hardware store was closed but the liquor store and the beer store were open, so we decided to go to the supermarket first. It started raining just as we got there. We ducked into a storefront doorway alcove and waited it out, then went to the supermarket and did our shopping. Unfortunately, the beer store closed while we were at the supermarket!

The weather forecast for tomorrow is not great, but Hastings is not a place we want to stay more than overnight, so tomorrow we push on! We are going to do our best to cover the 40 miles to Peterborough tomorrow!