If you've ever navigated on the Erie Canal...

We are in a public library in the lovely and quaint town of Middleport, NY. Adorable! We sailed in beautifully on a West wind which pushed us from our last Lake Erie port of call to Buffalo. There was a navigational jigsaw puzzle to go through in the Harbor there, but then we entered Black Rock River Canal. Downriver just a small bit from the entrance to the canal we were hit with the triple threat: a lift bridge, a swing bridge and the Black Rock Lock. Hooboy, were we lucky that somebody was right in front of us leading the way. We have been having trouble with the radio, and never know if we are actually communicating with bridge operators or lockmasters, so we just followed the other guy and the things magically happened. Spent the night tied up at Wardell's in Tonawonda (the only place to step your mast). Mast down this morning and a delicious, lazy motor up to Middleport. HOT! I regret the brevity of the posts, but when I get more time I will expand upon the end of the Lake Erie adventure, meeting the wonderful Gene Iannucci who was kind enough to let us use his slip in Geneva, the outstanding entertainment at Geneva-on-the-Lake and the many other stories. At any rate, we are out of the grasp of the Great Lakes squalls and into some real easy going. Sarah will join us August 5th and we will all be going to meet up with Wayne's sisters in upstate NY. Thanks for your comments, we appreciate them. Ciao for now.