BIG CHUTE LOCK - WHAT WAS THAT LOUD CRACK?

Morning of July 26, 2026

We had set ourselves up for an early departure from lock 43 to traverse the approximate 8 miles to the Big Chute, lock 44. Beautiful homes, quiet water, just very serene. Two of our looper friends were already on the “blue line” which is wall space designated for boats who want to go through the lock. It was actually good that Lance and Sue (The Dash) and Kevin and Joanna (Boundless) were in front of us as I really wanted to see a boat go through the Big Chute before we did.

The lock master and assistants actually sit/stand on the Big Chute. They bring it over so the end of the chute is in the water. The boat drives onto the chute and is lifted up either on to specialized slings or support blocks. As we all had larger boats, the first two boats (monohull-has only one hull) were on blocks or, in our case, we drove onto the wooden floor of the chute. The Dash and Boundless went over without incident and I took video that I sent to them later.

Then, it was our turn! Once we were in position on the boards, steel cables connected to an automatic winch pull the entire rail car out of the water.

When we had slowly start to move and were brought out of the water, we heard a very loud crack under the boat. Howie initially thought it was the depth finder, but that was protected in between a couple of board slats. The lock master went down and looked all around but couldn’t find anything. After about 10 minutes of searching, we endeavored onward.

We stay on the boat as it goes up the slope, over a road, and down the hill to Gloucester Pool.

The chute goes back into the water and we slide off. The loud crack was very concerning so I drove the boat while Howie looked in all of the blige areas and under the floor boards for any sign of leaks, broken fiberglass. He couldn’t find anything and we haven’t had any issues since. We are thinking that it was a wooden board that one of our hulls sat on. The boat is over 41,000 pounds, so that could make a board split. Anyway, we made it through the Big Chute!!