Lock and Dam Editorial (Barclay Lock and Dam)

We thought it would be a good idea to give all of our followers and idea of the lock experience.  To clarify, the last pictures we sent were of a much smaller chamber and Erwin is NOT wearing a hard hat.  The lockmaster does require everyone to were a life jacket.

So this Lock and Dam is several hundred feet long and wide.  The dam is on the left side of the picture and the lock is on the right.  We are traveling up river so the lockmaster will raise the water level for us a total of 57 Feet.  Yes, it is a lot of water dumping in or out of the chamber.  The boat going into the lock is about the same size as our boat.

This is inside the chamber, keep in mind the boat in the chamber is almost 40 feet long and at least 13 or 14 feet wide.

This is the view at the back of the chamber, those are the large doors that close behind you.  There are floating bollards or large cylinders that you tie your boat onto.  As you can see all of the boats go up to a wall and latch a line onto a bollard.

This is the large gates at the front of the locks.  After the water level has reached the correct height, the lockmaster will open the gates for the boats to be able to leave.  You do not let go of the line until the gates are open and the lockmaster blows the all clear horn.