Port Colborne Lighthouse.

The entrance to the Welland Canal is now in Port Colborne and sees a massive amount of traffic, pleasure crafts, cruise ships, but mostly cargo ships. The canal opened, in Port Colborne, in 1833, and the pier had a lighthouse guiding shipping from Lake Erie. The lighthouse experienced the usual difficulties of storm damage and changing uses. The current lighthouse was built in 1928 and in 2013 The Friends of The Port Colborne Lighthouse started offering tours on Canal Days. with info from lighthousefriends.com

Rick and I walked down to the Sugarloaf Marina and bought tickets for the next boat out to the lighthouse. We were fitted with life jackets and walked out on to the dock.

 

We boarded a rather decrepit pontoon boat and set out past the grain silos that anchor the end of the Welland Canal.

For the first sight of the lighthouse.

Before we started the tour The Empire Sandy came back into the canal and everything stopped while we all took photos of her.

It was hard to resist taking photo after photo as she came in.

The sails were being taken down as she came in.

Once she had passed by

we got on with the tour. The lighthouse was damp, stuffy and a little run down but its not decked out for tourists, who only get to come out here once a year.

The stairs are more like a ladder, very steep, and definitely not to code. Rick passed as he had recently had eye surgery and wasn't supposed to bend at the waist. The final door to the outside of the light had to be crawled through.

The pontoon boat had dropped off another group and taken others back.

The breakwall out to the fog horn has a tunnel that the lighthouse keeper could use to safely maintain the essential safety device.

Faintly, in the distance, the Point Abino Lighthouse, which is privately owned.

The canal entrance is to the right of the grain elevators, the entrance to the marina is to the left.

Back down the ladder stairs

and back on the pontoon boat as the last group of the day climbed to the light.

Canal Days, Port Colborne.

 I am behind in my blogging, busy summer! A couple of weeks ago, Rick and I went to Canal Days in Port Colborne. We were able to get a parking spot near the marina, where there was a children's fun area with pony rides. We walked over to the canal and up the edge into downtown.

We stopped at whatever booth took our fancy.

 

 

Most of the booths had food or clothing but one mining company was handing out little red pine saplings so Rick spent the day with a pocket full of pine.

We watched the Empire Sandy come in to dock

She was taking people out for sails throughout the day and into the evening.

There were two other, smaller, tall ships, Pathfinder and this one, St Lawrence.

We went aboard St Lawrence, interested in the traditional sailing equipment

and navigation.

In the past few years, cruise ships have been stopping in Port Colborne as they tour the Great Lakes.

We heard the lift bridge start to go up

and headed over to watch

Pearl Mist

head up the Welland Canal to Lake Ontario.

It was very hot, very crowded and very humid. Normally I would have been all for grabbing something to eat at one of the booths but I was craving some air conditioning so we had lunch inside at Canalside.

Then found an ice cream store for dessert.

 One of the booths had advertised that the Port Colborne Lighthouse was open for tours so we headed back down to the marina area to take advantage of that rare opportunity.

Out beyond the breakwall we could see that the Empire Sandy was back out on the lake and under sail.

 

Aboard Oasis

Fred and Dave both crewed on Caleidoscope and now crew on Blueberry Hill and Spellbound. They have a 42ft Catalina docked in Hamilton and invited the rest of the crews out for a sail. Rick and I and Mark and Angie took them up on it.

Oasis is a beautiful cruising sailboat with comfortable sleeping for 4

 

and a spacious cockpit.

We motored up Burlington Bay

with greenery and expensive homes on one side and

massive industry on the other.

We paused, waiting for the lift bridge which opens every half hour (unless a "laker" needs to go through then its on demand)

Under the Burlington Skyway (QEW), the lift bridge, past the old lighthouse

and out into Lake Ontario.

We sailed for a while in light and shifty winds. For a large boat she sailed surprisingly well with little wind. A furling Jib and a Mainsail that furls into the mast makes choosing to sail or not very little work.

A Catamaran club on the beach. The Skyway was backed up and crawling the whole time we were out.

We snacked, anchored and swam (Lake Ontario is colder than Lake Erie!)

and watched a float plane doing circuits (landing, taking off and circling around to do it again) 

We headed back under the bridge, totally relaxed. Angie on "the best seat in the house."

Closer to the industrial side of the bay this time, past the Haida

HMCS Haida is a Tribal-class destroyer that served in the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) from 1943 to 1963, participating in World War II and the Korean War.^[2] She was named after the Haida people.^[3]

The only surviving Tribal-class destroyer out of 27 vessels constructed for the RCN, the Royal Navy, and the Royal Australian Navy between 1937 and 1945, Haida sank more enemy surface tonnage than any other Canadian warship and as such is commonly referred to as the "Fightingest Ship in the Royal Canadian Navy".^[4][5]

Designated a national historic site of Canada in 1984, she now serves as a museum ship, berthed next to HMCS Star, an active Royal Canadian Naval Reserve Division, in Hamilton, Ontario.^[6] In 2018, Haida was designated the ceremonial flagship of the RCN from Wikipedia.

We were out on the water for about 5 hours. Lovely boat, tasty snacks and good company.