Entrance to harbor
These photos are of the Racine Harbor. I regret that I didn't take more while we were here because the town has a lot to offer.
The waterfront is beautiful with a 900 slip city owned marina with nice clean restrooms and showers plus floating docks. There is a 12 ramp fishing launch across the street from the marina. The downtown is only a block away and the library and farmer's market are within a few blocks along with museums, etc. There are condos all along the marina-some high rise, some 2-3 story. More are being built. The district of historic homes has beautiful houses of different styles of architecture close to the waterfront. Bus service out to the malls, etc.
While we were there, we had a chance to visit with Iras and John who are also Burnt Store Marina residents. They have a condo in the tall building in the picture. Iras invited me to go to her quilting guild meeting. Many members brought their projects to show and there was a speaker from Madison. All these inspired me again so I bought another book--hopefully this will help me become an expert quilter !
To update you on the engine problem--we did have model with the defective valve and were given a replacement engine, courtesy of Yanmar and thanks to the co-ordination of the folks at Racine Riverside Marina. The folks there, Marc the service manager and Mike the diesel mechanic were super and deserve many many stars for their service. They responded to our questions and returned our calls quickly. The old engine was removed the week after Labor Day (big job-800 pounds) and the new one put in the following week. We had the sea trial with Mike on the 22nd and had to wait for some additional parts he wanted to order. Seems the gauges for the temperature and oil pressure were'nt quite calibrated to this engine. Those came in on the 25th and Mike then gave us the heads up to go.
While this whole episode was upsetting because of the potential cost of replacing an engine and the delay or possible discontinuance of our trip, we feel pretty lucky in the end. First because it happened where it did--Riverside Marine was here in the area and second, because of when it happened--a month later and we would've been past the time for filing a claim for the problem. Plus, we got to go home for a while and see the kids and grandchildren-we babysat Annika who is a little jabbermouth, David the football star and Samantha who is growing up and like to spend time with her friends. And we had time to get the cabin ready for winter. What more can we ask for? Now on the way to Chicago--a beautiful day. Should be able to start down the river system tomorrow.
