Havana to Grafton via Beardstown

The first photo is our group enjoying the leftover dinner at Tall Timbers Marina at Havana. The second photo shows our boats tied to the barges at Beardstown. The third photo shows some of the debris that came down the river from the tug which pulled out from up stream of us.

We enjoyed the Tall Timbers Marina at Havana. It was small but the facilities were nice. We enjoyed a left overs dinner with the other four boats for dinner. It was called left overs but I think nearly everyone made their dish just for dinner. We left the next morning intending to tie to a free barge at Beardstown. When we got there the barge was surrounded by driftwood and debries and was too small for all us anyway so we tied to the barges at Logdston's Towing Service. We were tied to a barge load of corn and had to walk the edge of the barges to get to a fixed barge which has a stairway up and over the levee. This was a challenge for Muriel since she does not like heights but she made it up and over several times. We did get to tour a tug which was also tied up at the barges. We enjoyed visiting with the Captain and viewing his engines and the helm. He steers with two levers, one for the rudders ahead of the props and the other for the rudders behind the props.

The river was filled with floating logs and debris which got trapped in front of the boats. When the tug had to move to go help another tow sort barges the debris he released all came down stream on to our boats. We had to get out with boats hooks and work it away from our boats so that it would not put excessive presssure on our lines and the fine debris would get into our raw water intakes for the generators.

We left in the morning intending to tie up at the wall in Hardin at a restaurant but after talking with son Jeff about the forecast for Ike to arrive in the St Louis area on Saturday night we decided to run on to Grafton and get into the marina before the storm arrived. This was a good decision. We got heavey rains over night and some strong winds. The marina is nice, everything is new and the price is reasonable. The town is very small, about 650 population, but we have enjoyed walking around town. We got a great hamburger yesterday and the marina has a courtesy car which we took to Jerseyville yesterday to go to the store. I expect we will stay here until the river peaks and begins to fall. This is expected to be the end of this week.