Tenn-Tom River Section

Our plans changed and we never did go to the marina at Columbus, Miss. as I mentioned last time. After we left the Midway Marina we went through three more locks in one day: Fulton, Wilkins and Amory. This is the scene while waiting 1 1/2 hrs to go through the Amory Lock; it was down due to maintenance. It didn't do those big guys any good roaring off ahead of us; they just had to wait a couple of hours longer than we did. Although on a sunny 76 degree day it wasn't much of a hardship! Some people anchor and some just float around. The sailboat on the left is a 38' Cabo Rico whose home port is in Tenn. It was being delivered by 4 sailors for the owner who will meet up with it in Florida. We were interested in watching it go under the fixed bridges which were around 52 ft. They didn't make it by much but our mast wouldn't have cleared them at all, which is why it's still laying horizontally on our deck! About 5 miles past the Amory Lock is where the 149-mile River Section of the Tenn-Tom begins.

Factoid - The Tenn-Tom is the largest project ever undertaken by the US Corps of Engineers. 307 million cubic yards of earth were moved, more than the Panama Canal project.

We anchored that night at Blue Bluff. These recreation areas make great anchorages for boaters with a dog as there are small docks and even clean restrooms with flush toliets if you're really lucky! It was a great anchorage but I'm a little sorry we didn't go to the marina at Aberdeen. Evidently there are Antebellum homes to tour in Aberdeen which would have been interesting. Paul says, "next time!" We were heading for the Aberdeen Lock by 8am the next day (early for us) as we heard on the radio the boats who stayed at the marina were heading for the lock. We got there about 30 min ahead of them and had to wait for the big guys. That night we anchored near the Bevell Lock and Dam near Columbus. We had planned to tour the snagboat Montgomery but since it was a weekend, it was closed for "winter hours" - sure doesn't feel like winter! Anyway, we did look around the Montgomery, read the placards and looked in the windows of the visitors center - another place to visit "next time!"




The US Snagboat Montgomery was the last steam powered sternwheeler to ply the inland waterways of the South. The snagboats removed trees, sunken logs and other debris that might obstruct river traffic. She was built in 1926 and retired in 1982. The boat is now dry-docked to preserve it.

Saturday night we stayed at a tiny marina near Pickensville, Alabama. (We crossed into Alabama mid-day on Friday.) Paul says the marinas are getting "seedier" as we move south. They sure do need some TLC and maintenance and some of the showers make you long for home! Ginger and I did make some new friends doing laundry there though. The girls and little Roscoe the wiener dog were visiting one of their grandparents on a houseboat.

We're getting up an hour or so earlier now with the end of daylight savings time. We'll need to get earlier starts as it'll be dark around 5:30pm. We went through the Bevell Lock and headed for the next one. We were excited to find we could get updates on the Packers-Chiefs game on an XM sports station; usually we just call Alison for updates. While we dropped the 32ft in the Hefflin Lock we lost the signal at a critical time. By the time we anchored just off the river past the lock, victory was assured and all was well - wheww!

The next pictures are of the white cliffs at Epes, Alabama nearing Demopolis. (another seedy marina!) The Black Warrior enters the Tenn-Tom here and it's officially called the Black Warrior-Tombigbee Waterway down to Mobile. We had to raft off 2 other sailboats the first night here they were so full. Now that was tricky climbing over the decks of two other boats and all their rigging in the dark! They left about 6:30 this am so we are at the dock now - much better. We hope to tour a couple of the old homes in the town tomorrow.


"Where the burgee flies". This is the burgee that identifies us as boaters doing the Great Loop.


After we leave Demopolis, there are no marinas until Bobby's Fish Camp which is 100 miles. It'll be kind of like that section of the Mississippi away from civilization except less current and definitely less heat! Paul is studying the guidebooks to see where we can safely anchor as I write. We bought a tiny generator in town today. Paul is hoping it won't prove to be too small; we were price-driven! There are frost warnings out for tonight so our warm days may be over. With the generator, we'll hopefully be able to run a space heater while at anchor. Wish us luck, we'll be out of touch for awhile. GO PACKERS!!!