10/28/18 Sunday: Our neighbor boat Justified was planning to start down the Tenn-Tom today, so we decided last night that a 7:00 am departure made sense. (Ugh! That darn alarm clock again!). Sunrise is at 7:00, and we have 3 locks and 58 miles to travel today. We all decided that it is best to start as early as possible, because you just never know what challenges the locks will throw into the day.
The “Tenn-Tom” is the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway, which was completed in 1984 at a total cost of nearly $2 billion. It is a 234-mile man-made waterway that extends from the Tennessee River at the north end, to the junction of the Black Warrior-Tombigbee River system near Demopolis Alabama at the south end. The waterway has ten locks, with a total change in elevation of 341 feet.
We were pretty much up and going out of the marina before the sun came over the hills. There was just a bit of fog on the water, and a tiny breeze. It was going to be a nice day!
Soon we were in a man-made canal section of the waterway, with dikes on the sides.
There were these elaborate spillways to prevent severe erosion. They looked pretty interesting, and I’ll bet they look cool when water is flowing down over them.
We saw some beautiful fall colors!
When we arrived at the first lock, we did not get right in. We had to tread water for awhile, and there were a few other boats that arrived to lock through when we finally got to go in. There was a lot of big equipment at the upstream end of this Whitten lock. It is the tallest on this waterway, it raises and lowers vessels about 84 feet, and it is the fourth-highest single lift lock in the United States.
There was a message posted on the AGLCA forum about this particular lock that recommended securing to one side over the other because of getting wet along the lock wall while tied off to the bollards. We weren’t sure what that was all about, but we found out! And trust me, you’ll get wet on either side! Inside the lock walls, at about 50-60 feet down, there are doors that look like the door on a safe. And they leak! There was no escaping the shower. You can see the water pouring out of the far one here.
I tried to get a shot of the doors right above me without getting too wet. It’s hard to see all the water spraying out of them from this angle. Kenny was back in the cockpit, and said that Stuart was turning into an inflatable swimming pool.
Our friend Bert in his go-fast boat was on the opposite wall, and I could see that he was getting water in his boat.
Well THAT was an adventure that we have not experienced in over 100 locks! Maybe that pile of equipment at the upstream end is for a project to fix the leaks? Just look at how tall these walls are!
It was only about 5 miles to the next lock. We got right into it without waiting. Bert had zoomed ahead, and was already in and waiting for us. The Montgomery Lock lowered us about 30 feet. And no complimentary shower at this one.
Look at the weather we were having!! It was a beautiful day, and we even had to switch to short sleeves!
It was just another 9 miles to the Rankin lock, next on our journey. We had to wait at this one. There was a tow approaching the lock from downstream, so we had to wait for it to arrive, load into the lock, secure, lift, unsecure, and unload. So we floated around for an hour or so. While we were floating, Mechanic/Electrical Engineer Kenny worked on the bow thruster. I forgot to mention to you that it went a little bonkers after the big rain we had a couple nights ago. Well – only the controller on the upper helm went bonkers. The lower helm one worked fine, so he knew it was something in the controller switch. There are two components to using the bow thruster. One is a power switch, and the other is the actual little joystick controller. As soon as he turned on the power switch to provide power to the system, it immediately engaged and pushed the bow to the starboard side. THAT was not expected! The only way to disengage was to turn the power off. It seemed that the joystick was stuck. He has not been using it for the last few days, and it is really a good thing that he knows how to drive Island Girl without it. He actually only uses the bow thruster when we’re in a tight spot or for an extra little bump here and there, which is helpful when the wind blows us off the wall or dock when I’m trying to lasso something. Anyway, he got out his screw gun and tools, and took the controller unit out of the dash and took it apart. It was full of water! He dried it out, tested it, and it worked properly! YAY! He put a tiny little hole in the bottom of the controller box unit so that if water gets in again it will be able to drain out. Engineer got it all put back together which made the Captain happy, and we waited a little longer for the lock.
We heard the lock blow the ‘all clear’ horn, then saw the tow as it started its way out. It is a little hard to see, but this picture shows just how tight the tow and the lock fit each other! That barge is just barely squeezing through along the walls.
The sun was now getting lower in the western sky, so looking to the east along the waterway, the trees were really filled with golden fall colors. And there were more and more trees growing in the water. Cypress maybe?
There were a thousand wood ducks meandering across the river. The flock stretched all the way from one bank to the other, so we could not go around them. So we just stayed on course and went right through the middle of them. They finally figured out our course and started skeedaddeling out of the way.
Finally at about 5:00, we reached the Midway marina. It was a 10 hour day to go 56 miles and 3 locks. And we averaged nearly 9 mph when moving. So waiting for and transiting the three locks took about four hours. It’s really a good thing we left at 7:00! We pulled into Midway Marina following the little local green and red markers. I’m glad they had markers because there was quite a stump forest on the north side as we were approaching, but the marked channel was good. We first pulled up to the fuel dock and took on a couple hundred gallons at $2.99/gal. Probably the best prices on the Tenn-Tom. Then we just walked Island Girl back on the dock to the spot where we would sleep tonight. There didn’t appear to be much here, and it was dark before we knew it. Sunset is at 6:00, so we only have 11 hours of daylight right now. And…Oh man!…. Daylight Savings Time ends in a week! That’s going to put sunset really early for us, and we’re going to have to hop out earlier to get the most daylight. Ugh!
We saw several familiar looper boats, but we didn’t visit with many folks since it got dark so quickly after we finally got tied off. I figure we’ll set the alarm for 6:30, and keep our ears peeled for activity in the morning. The next lock is within a stones throw, so we’ll surely get a good idea on timing first thing in the morning. And by the way, we are officially in another state now – Mississippi! That makes our 18th and probably final new state on this journey. Our future travels will take us through Alabama and Florida, which we’ve already been in.