First Night Trip
21 August 2008 | Erie, PA to Buffalo, NY to Tonawanda NY 1:30AM
E. Winds 5-10knots; Temp: Low 50s; High Pressure System; � moon very bright though
Oh my gosh! At 1:30 am my phone started playing loud rap music! That was quite an alarm... I probably woke up the sailboat next to us. I definitely need to figure out how to change the volume for the alarm clock - it works quite well LOL!!!
2:15 am with coffee in hand, the anchor came up, and we were navigating in the dark staying between the red and green buoys out of the lagoon. Then into the harbor, find the buoys again, check the charts and out of the harbor, into Lake Erie once more. This is our first night sail and I was on pins and needles all the way out. At 3:50am I plotted our position at 42o11.30 x 80o01.8 and from there we headed 51o to Buffalo. We both stayed up top for a bit, then Wayne took the helm and I went below for a little over an hour before Wayne called me up for sunrise. The horizon started to glow faintly, then turn red for about a half hour before sunrise (6:35am). Sunset today is at 8:35pm which gives us plenty of time to get across the lake and into Buffalo.
It was really difficult to sleep but we both tried catnaps all morning before giving up. I'm sure we look like the living dead. We went under the Peace Bridge that connects Buffalo to Ontario with a vertical clearance of 83 ft.