Welland Canal, Niagara Falls, Buffalo 07/07/2021

Wednesday  07/07/2021

Day Miles: 67

Total Miles:  6008

Travel Days:  117

Total Days:  252

This post is mainly about our experience trying to get our boat through the Welland Canal.  So with Canada's border still closed, we are unable to do our originally planned trip which was to do the Trent Severn to Georgian Bay to the North Canal to Mackinaw.   The Erie Canal will take you all the way to Buffalo, but only if you can get under a 15 foot fixed bridge.  No way that is happening for us.  We are 19 foot high on our best day.  The Welland Canal is the other option that connects Lake Erie to Lake Ontario.  Unfortunately the Canadians will not let you bring the boat through yourself so you are forced to hire a Captain and crew to do it.  We will be able to take Lake Erie to the Detroit River, to Lake St. Claire to St Claire river to Lake Huron to Mackinaw.  All in the US.  

SO - we contacted Captain #one about a month and half before we thought we would get to the Welland Canal.  He said that it should not be an issue and we just need to contact him 10-14 days beforehand.  We emailed him 16 days beforehand and he requested all of our boat information.  After a few days, he emailed back that the earliest he could get us through would be July 7th.  We agreed to that and planned on it.  A few day later he sent another email that he could get us through the week of July 11th, maybe.  Onto captain number 2.  He said he could take the boat through on July 7th.  Plan was to pick the boat up in Wilson and we would meet him in Buffalo.  He did not have a car so we would need to rent one.  Also because he may not get back to very late in the evening, we decided to get a hotel room.  After some thought we planned to get a room for the Tuesday and Wednesday night.  We needed a place to keep , the cat Lucy and we planned to visit Niagara Falls on Wednesday.  Two days before he was to pick up the boat he said that we would need to take his car to Buffalo so he had a way to get back to Wilson.  Change rental car plan and make new plan.  He was to meet us on Tuesday evening to go through the boat and he would sleep on the boat and leave Wednesday morning.  On Tuesday we get a call that he did not need us to take the car and that he would not be sleeping on the boat.  Change rental car and plan again.  

We tried to get an Uber or Lyft to take us to the airport to pickup up the rental car.  No Uber's or Lyfts in the area.  Nobody around at the Marina or Restaurant that we could pay to take us.  We called a Gold Looper who kept their boat at the marina.  They graciously offered to take us to the airport.  We pick up the rental car, went grocery shopping and then back to the boat.  We loaded up the cat, clothes and valuables and drove to the Buffalo Hotel.  I drove back to the boat so that I could meet the captain at 5:30 in the morning.  

It was pouring rain in the morning when the captain showed up and I quickly went through the boat with him.  Needless to say that it was a stressful few days as we were not happy to turn our boat over.  He left the dock around 5:30 in the morning.

After he left, I drove to the hotel and rested for a bit.   We went to Denny's for breakfast and then to Niagara Falls.  We occasionally got updates from the captain, but he did not get through the 1st lock until noon.  We did have a good day at Niagara Falls.  

After the  Falls, we went back to the hotel and were hoping for good news from the captain.  Said he was still in the locks and instead of a 7-9 O'clock arrival it would be later.  We decided to go to dinner.  I did have to try some wings since we were in Buffalo after all.  The wings were very good.

At 10 o'clock we got a call that he was about an hour to an hour and half outside of Buffalo but through the last lock.  At 10:30 I drove to the marina to meet him.  It was cold and raining when he arrived at 11:15 and I was in shorts and tee shirt.  The boat did arrive safely although it was very dirty.  He left and I slept on the boat at the fuel dock.  Think I got to sleep around 12:30 and was up at 6:00 to drive back to the hotel to pick up Marcia and Lucy.  Since we had to return the rental car close to the hotel, we decided to do that and Uber back to the boat.  Once back at the boat we loaded and left for Dunkirk, which was about 35 miles away.

Let's just say that I hope to have to never do that again.  If I do captain someone else's boat in the future I now know what to do and what not to do.  VERY stressful couple of days.  He ran the generator non stop for 17 hours and the engines for 13 hours.  All seems to be OK.  

Sorry for the long post, but not all the days are pretty pictures, drinks and food.   We are at Kelley's Island now so will get caught up on the last few days in the next post.