8/14/17: We were eager to leave Buffalo, as even with our trip home, we still spent about 10 days at the marina. Before we could begin our Erie Canal adventure, we had to have our mast unstepped (taken down).
The Erie Canal has bridge clearances of only 15 feet, and our mast is 53 feet in the air. Not gonna’ fit. So we did as all sailboats do when they travel the Erie, take downthw mast and carry it on deck. There are several marinas at both ends of the canal that provide this service. We chose RCR Yachts in Buffalo based on other people’s recommendations. They were only 1/4 mile from Erie Basin Marina, so we got up first thing Monday morning and motored over there.
Taking down a mast of this size requires a crane and some careful execution. There are 11 steel cables holding our mast in place, each of which must be completely unfastened from the deck. There are also several cables and wires that run through the mast which must be disconnected at the base after it’s been lifted about 6 inches or so. But everything went without a hitch, and our mast was laying horizontal on a couple of sawhorses within an hour. The marina then carefully wrapped all the cables together against the mast and constructed 2 support cradles to put it on deck. Then the mast was lifted using their boat lift and lowered on to the cradles and subsequently tied down to several points on the boat. At 2PM, we were no longer a sailboat!
Because it was a little late in the day, we decided to motor down to Tonawanda, which is the western entrance to the Erie Canal. As we were ready to pull away from the marina, a sand barge we being tugged down the channel in front of the marina. About a half hour later, it passed, and we were ready to depart. We motored down the Black Rock Canal, which is part of the Niagara River, but has one lock to get boats around a set of pretty powerful rapids. We made to Tonawanda at about 5:30PM. After we tied up, we had dinner with Peter and Kathy, a couple we met at Erie Basin Marina who were also travelling the Erie on their way to Florida. After we got back to the boat from dinner, Phyllis and Bob pulled in, who had their mast unstepped at RCR right after us.
It was a long day and we were happy to hit the hay. We will be heading to Middleport, NY, in the morning, about 30 miles down the canal.
Pics of Tonawanda
