Well we arrived today at Lee Spry Marine in iuka Mississippi which is on the boarder of Tennessee and Mississippi.We are here to get our bottom painted and some mechanical work done for the next week.
Since we were able to get here a day early we will just hang out at the dock and see what's in the area. They won't start work on our boat until Monday morning.
This is the view out the back of the boat here at the dock.
There is an 86 foot yacht here getting painted and the windows tinted.
With three engines I cant imagine the fuel bill...
You can see the scale of the boat with Viv standing on the side.
They have a 100 ton lift which makes easy work of our 35 ton boat.
We are going sight seeing in the dingy to check out the neighborhood..
Large pipes of been constructed and placed on this barge for transport.
We took a dinghy ride over to aqua harbor marina to look at all the boats.
Aqua harbor is located at the very top of the Tennessee Tombigbee River where it goes into the Tennessee River.
It's Monday morning and they are pulling QC out of the water for our work to be done.
Since we will be out of the water for the week we rented a condo at Grand Harbor...really ruffing it!
We have rented a car and decided to drive to Shiloh today to check out the town and go on to the Civil War battlefield area.
This little hole in the wall restaurant is the home of the world-famous smash burger which is essentially a pork tenderloin beat up with a hammer fried and put on a hamburger bun.
This is a large turbine that is on display at the Pickwick dam which is a hydroelectric facility.
We will tour the Shiloh National Battlefield Cemetery this is a diorama at the Tennessee River Museum.
Right next to the Shiloh battlefield is the famous catfish hotel. A great place to sample local catfish.
Next we drove to the Shiloh National Battlefield Cemetery a very sobering place when you realize the blood and sacrifice that took place during the revolutionary battles.
Today we went and picked up our props for the boat that had been reworked at Pedens Prop Shop.
Here you can see the newly painted bottom almost ready to go back in the water.
A week later and a few thousand dollars we are back in the water headed upstream towards Joe wheeler state park.
Another example of a turbine on display.
Our next lock to traverse is Wilson lock and dam. Wilson is the highest lift damn we will go through on our trip at 92 110 feet depending on the river stage.
There are two locks at Wilson and this one the smaller of the two locks you upstream in two separate stages.
We were directed to go through the larger of the two locks which is a single stage left.
The huge doors are intimidating.
These Bollard's can be a struggle since they don't have horizontal stops to prevent the rope from slipping off the top.
Lots of water fills the lock to raise us up to the next pool level.
Also unique with this lock system is the upstream gate which rises from beneath the river to block the water from coming into the lock.
Now we're on the upstream side and have a view of the Hydro electric portion of the dam.
Lots of beautiful homes or the river.
Worlds best First mate..
Joe wheeler lock.
With another beautiful sunset a long day ends and were excited to start out tomorrow for Joe wheeler State Park.
