or…”Why one should pay attention when locking through.”
I received an anonymous email yesterday.
A boat was locking through to the next pool, going up river. They were given the ropes to hold on to…but they were too busy yacking…to notice that their boat wasn’t parallel to the lock wall. In fact, they didn’t notice the nose of their boat “nose up” in to the rungs of the lock ladder….until the rising water (about 4 feet) started entering their boat.
To explain this better…the nose of the boat was caught under a rung of the lock wall ladder. When the water started rising…the boat didn’t and started filling with water.
The lock operator realized what was happening and lowered the water level to release the nose of the boat from the ladders “death grip”. Between the boats bilge pump and the pump the lock operators used…the Iowa boys were back in business in a short time…although the boat was a bit on the soaked side.
I’ve heard of folk tying off their boats when locking down with bad results, but this one is new to me.
Brochures on Safe Locking will be available at Everts Resort soon.