Buffalo, NY - First Buffalo River Marina

Tuesday, Sept 7, 845pm
Miles traveled:  69 nm
Total Miles traveled: 135 nm

We made it to Buffalo, NY today just in time to dock before the rain/storm hit.  Thanks to Captain Dave Block, who called us as we were coming into the harbor to warn us of the storm coming down the lake, we found safety before the storm hit.  We tried for guest dockage at the Buffalo Harbor Marina at the gas dock, but they didn't have any available and they told us to go down the river in the inner harbor.   Being the helpful people they are, the persons on a sailboat directed us to where we are, which doesn't have a lot of amenities but the price is good and the people are great. 

The rain did start after we had docked.  Phil was working on securing the dinghy and I put up the forehatch cover  so we could have the forehatch open since the oven was on cooking supper.  We have already met Dan and Shirley Hurtabise (pronounced herd of bees) on a S/V 40' Islander - and was invited over for some wine, cheese and crackers which we accepted as there still was some cooking time left for the chicken and rice casserole.   We returned about 40 min later and found that the forehatch cover did not work as the V-berth is wet more on my side of course!  lesson learned.  Don't trust the forehatch cover and don't open the forehatch when it's storming.

We have learned that John at the First Buffalo River Marina can lift the mast off if we do all the work, so we will check into it tomorrow to see if we will use him or Rich's Marina on the Black Rock Canal.

We both are glad that we have arrived in Buffalo since the next couple days are suppose to be bad weather days on the lake.  We are safe, warm and secure until we figure out what we will do next when. 

The passage from Erie, PA to Buffalo was better than we expected.  When we were at Wolverine Marina this morning, the wind was whistling and blowing and we thought that it would be worse on the lake, but that didn't turn out to be the case.  The winds were higher in the morning with gusts up to 28knots but settled down during Phil's first watch.  Most of the day the winds were in the mid teens to low 20's increasing as we got closer to Buffalo to the mid to upper 20's.  We did have some excitement with the dinghy in that some waves came over enough to have a lot water in the dinghy, the tub floated away, the lifting line, gas line and dock line got tangled together and went over the transom acting like a sea anchor.  Putting the painter line on a winch, we gradually pulled the dinghy in close enough until Phil could reach the lines with the boat hook and pull the tangled lines into the dinghy.  We did have to slow down to help the dinghy as one time it almost flipped over the waves were so high.  We still have the gas tank, as it was wedged under the seat on the port side. It looks like the gas tank is damaged.  Good thing that we have a spare for now.  On the positive note, the inside of the dinghy is very clean and there are no dirty leaves any more!