Now, I must have wiggled when I took this. Anders was told to go ahead and slide the wall to Lock 2, okay we are sliding, ...yep sliding....sliding some more...just WHEN is this guy going to leave the LOCK????

FINALLY!!!!

We finally got to lock 1 and started heading out on Lake Ontario. The weather forecast doesn't

look good for making the dock at Lakeview though so Anders took the ship to the Port Weller Anchorage.

Its 7:30PM now, I am more than exhausted and can't imagine how Anders must feel. We got to bed and around 4 AM Anders wakes up, goes to the window and I ask him what hes doing. He says "The wind isn't doing

what its supposed to be doing"....hmmmmm now just HOW can he tell that from lying in bed??? So he gets up and listens to the forecast again, I figure, well, I guess we are getting up now. Yep, after he listens to the forecast he says hes going up to the wheelhouse, sent the Mate to pick up the anchor and we headed across the lake.

The ship is hardly rocking at all, but I guess the wind was supposed to change direction. He says hes going to give a crack at making the Dock in Port Credit also known as Lakeview. I guess its a tough place to get into with any kind of wind because of the water currents off the end of the dock.

A few short hours later we are docked at Port Credit. I could see the currents but Anders made it look

easy getting to the dock. I keep telling him if he wants me to realize how tricky it is hes got to

act like its tricky. Hes always very calm, you can tell he loves doing this and hes so very good at it. :o)

Its amazing how much the wind and water currents play such a big part in how the ship reacts and where they want her to go. Sort of makes you think she has a mind of her own.

Honestly at this point , I've only been on the ship for a couple of days and I feel like I've been days and days without sleep. Anders reminds me that in less than 9 hours we'll be headed back to do that long trip in the canal yet again.

We had some breakfast and took a nap. Anders had his usual paperwork and forms to do since he'ld be in the canal all night by the sounds of it. We did have a slight delay because the guys had to do some repairs to the hatch crane before we could get away from the dock. Decided to grab an hours sleep across the lake which was oh ever so great but I sure wasn't happy to hear that dang buzzer go off!! One hour to the piers....ugh!!

It was snowing and a bit brezzy when we got up. All the guys seemed to have the opinion that we'ld have a quick canal. oh really??? Lock one was quick, well sorta...we had a bunch of groceries to get onboard for Christmas dinner. So we all watched the grocery guy loading up the crate in the wind and snow. Not a nice night to be outside. I think it was -12. Much colder with the wind chill!!!

Lock two went fast though. Then 3,4, 5, and 6, it was at that point that there was a ship we were going to have to meet "in the pond" I wasn't aware the canal HAD a pond, and even more interested in just how you knew exactly what time to get to the pond to meet the other ship that was coming the other way. When you only have certain spots you can actually meet other ships. Well it was right when we headed out of Lock 7, slowly moving ahead out of the lock when Anders finds out the bow thruster isn't working. Hmm...okay there goes my adrenline again. Okay call the Chief to see whats up, hmmm must need resetting, call a guy to head to the windlass room to reset it. Opps he doesn't know how, time to send the Chief up. Okay so before all that could be accomplished the ship we are about to meet is right in front of us. I don't know what I was worried about Anders had everything under control. He just calmly said "no bow thruster? We just have to be smart thats all" So thats what he was, After we got by the ship the bow thruster came on and then he told me he had done that canal a few times without one at all. Why was I not surprised?.....

Well by this time it was about 4am. Luckily I got a boost of energy during that bow thruster episode and now the lockmaster says that Anders will be meeting another ship in the level. Yep, just another spot that you have to time just right to meet the ship at just the right spot....how DOES he do that?? I swear that level goes on forever though inbetween Lock 7 and 8, its like a highway. I noticed it even had mile markers on it, and its all lit up too. Anders told me that he can actually ask the lock master to dim the lights if they are bothering him. Pretty neat. Amazing too actually. But the time we got to Lock 8 the sun was starting to come up and we had seen all 3 wheelsman on their 4 hour rotations in the wheelhouse, infact the first guys we actually saw twice which means....we were in the wheelhouse for ALONG time! Over 12 hours anyway...By the time we got clear of the piers I was almost asleep standing up. Well felt like I could anyway. It was 8:00 am and we finally got to go to bed. I don't know why but Anders got up at 1pm...I could of slept all day but of course he had more customs forms to do. So we got up and grabbed some breakfast in the galley. We headed up to the wheelhouse to see how things were going. It was snowing like crazy and the ship was rolling just a bit. We'ld be in Ashtabula around suppertime...well if there were no more delays....

Well that didn't work out so well. The winds were blowing 30 knots and the currents in front of the piers were making it impossible to get in. There were 4 ships anchored outside the piers already. Anders tried 2 or 3 times then decided to anchor in hopes that the wind would die down soon. So we joined the list of ships waiting to get inside Ashtabula. It was 2:30am when Anders decided to give it a try again. The wind is still blowing pretty good and you can acutally see the current flowing past the piers. The waves are crashing over the breakwall too. Anders finally got the ship in by heading in and turning around inside the piers. It was pretty cool actually.

After we had a little snack, we went back to bed for about 3 hours. When we got up, couldn't help but

notice that nothing was going on outside. I guess after a few hours of loading they had to stop in order to fill up the silos with coal. Another delay, hmmm. Anders was hoping we'ld be able to get out on the lake before the gale winds starting blowing though. Its pretty bright and shinny right now though, hard to believe its supposed to get nasty later. But thats the way these lakes are. We spent the afternoon just hanging around the wheelhouse really. I find it really interesting watching everything that goes on. Watching the loading rigs, the trains, all the ships coming and going. Lots to look at and theres a GREAT view from up in the Wheelhouse!

We ended up having another delay while waiting here. One of the rollers on the load rig caught fire. Luckily one of the guys on the ship noticed it before anything serious happened. They shut everything down and after several hours they were ready to get going again. We finally left around 10PM and got to bed around 11PM. Slept GREAT! We took the long way around the lake because of the gale winds blowing, so that was the south shore. Anders got up around 6:30 the next morning but just saying he was going to the wheelhouse. We are on our way to Lambton.

But once we were up in the wheelhouse the ships mood took a somber turn. Anders got a call while we were up there that one of the crew had passed away in his sleep during the night. I'm sorry to admit I didn't know him. But of course the crew is all like a big family so were all pretty shook up. Out of respect for his friends and family I won't give out his name. I was very impressed though with how everything was handled by the ship, the company, the police etc. Anders had alot more on his plate to handle at that point, he "wears alot of hats" on the ship thats for sure.

We arrived in at Lambton around 8:30 that night but didn't get to bed til around midnight. They expected to be finished unloading by around noon though. We saw a few ships that day in the river. Seemed like everyone was wanting to go to the fuel dock. We were up in the wheelhouse listening to traffic and of course the time was getting close to them being done unloading when we heard the Jackman coming up the river and they said they were going to Shell Oil. Well thats one ship we are going to have to wait for.

Well, Anders got the word that they were done unloading the ship. He gets the ship out in the river, tells Sarnia

traffic that hes headed to Shell Oil behind the Jackman. When from behind us comes this voice. "Algolake, this is the Arthur M. Anderson, channel 8 Capt" uh oh. We see the Anderson coming up behind us. Yeah okay,

Anders knew the Anderson wanted to go the fuel dock too. Thought we could beat him there but after a few negotations it was agreed that The Algolake would take the waiting dock behind the Jackman, the Anderson would take the Jackmans place and we'ld take the Andersons place. Now 3 ships bang, bang, bang at shell oil, good day for them!! Also a slight delay for us as we had to wait a few hours , then a couple hours to "gas er up"

This was kinda cool too. Anders has to get behind the Jackman but keep that yellow bouy in the water there behind him. It was pretty cool, he basically paralled parked the ship.

Finally got to sleep again when we got out on Lake Huron. The guys had to clean up the ship since we'ld be taking salt on the next two loads. They have to take the ship 12 miles offshore before they can hose her and they had alot of work to do so we expected to get a good nights sleep out there before heading back down the river to Windsor. We woke up at 7:30am and they were still at it. The wind and waves were making it a little difficult for them. I think since I've been here we've had gale warnings everyday! I think its cool but of course everyone is ready to go home now and gale warnings usually mean some kind of delay so the guys are pretty sick of them.

The river was pretty quiet on the way down to Windsor. Anders gave his usual salute to our friends in Port Huron, Jim and Julie, I think we actually saw them out walking by the waterfront too! If it wasn't him, someone was REALLY happy to see us and waving like CRAZY!!