It was time to get moving again. The temperature at 6:45 am Saturday morning was a mild 66°F, there was no wind and the sky was mostly cloudy. In fact, after only a few minutes out on the waterway, the morning fog crept in and stayed with us for an hour or so. 
This leg of the trip covered the 230 miles of the Tenn-Tom Waterway from Demopolis to Pickwick Lake. Our river experience over the three days was completely different from the earlier section between Mobile and Demopolis. There was no more flooding, the water levels were back to normal pool and the swift currents had receded. We didn’t feel like we were fighting our way up the river. 
We had three good days of traveling and averaged about 70 miles on each one. The temperatures were well into the mid-90’s but the evenings cooled off enough to be able to get some sleep. 
We traveled easily on Saturday and had only one lock at Gainesville. That night, we dropped the anchor at mile 287.3, Cochrane Cutoff, around 6:30 pm. This turned out to be a wonderful stop where we could catch whatever breeze there might be and still be out of the way of the barge traffic. It was a very quiet place – we didn’t even see any local boats about.
Day Two began at 6:20 am with similar weather conditions as the one before. We hoped to get through three locks and travel 70 miles – a very ambitious, but do-able, goal for the day. We arrived at Tom Bevill Lock at 9:15 am and the lockmaster informed us there was a southbound tow in the chamber. The barge was out and we were in and secure to the lock wall at 10 am. The lift in this lock was about 30 feet and half-way up, the lockmaster informed us we were going back down to pick up another northbound pleasure craft. Huh?? We’d been known to have to wait for other vessels before we could enter a lock but never had we been part way through a lockage and then had to reverse the process because another boat showed up!! Weird! So, it was nearly 11 am before we were released and on our way.
There was no waiting at the next two locks at Columbus and Aberdeen so we were able to cover the miles we had hoped to and were safe in our lovely anchorage at Blue Bluff near Aberdeen, Mississippi, by 7 pm.
We didn’t have as many miles to go on Day Three, however, there were six locks: Amory, Wilkins, Fulton, Rankin, Montgomery and the Jamie Whitten Lock. The first five locks averaged about a 30 foot lift each and the sixth lock, Jamie Whitten, had an 85 foot lift, the 9th highest in the United States. Our total gain in altitude for the day was 224 feet.
Twelve hours, six locks and about 60 miles after beginning our run for the day, we arrived at Bay Springs Lake where we dropped anchor and enjoyed the peacefulness of our surroundings. After taking showers off the back of the boat, we relaxed on the bow and watched as four large hounds hunted a doe they had chased into the water. We’re pretty sure the dogs never caught up with her.
No comments:
Post a Comment