Day 6: The Soo Locks & Scenic Sailing

July 21 

This morning we awoke to be "on the move!'  And just where are we you may ask?  So here's a map of this portion of the trip.  You can see Mackinac Island where we were the first day on the left....you can see Georgian Bay where we've been the last three days.....and then you see the line departing Frazer Bay, sailing south out of Georgian Bay then heading towards Lake Superior by way of the Soo Locks.  

The early part of the morning was quite foggy, very breezy, and chilly (low 60's - which we were delighted to experience since nearly all the clothes we'd packed had been in anticipation of that kind of weather, not the upper 70's we've had so far).  At about 10 am they announced you could take a tour of "The Hanger" where all the the "toys" are stored (the Special Operation Boats, the Zodiacs, and the Submarines).  Went down to get a close-up view of them!  And while there talked to one of the officers, Karl, about his experiences on board Viking in the Antarctica.  Gave us some good tips on what kind of clothes to bring and wear.  

Right as we were finishing there it was announced that we were about 20 min to a half hour from the locks and that the best place to watch was on the forward bow on either Deck 3 or 4.  So the four of us met there and began the anticipation as the ship slowed while we approached.  We saw "civilization" for the first time in many days with the city of Sault Ste. Marie and then rounded the bend to see the approaching locks.

As we got up to the locks we could see we were going to be lowered the 21 feet to get us level with Lake Superior and were told that this would bean that some 22 MILLION gallons of water would be drained from our lock.  We'd been told earlier that our ship is less than a foot narrower than the lock and when I looked down the sides, that was MOST certainly the case, WOW.

The bottom photo you can see my shoe, then to the left the glass & the white of the boat, then a very small dark space - that's the gap between the ship and the concrete.

The top photo is a close up....the concrete on the top, the sliver of space, and the edge of the ship

Nearly everyone was watching from either the actual front of the ship on Deck 3 where we were or right behind us on Deck 4 which had an overlook.  And at the docks, they even had a protected grandstand that was filled with people watching!  Quite the event for the area to see our big ship sail through :)

The after dinner concert - what a setting....WOW

It was certainly a cool experience.  One last set of photos for the day.  When Kim and I sailed on the Rhine River a few years ago they announced that their signature restaurant on the Viking Oceans, "Manfredi's" was serving a sample meal on the Aquavit Deck, so we went up and enjoyed it.  We made a mental note to try the real deal when we boarded a Viking Oceans vessel.  In Norway we ate there three times, and on the Mediterranean we ate there FOUR times.  So when we boarded this ship and they too had a Manfredi's we told our friends Tom & Mary Pat it was a MUST DO.  We've been there twice already and will go back tomorrow for our final night's dinner.  JUST THE BEST!

So nice.....someone has to do it :)