5/20 Well, here we go! It's been a long winter of maintenance. Sanding, grinding, painting, varnishing ... whew! A couple weeks was spent in the paint shed...
After lots of painting, including the bottom, it was back to the slip ...
On January 16, part of the Demopolis Lock concrete gave way, causing a total shut down of the Lock. There's much traffic that leaves the Tennessee River heading for the Gulf of Mexico, and vice versa, plus all the smaller boat traffic. Obviously, this causes much heart-burn for all concerned. Early in the repair process, the Corps really had no idea of how long the repairs would take. After a while, a guess was made for 5/30/24. If this were the case, Lady Chateau would have to go through New Orleans and up the Lower Mississippi to get to Cairo and home. It's much longer, much slower, and there's few places to stop. In all, not our preferred choice! Here's how it looked on Day 1 of the failure...
The Corps of Engineers had to remove the damaged concrete, haul it out, place underwater forms,
pour concrete, and replace doors. All of this isn't easy and quick, and it understandable why guessing a re-opening date is tough, but the contractors did a great job and the Corps did a great job and things finished earlier than expected. So, off we go on 5/20!
