Against the Wind, we’re older now but still runnin’ . . . 9/28-29

Thursday was a pretty nice day except for the wind in our face, the cold weather, and the continual rain. After motorsailing for nine hours right into it, we bid farewell to Lake Erie and greeted Buffalo, N.Y.
I can’t tell you much about Buffalo; we didn’t stay long, but the people were friendly and the neighborhood we docked in seems to be far into decay. Demolishing crumbling buildings must be a big issue and that neighborhood was largely deserted, by humans at least. Sam and I went out for a walk after dinner and we surprised a herd of 12-15 white tail deer. They stampeded away from us bu when a truck left the marina, they stampeded back toward us.
On Friday we made it down the Black Rock Canal, stopped car traffic on two bridges when the bridge operators let us through; I’m sure the motorists were happy to wait for a passing sailboat. We’re so darn picturesque! Then we passed through our first lock. I’m extremely grateful the taxpayers are supporting all these bridges and locks or we’d never get to the Bahamas.
About 4:00 PM the mast came down (in a controlled way). Marina owner, Mr. Wardell ran the crane; Sam and I did all the work, then we paid him $250 for running his crane (which smoked all the time and stalled frequently). Nevertheless we sleep on the Erie Canal tonight and Mary Ann and Annie join us tomorrow for the real start of the trip.