Waiting at Glover Wilkins lock

In the past, lockmasters exclusively used vhf to communicate. It’s a pretty mixed bag these days and the guidebook is rarely correct in suggesting their working channels. The most reliable method has been to call their phone number to let them know of your arrival. In this case, the phone number went to voicemail. We hailed on 16 and he moved us to 10. Some boats call way ahead and so now we are waiting 30 minutes so they can take both of us down. It’s always wise to be prepared to wait. I generally plan for a lock to be +1 hour of travel time for the day. We’ve had waits as long as 3 hours but overall we’ve entered most locks very soon after our arrival.

Midway to Columbus Lake

Up early for another 3 locks. With 6 locks under our belt, I can see the crew really clicking. Everyone knows the drill. We place a man on the bow and stern holding fenders. We found that clearing the fenders can be dicey because the walls are irregular and fenders can get caught on the up or down. The locks have multiple floating bollards. They are separated by at least 50 feet. The helmsman maneuvers to bring the bollard along the starboard rail and we loosely come around the bollard and back to a gunnel midship cleat. Do not tie down. Best to hold and be prepared to give or take slack. Some of the bollards are sticky and don’t immediately go down when the water recedes. If a bollard were to completely stick, your boat might hang by that line until it snaps. A very dangerous situation. General rule of thumb is that everything is ephemeral in a lock and to be prepared for the unexpected.