Erik awoke dark and early at 3:45 am. There were lights from the lock that we anchored next to as well as some movement of the boat from a barge being loaded into the chamber from up river. Since he was up, and was too tired to try his hand at fishing last night, he baited up a hook and threw in a line. No luck on any big catches but he did donate a couple of shrimp to the cause.
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| morning light before the fog set in |
Renee and Riva came up from the bedroom at about 6am and Erik brought Riva ashore to do her morning routine. It was a wet morning from the dew and a fairly dense fog had set in.
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fog just starting to set in
if you look closely at this pic you can see Happy Destiny in the back on the other bank of the river |
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| Happy Destiny at her anchorage |
Nonetheless, we wanted to get an early start toward Havana in order to hopefully make it before the farmers market closes at noon. We set off from our anchorage at 7am and pushed our way through the fog. Fortunately, Happy Destiny has radar which allows us to see everything on the river. It works well in locating everything from the shorelines to other vessels and even the channel marker buoys. A very nice upgrade from what we didn't have aboard Aquaholic.
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Love watching the varying birds
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We scooted along quickly again today and arrived in Havana at Tall Timbers Marina at a few minutes after 10am. The owner, Bob, greeted us and helped us into our slip. Without wasting too much time we unloaded the bikes and headed out into town to find the farmers market. "Farmers Market" was likely a bit of a poor description for what we found. Unfortunately, it was VERY small and only had 3-4 vendors with hardly any produce. We did purchase a bandana for Riva and a dozen small ears of sweet corn. Sweet corn was our primary objective so although the market was a slight disappointment we will consider it a win since we now had corn to cook with dinner. We continued our ride through and out of the small town for a bit and went to the local grocery where we stocked up on provisions; we had been getting low on food. Back at the boat we ate a bite for lunch and we were both exhausted so we sat in our recliners and napped for an hour or so. Rested and refreshed we ventured out again to check out the town a little closer. Havana is a cute little town. The main street has some neat building and a few cute shops that we went into.
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| Main St Havana |
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| Nice mural on the wall of this interesting water tower |
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It turns out the water tower is still functioning and serving the community
built in 1882
They just don't make things like they used to
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We wandered around the marina for a bit talking with some of its members. There are four other Marinettes who call this marina their home ranging from 1966 models up to 1989 models of varying sizes and layouts. Neat to see that many of our favorite boats in one place. We enjoyed a dinner of grilled pork chops and fresh corn on the cob on the aft deck. Our slip in the marina was nice because there was ample late afternoon/early evening shade provided by a stand of trees just off our side.
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| Yummy fresh sweet corn |
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A fellow Marinette owner walked up to us as dinner and provided us with four garden grown cucumbers to add to our selection of veges
Cheaper than the market this way :-) |
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| A selection of fellow Marinettes in the marina |
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| oldest one was this 1966 32 foot express cruiser |
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| this one had an impressive custom, large swim platform on the back |
After dinner we walked the docks and hung outside of the restaurant for a while conversing with members of the marina about boats and pointers on where to go on the Illinois River. One gentleman in particular was very knowledgeable on all the route all the way up to Chicago and he provided several great suggestions. The remainder of the night was spent on trip planning, talking to Derek about our upcoming rendezvous in Joliet, and catching up on the blog before heading off to the awaiting pillows.
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