Another Adventure: "the Bles-sing!" Gets That Sinking Feeling

 One of the very first pieces of advice that you are given in boating seminars is to get a good knife. You never know when you are going to need to cut a line. Ok, sure. Well it happened the other day and it was the captain's fault. But first a quick lesson in locking through on the Trent-Severn. 

Each lock has steel cables coated with plastic hanging down from the top of the lock wall spaced about 10 feet apart the length of the chamber. To secure the boat in the lock you simply attach a line to the boat on a cleat and then pass the line around the cable and back to the boat and hang on to it. Two lines, Jane on the bow, me on the stern each time.  As the water floods the chamber the boat rises and gradually the looped line travels upwards with you. 

So back to our adventure. I noticed some of our lockmates tied lines off back on their boats so they are free to relax, look at their phones and chat or look around. They looked so cool and nonchalant ... very in control. I had to try this. It was going great, I was deep in conversation with the young captain behind me when I noticed my line was NOT sliding up. It was stuck... meaning the stern of our boat was being pulled down into the water on the port side against the wall. "Um, hold that thought man, I'll be right back. I need to loosen this line." First mistake was tying the line off. Second mistake was tying it wrong so that as the tension increased the knot locked down on itself tighter and tighter. It took just one quick second to know that I was not going to loosen that line. Time to cut the line, and the sooner the better. The lockmaster and staff were running to the rescue with knives out.  Luckily and thanks to our training, I had stowed a very sharp cutting tool very close by. I got ahold of it quickly, reached over  to the cleat and the line exploded as I cut. The sinking stern jump up violently, hit the lock wall and swung into the middle of the chamber. The Admiral was on the bow wondering, "WTF is going on back there?"

Now to make a long story longer. In Canada they require you to turn your engines off in the chamber (BTW not a fan of this). It makes for a nice quiet ride, eh? But it also adds another step to the process when the stuff hits the fan. Anyway ... after restarting I calmed TB down using the engines. From the wheel I was able to smile at Jane and say, "Hey there. How ya doin?"