Week 7 – Buffalo to Youngstown, NY – NM 794 thru 843
Hmmm, where/how to start? As briefly alluded to in week 6 we had made a reservation to transit the Welland Canal in Canada, which by the way avoids having to take your boat down Niagara Falls, on August 12th. This was predicated by the fact that Canada would embrace us with open arms and boat lines as we went down the canal. We consulted with our St Lawrence seaway guru Sully on the timing of going out the end of the seaway the beginning of October. Possible, current makes you go faster, colder, weather more unpredictable but doable. D had the thought “If we could transit the canal earlier we’d gain a week of travel time down the St Lawrence”. This just after finding out that some friends from Annapolis were hiring a captain and crew to take their Bertram 38 thru the Welland to avoid height issues on the Western Erie Canal thru NY. Hey, we could hire a captain and crew to take Rory & Bo thru the canal early and we’d gain that extra time. So that’s just what we did and scheduled that transit for August 3rd, using the same captain and crew as our friends. Hiring the cap & crew w/a signed contract circumvented the border not being open yet, it was a ‘commercial’ crossing. And I need to mention – we could NOT be on the boat, correct, we could not be on the boat. Yikes to quote Rita Ann!
Hold that thought! This decision was made based on numerous calls to the Canadian Border Services Agency and St Lawrence Seaway staff about whether the 5 Canadian locks on the St Lawrence Seaway would be open to us when we got there after August 9th. Their answers were vague but didn’t see ‘why not’. One day of elation.
Quickly followed by a day of total dejection. Other friends received info that the Canadian border was yes opening to the US on Aug 9th but NOT to boaters. Air and land travel only. Plus there was the threat of the Border Service agents going on strike to settle a contract dispute. Gulp! More calls to the CBSA to verify and after the 5th call to an office located on the St Lawrence river finally got a clear answer. Border not open to boaters. The checkin process for boats is different and they were not prepared ‘for the foreseeable future’ that a system would be in place for checking in. Sigh…
So no Canada, no St Lawrence River and Seaway, no Gaspe Bay to meet friends, no french baguettes.
Frantic hustling ensued. The seemingly only 2 decisions left we could make was to go thru the entire Erie Canal system from Buffalo, or send Rory thru the Welland Canal to Oswego, NY to just take the eastern half of the Erie Canal, each of these choices involve taking down the mast on the boat and strapping it to the top of the boat or shipping down to Catskill NY. Height and depth issues can plague sailboats on the western Erie Canal due to low bridges and repaired washed out canal portions. So, the ending decision was to send Rory & Bo on their own adventure thru the Welland, pick them up in Youngstown, NY and take the eastern Erie Canal to the Hudson River ending up in New York City. “The series of possibilities”…
WELLAND CANAL, ON, CA – Rory & Bo’s adventure… They were picked up on Monday evening for a Tuesday transit of the canal which can take anywhere from 8-20 hours depending on freighter traffic and Canadian and US border control.
NIAGARA FALLS, NY – D & K’s adventure… We used the ‘captain’s’ car to get from Buffalo to Youngstown, then they had it to get back to Buffalo. Stayed in a hotel, very weird. Got provisioned up at a good grocery store so a side benefit. Last picture a deer swimming across the river channel that heads for Horseshoe Falls, ledge seen in rear of pic.
LEWISTON & YOUNGSTOWN, NY – Funky shop in Lewiston and Fort Niagara in Youngstown. A French military post since the 1600’s was captured by the British in 1759 and became a US Army post in 1796. The ‘French Castle’ is the oldest building, 1726, in the eastern interior of North America.
