Guests on the Sea Lion were treated to a rare perspective today as we were allowed to watch the ship "lock-up" 83 feet in the McNary Lock near Umatilla, Oregon. Upon entering a lock, the ship ties up to a floating bollard within the lock chamber. In this photo the Sea Lion is tied to a bollard on her port side. While the chamber fills with water, the line connecting the ship to the bollard keeps the ship in a stable position.

While we ascend the Columbia with the aid of locks, thick braided lines and floating bollards, this navigation was not so easy for the Corps of Discovery nearly 200 years ago. There are many diary entries mentioning the use of ropes, however the rope they used was quite different from what we use today, theirs were made of elk skin. William Clark wrote an entry for November 24, 1804 "...finished a Cord to draw our boat out on the bank, this is made of 9 strans of Elk skins." Another entry by Meriwether Lewis on May 28, 1805 noted "...our ropes are but slender, all of them except one being made of Elk's skins, and much woarn, frequently wet and exposed to the heat of weather are weak and rotten: they have given way several times in the course of the day but happily at such places that the vessel had room to wheel free of the rocks and therefore escaped injury."

We will continue our navigation tonight with our goal of Clarkston, Washington for the morning. In the same vein of the expedition, we proceed on.