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| A few moments with Isla (“Boots”) before saying our farewells |
As usual Erik was up early, Renee followed shortly after. We both showered and got breakfast before the good-byes started 😭. Rusty, Ashley, and Isla were the first to get on the road as they were on “Isla time”. Too bad that’s not more like Island time 😂🤪. DJ and Brittany headed out shortly after them, with Derek and Chris waiting till later to head out since they would be meeting us in Buffalo. Chelsea loaded the car and took us to the boat to load what we were bringing with us and unload what we were sending home. Then Chelsea hit the road and we were throwing off our lines very shortly after that, but it was already almost 10 am.
It felt good to be back on the water, and lake conditions were not to bad. The waves were 1-2 footers which were a little bumpy and only slightly uncomfortable. The lake settled more as we went and made pretty good time pulling into Buffalo State Park Marina about 2:45pm.
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| Coming into Buffalo |
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| We’d never seen a water fountain with a dog bowl 🤗 Good idea Buffalo! |
Shortly after we walked Riva and looked around the marina Derek and Chris arrived. We hopped on the boat and pulled back out heading toward the Niagara River. After boating on the Great Lakes for a while it was a change of scenery to be back on a river. Very quickly we encountered a drawbridge that had to be opened for us. The draw bridge was followed quickly by a turn bridge and our first lock since Chicago! The lock was only about a 5 foot drop and we kept the motors running floating in the center while going down. We pulled into Blue Water Marina to fill up our gas tanks(not sure how available gasoline is on the western half of the Erie Canal). While filling up we took the upper enclosure panels down and folded the Bimini down to prepare for low bridges on the Erie Canal.
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| Enclosure down No bridge collisions this year We hope! 😜 |
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| Air drafts posted up on the flybridge Shortly after getting back on the water we made the turn off the Niagara River onto Tonawanda Creek and the start(or technically the end as we are traversing it backwards 🤪) of the Erie Canal. |
We tied up to what we thought was a free dock and were greeted by VERY friendly locals. Found out that the docks were not free and decided to tie up to the other side where there seemed to be more restaurants and shops. Once tied up, it was about 7 pm , we were hungry and headed into town to find food. We had Riva with us so we found a Mexican restaurant with sidewalk seating that allowed Riva. The food was amazing, from the chips and salsa, to Derek’s huge order of nachos, Chris and Renee had assorted tacos, and Erik ate a huge burrito. Then we called an Uber to pick up Derek’s car and head to see Niagara Falls.
Our first stop was Terapin Point on Goat Island where we could see the horseshoe falls. There were a decent number of people but we could get right up to the rails to get pictures and look at the falls. Next we went to Prospect Point to see the American falls. Found this area to be PACKED with people! Couldn’t get close enough to see very well. Soon found out why it was so packed when the fireworks display started and was very cool to watch over the falls!
On the way back to the boat Renee couldn’t stay awake, and everyone was pretty exhausted and headed quickly to bed when we got back to the boat. A long but amazing day to start off the rest of our loop segment!
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