Greetings.
I am a man in a suit who has fallen into the world of Minecraft.
Here I am at the landing with a boat in hand. The canal is finished, and I’m about to set off.
I’m taking the boat from the river port I lit with copper lanterns last time out to the eastern sea.
First, let’s go back to what it looked like before there was a canal.
Cutting a Route From the River Port to the Sea
East of the river port I built in Episode 92, there’s grass all the way to the shore.
A cut through this hill might let me get to the other side without leaving the boat.
On the map, it’s easy to see the strip of land between the port and the sea.
I picture a blue line across it and get to work with the shovel.
As I dig into the hill, dirt walls rise on either side of me.
Each shovel stroke only goes so far, but when I look up, the grass is already above my head.
The dry trench stretches toward the port.
Somewhere along the way, my trusty netherite shovel breaks.
A trench this long is hard work for a shovel, too.
I take 143 blocks of stone from the dig to the town’s stonecutter and turn them into stone bricks.
After all that digging, it’s nice to start giving the waterway its shape.
I also make sticky pistons to move the gate.
I put a slimeball above a piston in the crafting grid, and a sticky piston appears in the result slot.
Building the Gate and Letting the Sea In
A stone brick tower rises on each side of the cut.
Between them goes a sliding stone gate, with four sticky pistons operated by a single lever.
It looks quite tall from down here.
I cut open the barrier at the sea end, and water pours in between the stone walls.
After staring at a dirt floor for so long, it’s good to see blue down there.
From the bridge at the port entrance, I can see the blue waterway stretching toward the twin towers.
The canal is about 145 blocks long and one block deep. It’s laid out four blocks wide, with a narrower stretch at the towers.
Stone lines both banks and holds back the sides of the cut through the hill. The port and sea are joined by water.
Opening the Gate From the Boat and Heading Out to Sea
I get into the oak boat at the landing and go around the south side of the Japanese-style ship to enter the canal.
As I travel with the map in hand, a blue line appears where there was only land before.
Beyond the map, the twin towers are getting closer.
Between the towers, the stone gate is straight ahead.
The lever that opens it is on the left wall.
At water level, that gate looks very close indeed.
I flip the lever without getting out of the boat. The stone gate slides away right in front of me.
Oh, there’s the shore on the other side!
With the passage clear, I take the boat through.
Past the gate, the eastern sea opens up in front of me.
The stone walls fall away on either side, and there’s open water to my left and right.
It only really sinks in that I’ve made a route from the port to the sea once I take the boat through it.
About halfway into the bay, I can see a dirt cliff and the remains of a ship by the shore.
This is as far as I take the boat today.
There’s more water ahead, and it makes me want to take the boat out again.
For one last look, here’s the view from the same high spot as before construction.
The twin towers beyond the grass now mark the way to the sea.
I open the map once more. There’s a blue line leading from the port to the sea.
The route I pictured from the hill is one I can finally take by boat.
That is all for this time.
Greetings.