Iuka, Mississppi

We anchored behind Diamond Island last night about 10 miles north of Pickwick dam. Oh so quite.  We could hear a tractor plowing a field in the distance but could not see him. We did see one fishing boat with a couple of locals and that was it for the evening.  The island had a nice beach on the West side and we took Maggie for a long walk and enjoyed the cool fall evening. This morning, Tuesday, we had to wait for the fog to lift before getting underway,  Finally about 0930 we were able to lift the anchor and get underway. Pickwick dam is a generating source for TVA and they were cranking it up today. That means there were letting a lot of water out to spin the turbines.  For us, we had to fight the 3 - 4 mph current.  For the 10 miles to the dam we were only able to go about three and a half mph.  That makes for a long 10 miles.  I decided to run the engine up to 1750 to see if the repairs I did last night would solve the air problem.  Robert Buzby sent me an email and said I had better fix it before something bad happened.  Fixing a problem on a boat is not always easy.  Especially on a trip like we are taking. First, marinas are not available.   Next, good mechanics are not easy to come by and since we are on the move it creates additional problems.  Well it happened, just like Robert said it would.  We had just exited Pickwick lock and we were on the fly bridge having lunch when the engine died. Denniese went to the lower helm where she can man the controls and talk to me at the same time and I jumped down into the engine compartment to bleed the fuel line.  After about three minutes, we had the old girl running again and went back to the fly bridge.  That's when we discovered it....  Maggie had finished off our lunch for us!!  She was happy but I was PO'ed.  We arrived at Aqua Marine about 1430.  A mechanic was waiting for us.  At $100.00 per hour you want one that works fast and does not talk much.  I think we got a good one but he didn't  do any work but said he would be back Wednesday afternoon.  In the meantime I will do some of the things he suggested. We will be here for a couple of days, doing the regular stuff before we start down the Tom-Bigbee.  Maybe we will resolve the fuel issue.  If not, at least we will have time to send out blogs and maybe some pictures.

 Mike and Denniese and Maggie Mae.