We woke up to overcast skies again, but in the mid-50s. The run to Midway Marina is less than 60
miles so we took our time and walked around the Aqua Yacht marina grounds. There is a pool, tennis courts, stacked boat
storage and a small ship’s store. Some of the dock set-ups here are amazing! See the gourmet kitchen below - this is what we need at Diversey Harbor for our Sunday breakfasts. At
9:45 am we left the dock, being careful not to run over trout lines that were
marked with colorful buoys.
The Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway (the Tenn-Tom) is divided
into 3 sections and we would complete the first, the “Divide Cut” today (39.3
miles). This section is a fairly narrow and
straight canal that we entered as we left the marina. On the shore was a small group of “land boats”
(RVs) enjoying the beauty of the water and trees. The sun was peeking out now, bringing out the
colors that are deepening with every day.
We passed a refurbished commercial fishing boat, Passage, a boat we would run into again. We did not see our first barge until 11. There are many more pleasure and small
fishing boats on this river. There were
few homes that were visible from the water.
The river widened about 7 miles from the Jamie Whitten Lock
and Dam and we enjoyed the peaceful scenery all the way to the lock. We pulled up at 12:15 pm only to learn that
the lock was closed for repairs (how do you break a lock?) and would remain
closed for another 2-3 hours. We saw our
friends from Clifton, Sweet Dreams,
tied up on the lock wall. Rather than
anchor while we waited for the lock to be repaired, we meandered down a
secondary channel to check out Bay Springs Marina. There was no restaurant so we did not dock,
but went back and drifted near the lock to wait it out. After making lunch and checking email, the
lockmaster announced that the lock would reopen shortly. By this time there were 7 boats that had
gathered to lock through: Sweet Dreams,
Passage (who had caught up due to the wait), Champs 3, Humbug, Hipnautic, Passage and us. We entered at 2:37 pm, floated down 83 feet,
and exited at 3:07 pm. This was one of the
largest drops or lifts that we have done in a lock.
At this point, we were in the central section of the TTBW, a
45 mile lateral canal from the Whitten Lock to the Amory Lock and Dam (which we
will hit on Wednesday). The last part of
the Tenn-Tom is 168 miles from there to Demopolis, AL, where it joins with the Black
Warrior waterway to Mobile, AL.
Most of the group was planning to stop at Midway for the
night, so we stayed together through the next 2 locks. Six of us made it together to the GV Sonny
Montgomery Lock by 3:39 pm but waited for the lone sailboat to catch up before
the lock doors closed (20 minutes). It
was 4:12 pm when we exited and there was concern about getting to Midway Marina
in Fulton, MS before dark. There was one
more lock and about 15 miles to go. The
Kristin Says could make pretty easily as long as the lock cooperated, but the rest
of the group was travelling slower.
There would not be time to lock us through, prepare the chamber again, and
then lock the rest of the group through before sunset. So we stayed together at a slower speed. One piece of good luck was that the slowest
boat, the sailboat Hipnautic, was
going to anchor north of the last lock so we did not have to wait for it.
As we got close to the town of Fulton (population 3,900),
just past the Montgomery Lock, we passed Murphree’s Waterfront Campgrounds,
then a spatter of homes on shore. The Scott Paper Mill was a huge operation and probably the destination of all those logging trucks we saw yesterday! The
John Rankin Lock was ready for us when we arrived at 5 pm and we left at 5:28
pm. Midway Marina was 3.5 miles away and
sunset was at 6:03 pm. Midway was ready
for us and brought us in one by one at 6 pm.
Whew, that was close!
We checked in, had dinner on board and worked on our
pictures and blog because we finally had good internet service – hooray!
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