Day 15: Tonawanda to Buffalo

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August 24, 2021: We leave the Erie Canal behind us and have a brief Niagara River adventure.

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We had already decided to get a later-than-usual start the next morning — both Capt Paul and I wanted to visit West Marine at a marina north of Buffalo — but that didn’t stop me from waking up early, as usual. I was at my laptop working on my Day 11 blog post and waiting for a local coffee shop to open when Capt Paul woke up.

We went to breakfast together, walking to a place called SPoT Coffee on Webster Street. The place had a friendly staff, good food and coffee, and an interesting decor. I could easily imagine it as a place to while away the hours among strangers, reading a book or writing on my laptop. It was a real pleasure to slow down and enjoy the morning before rushing off to our next destination.

First Stop: West Marine

Back at the boat, Dianne was awake and dressed. We prepared to go and headed out to the west with Capt Paul at the helm and me in the watch seat.

In less than half a mile, the Tonawanda Creek/Erie Canal dumped us into the Niagara River, right at Tonawanda Island. A boater back in Medina had warned us that the current was very strong, but we didn’t experience that — at least not right away. We turned south and headed upriver, against the current. Nano didn’t bat an eye.

After crusing along a narrow canal for days, the Niagara River was wide, with a noticable current.

Our first destination, West Marine, was tucked in off the road at Harbour Place Marina. We made calls to see if parking there was okay and where we should park when we arrived. We were directed to a fuel dock that was no longer used. Capt Paul eased us in and we tied up.

Paul and I went into West Marine; Dianne, who has no desire to own a boat, stayed behind in Nano. It was a short walk across a parking lot.

If you don’t know West Marine and are a boater, you should get to know it. It’s basically the go-to shop for just about all things related to boating, from lines and hardware to flotation devices and electronic navigation equipment. They have stores all over the country — usually where there’s water, of course — and also do mail order from their Website.

This wasn’t the biggest West Marine I’d been to, but it did have a good selection of boating stuff. I browsed while Capt Paul shopped. He needed several specific things; I didn’t really need anything. I did, however, remember that we were looking for a certain kind of chemical for Nano’s toilet and I found it before we left.

Why There’s a Lock on the Niagara River

Back on Nano, we cast off and, at first, I thought I might ride for a while on the bow. Since discovering what a great back rest one of those big round fenders made, I really liked sitting up there in the cool air. Dianne took the watch seat. But after a few minutes up there, I realized that the sun was just too strong and I climbed back into the cabin. I put away my life vest and sat at the table with my iPad to catch up on Twitter.

A while later, the boat was doing some serious bouncing around, which I hadn’t expected. I called up Aqua Map on my iPad to see where we were. I was kind of surprised to see that we were in the main channel of the Niagara River. I’d expected us to be heading into the Black Rock Canal, on the east side of the river. I looked outside and saw rough, fast flowing water all around us. The Niagara River.

I went up front to ask Capt Paul why he’d chosen to take the river instead of the canal. He looked at me blankly. After a moment, he told me he hadn’t intended that at all. They had apparently missed the turn into the canal, which came up quickly after we left Harbor Place Marina.

At this point, Capt Paul didn’t think it was worth turning around to get back to the canal entrance. So we continued on our way in the River’s Main channel.

Now let me take a moment to explain why the Black Rock Channel and Lock exist — which I didn’t understand until I Googled them to find more information.

Over the course of roughly 3 1/2 miles, the Niagara River drops approximately 8 feet in elevation, resulting in a stretch of very rapidly moving water. These rapids are deep so they are navigable — as we proved that day — but they are very fast and not easily handled by small boats. So way back in the 1930s, when they were building the original Erie Canal, they built the Black Rock Channel from Buffalo Harbor to the north, past the fast running part of the Niagara River. To gently lower boats down to the river’s elevation after the rapids, they built a lock. Of course, all of this has been improved since 1833 and is currently maintained by the Army Corps of Engineers.

Not really knowing all of this, I watched as we continued motoring up the Niagara River, struggling against an ever-growing current. It reached its worst right around the Peace Bridge, which has heavy concrete and stone piers holding it above the river. At more than a few points, I saw our GPS-calculated speed over ground drop to just 2 knots; we normally cruise at 10 to 12 knots. As we got closer and closer to the bridge, I couldn’t help but notice the way the water rushed around those piers, leaving a gaping eddy hole at least 10 feet deep. I’m no white water expert, but I knew damn well what would happen to anything that drifted into one of those holes.

Then we were past it, struggling southbound. The current lessened and Nano picked up speed. The iffy part — I hesitate to use the word danger — was past us.

Getting to the Marina

Now we needed to navigate to the mouth of Buffalo Harbor. This wasn’t easy because the Black Rock Channel was still beside us, held in place by what I’d like to call a “leaky levee” — basically a wall of stones where the water is allowed to cascade over. The channel was at a higher level than we were but we were slowly reaching the same elevation; the channel stayed flat while we climbed upstream. We couldn’t just enter the canal and follow that to the harbor entrance. Instead, we had to pick our away through an area of deep and shallow water and around numerous jetties. The marina we wanted — Erie Basin Marina –was actually just ouside Buffalo Harbor.

We finally crossed the mouth of Black Rock Channel, passed a lighthouse, and slipped into the marina’s entrance. We fueled up, went to our assigned slip at the marina, and tied up.

I was very glad to be out of that river.

Here’s Nebo’s log for Day 15 of our trip. You can follow us on the Nebo boating app. Just look for Nano Paul G.

At Erie Basin Marina

We went out in search of a meal a while later. It wasn’t easy. The only close place open on a Tuesday was the Marina Market that had one 5-star review. After stepping inside, I know it was the owner who wrote that review. It was a little convenience store that seemed to specialize in beverages. I would have to be pretty hungry to eat anything prepared at its “deli” counter.

I was terribly thirsty and wanted to get a few non-water beverages into the cooler, so I stocked up. In hindsight, this was kind of dumb since I then had to carry it as we traipsed about, looking for a restaurant.

We wandered over to the Buffalo Naval Park (also closed on Tuesdays) had two retired Navy ships and a submarine on display. The restaurant there was closed, too. (The Tuesday curse?)

Ships parked at the Buffalo Naval Park near the entrance to Buffalo Harbor.

We started Googling with a vengeance and found the relatively nearby Pearl Street Grill & Brewery. After a half-mile farther walk that took us under a freeway and past a construction site, we found it.

We had a good lunch. I hydrated. We had leftovers to take back.

We took a shorter route on the way back. I spent the afternoon finishing up that Day 11 blog post. I may have napped, too; I can’t remember.

Late in the afternoon, the park that separated the marina from Lake Erie filled up with spectators there to see the sun set. There were a lot of people. After that show, I went to take a good, hot shower.

It was getting dark when I got back to the boat and most of the sunset watchers had left. I was struck by the way the Buffalo City Skyline was spread out beyond what turned out to be a pretty busy marina.

It was cool outside in the cockpit, so I spent some time out there before turning in. That’s when I saw the moonrise and stepped onto the dock to get a shot of that.

It was much later when I finally went to bed.