Arriving in Buffalo began our anxiety about the possibility of making a wrong turn and then going over Niagara Falls in our 30 foot sailboat. Thank goodness for the absolutely delightful, generous, and kind people we met while at H dock at the Erie Basin Marina. We had hoped to stay at the Buffalo Yacht Club only to discover that they had a Regatta occurring and there was no room for us. Initially, we were disappointed because our last two “public” marinas left much to be desired. We were hoping for a great place to stay and much to our delight the Erie Basin Marina was just that.

We were greeted by Paul with helping hands for lines upon arrival. He shared a great place to dine and directions. We enjoyed a microbrewery called Pearl Street Grill- a multi-floored bar with terraces overlooking Buffalo. We found out that there were no nearby grocery stores; however, Bill, a boater who heard us talking about walking 3 miles to buy groceries while we had breakfast at the Hatch (a very informal restaurant that looks over Lake Erie) - offered to take us to a grocery store and wait to give us a ride back to the boat. We couldn’t pass up such a generous offer.

We wanted to repaid some of the kindnesses offered to us by these fellow boaters so we shared one of our few bottles of 2005 Bordeaux and some of the treats we bought in Buffalo. We were invited by Teresa and Paul to cocktails on the dock that evening. It was wonderful to feel a part of their community. The weather picked up and so we were planning to leave on Sunday to go to Tonawanda to have our mast taken down but due to thunderstorms and 25+ knot winds we decided to wait until Monday. On Monday morning, the wind made it a challenge to leave our dock by the wall . We moved the boat back using lines to a point where we could pull out - Bob and Jo (who will be in Hope Town, Bahamas in March) helped us out. We left Buffalo - loving it because of the opportunity to be with such kind generous people, relax after our trials at Erie and Dunkirk, and our new friends encouraging words of advice about traveling to the Erie Canal.