Grafton Harbor, 9-23 through 9-26

Grafton Marina is a pretty marina.  More than that, it floats. All of it. The docks, the two-story store/restaurant, the pool, and even the bathroom/shower building all float up and down with the water level.

We didn't much notice it when we first arrived. Looks like a regular marina with really tall pilings that hold the docks in place. They are well over 20 feet tall.  That's when we noticed that the buildings are at the same level as the docks and not up the hill on the parking level like Lake City. Convenient, but odd that they aren't inundated when it floods. Duh!... they must float too. And sure enough, they do.




Grafton Harbor from the fuel dock



There's good reason to float the marina. The Mississippi fluctuates greatly, for example, a few weeks ago, travel beyond Alton, IL (mile marker 202.9) was dangerous due to flooding on the Ohio and Missouri rivers which enter the Mississippi below St. Louis .  The floods increased river levels by 10 feet in places carrying trees and other debris along with the swift current.

Even last week, the high water covered much of the shore line in Grafton.  The brown grass that you see below was covered with river water.

Water covered this piece of land, no less than a week ago

The floods delayed many cruising boats heading down the river and the marinas were now filled with boats waiting for better conditions. Grafton was no exception. There were many cruisers here prepping their boat and passing time. Turns out, we were among them. 

One of the MUST stops on the rivers is Hoppie's Marina south of St Louis. Its' the last place to fuel up before a 225 mile stretch of rivers with no services.  Hoppe's is small, just some barges tied together so reservations are required. A phone call secured our reservation for Sunday.  So we will be hanging around Grafton Harbor for more than a few days.



Sea Fever nestled among some of the"looper" boats at Grafton Harbor... Sea Fever is the smallest one in the crowd.

 

Among the looper boats are some sailboats without masts. These boats came down the Illinois River from Chicago and had to take down their masts to clear bridges. So, a bunch of them got together and shipped their masts to Mobile, AL where they will put them back up again. As a result, they did not need to worry about bridge heights, nor did they have to travel with a mast on their deck.  The group-rate saved them quite a bit of money. Sure looks weird though.

We found out, the next day, that there is no Verizon phone service here.  No phone calls.  We can receive emails, mostly.    It is an isolating experience, to be sure.  Grafton Harbor does have a pretty good WiFi, so we can access websites, and our blog.

Wednesday was a pretty morning.  Kathy got off the boat to head up take a shower (when possible, we use the marina showers (with flip flops on) to conserve the water in the on the boat.) And low and behold, a boat was, at 7 AM struggling to come into the gas dock.  John, the boat captain, asked Kathy to help dock the boat... and she did!

The interesting thing about his boat, named Beluga, is that it had anchored in the Mississippi outside our St. Paul home for about 3 weeks this past spring.  Apparently, Lock and Dam #1 was closed because of flooding, and Beluga had no options.

John lives on the boat full time, and just plies the rivers. What a solitary existence.  But he seemed to be a happy person. We chatted for a while and he was off, heading up the Illinois.

There is a courtesy van here at Grafton.  You sign up to take it from Grafton to the Walmart about 16 miles away.  We signed up for a 3:30 time slot.  Kathy was hoping that she could touch friends with a telephone call, thinking that, perhaps, Walmart would have better Verizon service and a new vacuum cleaner. 

About 11 AM, we got the first knock on the cabin top. "Hello, are you heading to Walmart with the courtesy van?  If so, can we tag along?"

Sure.

The second knock came on the cabin top.

"Hey, are you heading to Walmart with the courtesy van?'

Several knocks later, we had amassed 10 folks on our grocery sojourn to Walmart.  We also stopped at Napa auto store for supplies.  And by the way, we did pick up  a hand vac, brandy and Lay's kettle potato chips! And actually, Walmart had pretty good selection of meats and fresh vegetables too.

Kathy hardly had time to put away the groceries, before someone again knocked on our cabin top.  The loopers were having an impromptu Dock-tail party up on the ship's store deck.  There were about 30 folks there with stories to tell, and cards to exchange.  We are sure that we will meet up with many of them somewhere down the river.

Thursday we went on an walk to "downtown" Grafton.  Ice Cream was the highlight.

Friday was just chores.  Oil changes, laundry.  Pretty mundane stuff. Walmart pork chops and broccoli for supper, here on the boat.  Yum.  And then, we heard the music.
Up on the deck, there was a trio playing country songs featuring an outstanding fiddle player and singing to the audience that wandered up.  It was pleasant. Turned out that the three were traveling on their boat and brought their instruments.

Saturday, we head to Alton, Il and the Alton Marina. 



Thank you for reading.