August 26,2012

We left Dover Mon. morning for Port Colborne.  We arrived late afternoon & had our mothers & family come visit in the evening.  Called RCR Yachts in Buffalo Tues. morning & could not get the mast taken down until Thurs. morning so decided to stay an extra day in Port Colborne. Spent the afternoon taking sails down & storing them & doing other prep work prior to the mast coming down.  In evening our friends visited us.  

We arrived in Buffalo Wed. & cleared customs via video-phone before going to RCR Yachts.  Then Thurs. morning they took down our mast.  It took all morning to wrap it & mount it on the deck of our boat.  We left from there & went down the Black Rock Canal & did our first lock & on down the Niagara River to Tonawanda.  

Fri. morning we started east down the Erie Barge Canal.  The canal has very flat, calm water & the scenery is constantly changing from urban to farm land to forest & back.  Sections of it made us feel like we were on ‘The African Queen’.  Even the weather has been hot & humid.  We ended our day in Medina, New York, walking around a car show in the evening.  

People had told us about a park in Holley, that was worth seeing.  So we stopped there on Sat. & went for a walk & saw a lovely waterfalls & had a picnic lunch.  We ended our day in Spencerport.  The bridgemasters & lockmasters have been very patient, helpful & friendly.  

We stopped in Pittsford & had lunch at a place that had WiFi, before continuing on to Palmyra for the night.  Palmyra is the first place we have had easy access to the internet.   It has been a struggle since we left Port Elgin.