Buying a sailboat on the Great Lakes or buying on the ocean?

[GregNelson]

Really helpful replies, a lot of wisdom for the young like myself!

Thank you theBigKahuna with very actionable planning around issues with buffer, DarwinHolmstrom for the mailing list and long term view on if country borders will be different after the pandemic, and appreciate the comprehensiveness especially in your answer Mike OReilly.

For anyone finding these posts in the future, some examples of the lock bulletins are where the policy records seem to be, e.g.:

https://greatlakes-seaway.com/en/new...-lake-ontario/

The COVID closures for that one came March 26,2020 without pre-warning in the bulletins, and next update was June 4 about reopening of parts about 5-10 days later. https://greatlakes-seaway.com/wp-con...0200604_en.pdf

And there is now an online reservation system for some of the locks, which also seems to be subject to commercial traffic, thanks for emphasizing that theBigKahuna and others.
https://greatlakes-seaway.com/wp-con...0200810_en.pdf