We left the canal wall in Tonawanda at 8:15 am in clear skies with a strong southwest wind of 15-20 mph. After about 2 miles, the Erie Canal ended as we entered the Niagara River and headed upstream toward Buffalo, NY. At this location the Niagara River is split as it flows around Grand Island. We were in the eastern part where the current is lowest, and I estimated the current at 1.5 mph based on engine rpm and boat speed over the ground. At the southern end of Grand Island the river comes back together, but it is very wide, which also keeps the current low.
As you approach Buffalo and Lake Erie, the river becomes narrower, and the current goes way up. The current is strong enough that some commercial vessels, like barges, and some slower pleasure craft like sailboats and trawlers, like Lucky Us, would have difficulty going against the current. The US Corps of Engineers built the Black Rock Canal along the eastern shore. The canal has one lock at the eastern or downstream end that effectively reduces the current to almost zero. The picture at the left shows Lucky Us about to enter the lock at the start of the Black Rock Canal.
The lock raised us over 5 feet, which effectively removes the gradient (slope?) of the river between the lock and the other end of the canal. After exiting the lock, there was a railroad swing bridge about 0.2 miles ahead. Later, we also passed through this bascule bridge over the canal. In the background you can see the Peace Bridge between Canada (right) and the US (left).
We passed a school for crew (rowing) and there were two young crews practicing carrying the shells overhead and then lowering them into the water. I bet that there will be some very sore young men and women tomorrow...
Later we passed under the Peace Bridge, which we had crossed in our rental car while returning from Canada on Day 2-236. We are still in the Black Rock Canal with the mainland on the left and an artificial rock bulkhead on the right. It was interesting to look to the far right and see the Niagara River flowing swiftly past us while we were in the quiet, almost still water in the canal. The canal ends at the start of the Buffalo Harbor so we were protected from the current in the canal, and in the harbor the breakwater protected us from the 3 to 4 foot waves out on Lake Erie.
We arrived at the Erie Basin Marina near downtown Buffalo about 11:15 am. A slow but pretty 13.1 mile trip. The weather forecast had been for afternoon showers and thunderstorms starting about Noon, and right at Noon we saw the first black clouds passing to the north of us. I am writing this at about 8:30 pm, and the black clouds are still passing just to the north of us. Please excuse me for a minute while I go knock on some wood...
On our way to dinner we walked around some of the harbor side area to view the sights. There is a Naval Museum with a submarine, destroyer and a cruiser. They also had a number of land based exhibits like a submarine conning tower off a sister ship to the USS Buffalo, which is still in service.
We also saw this "classic" lighthouse in the outer harbor. Sorry, but it just sat there calling to me to take its picture.
We ate dinner at a large waterfront restaurant located at the end our marina. Here is a picture of me with the marina in the background. As we were eating dinner, we watched several sailboats leave the marina to join a growing fleet of sailboats in the outer harbor. Today is Wednesday so it probably was a mid week race that is part of a summer long series.
I will end today with a picture of the fleet during pre-start maneuvering. It was really a pretty sight.
As I said yesterday, the weather predictions for the next four (?) days are pretty good so we hope to leave early in the morning for Erie, PA, which is a trip of about 81.1 miles or about 10 hours.
No comments:
Post a Comment