Days 174 – 176; Nov 10 – 12: After 2 days in a marina with full power, water, pump out, courtesy car, marine store and more….. all 3 boats were fully re-provisioned, so we were off! It was lines off at 9:00 am headed down the Tennessee River onto the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway to an anchorage at Bay Springs, MS.
The Tombigbee waterway is an interesting fellow, connecting the Tennessee River to the Tombigbee River.
Popularly known as the Tenn-Tom, it is a 234-mile man-made waterway completed in 1984 at a cost of nearly $2 billion USD. It links commercial navigation from the nation’s midsection to the Gulf of Mexico, providing an alternative to the Mississippi. The Tenn-Tom features 10 locks and dams, each 110’ wide by 600’ long with a total lift of 341 feet. It took 12 years to complete. We’ve heard that compared to the Panama canal’s cost of $375M and 10 years to build, but that was in 1904 – 1913. 5600 people died during that construction project, mostly from malaria. I couldn’t find any safety information on the Tenn-Tom.
So why build this? From Chattanooga, TN it is 1800 miles to New Orleans via the Tennessee, Ohio, and Mississippi Rivers. Shipping costs were high. The Rivers and Harbor Act of 1946 authorized the Corps of Engineers to plan for a canal between the Tennessee and Tombigbee Rivers that could cut that distance by 1000 miles, saving businesses millions of dollars in just a few years. In 1958 Alabama and Mississippi established the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway Development Authority. After receiving favorable economic reports, Congress accepted the plans in 1961 but appropriated no funds for another decade.
President Nixon turned the first official spade of earth in May 1971, but the Corps of Engineers had yet to set long-term construction schedules or complete the required environmental studies. The Corps spent more than a decade conducting those studies and refining construction designs.
As planned, the Tennessee-Tombigbee has become a preferred route for transporting large and heavy finished products and raw materials between the Gulf of Mexico and the American heartland. Using the waterway instead of the Mississippi-Ohio River system reduces fuel consumption and lowers shipping costs. But most important (atleast to us) – it made the Great Loop possible!
Our plan over the period of 11/10 – 11/13 was to travel a reasonable amount each day, anchor out (there are very few marinas) and end up in Columbus. MS on 10/13 since Carol needs to fly out on 11/14 for a BOD meeting. First night (Friday, 11/10) was Bay Springs and we found a great anchorage around 1:45 pm. Mayli put out an amazing charcuterie board while looking ‘very yachty’ and later served up corned beef and cabbage for dinner.
Saturday, 11/11 was anchors up at 8:00 am with 3 locks to get through to our targeted destination just north of the Fulton lock. Our first lock (the Jamie Whitten lock) was the tallest on the Tenn-Tom with a drop of 84 feet. Check out the pics below and the time lapsed video of huge doors opening on the Jamie Whitten lock as well as our full descent in the Montgomery lock (only 30’)…. Can you tell I’m playing with a new toy?
After 3 locks, we found another great anchorage. We were rafted up by 12:30 and watched college football. That called for some fun appetizers and Tonia made an Iowa comfort-food chicken casserole that her Mom used to make for dinner. Most impressive was the amazing colors of the sunset!
11/12 (Sunday) started off as any other day…. We were up and lines off at 7:30 am. Legacy and Lil Sudden separated from Saga, who was the anchor boat, and started down river. Saga called back that as they had the anchor almost all the way up, it separated from the chain….. as in…it just fell off! WHAT?!?! We all turned back, Saga marked where they thought it fell, re-anchored tied to Lil Sudden and we all tried to find the needle in the haystack. Boris got out his diving gear and both Matt from Lil Sudden in Saga’s dinghy and Gary and I in Legacy’s dinghy tried to drag a smaller anchor hoping to snag it. By 10:00 am, Legacy needed to start down river because Carol needs to be on that plane out of Columbus on Tuesday morning. Lil Sudden and Saga stayed behind to search, without success, for several more hours giving up around 2:00 pm…. But that wasn’t until after they had a German Shepard mix puppy swim up to their boat out of no where! Did she fall off a passing boat? Did she swim from land? With no collar…don’t know. They pulled her out of the water, dried her off and gave her some food and water, then took her to the nearby marina hoping they would help to find her owner.
Legacy passed through 3 locks and looked for a safe place to anchor and await the arrival of Saga and Lil Sudden, who would now arrive in the dark, likely around 7:00 pm; it gets dark here around 5:00 pm. Our charts indicated a safe anchorage fairly close to the Aberdeen lock, but with water levels so low, that was a no-go. We ended up backtracking 7 or 8 miles to a safe spot which made the journey a little shorter for our weary friends. All ended well with Gary’s pot roast dinner complete with roasted potatoes, carrots, onions and homemade gravy. They said they could smell it as the entered the cove where we were anchored. We had every light on the boat turned on so they could safely find us and all went well. No pics as they came in, although they looked beautiful all lit up; we were too busy catching lines!
Tomorrow (Monday, 11/13) we will pass through 2 locks on our way to a marina in Columbus, MS…. first marina in 4 days. Carol has a flight out on Tuesday morning at some ungodly hour and Gary will continue with the flotilla arriving in Demopolis on 11/16 where Carol will rejoin them. Then it’s onward down the Tenn-Tom to Mobile, AL where we will all spend a few days celebrating a friends Thanksgiving. At dinner last night, we shared all of our different traditions and favorite dishes….. this is going to be quite the varied smorgasbord!
Below is our progress to date. The yellowish color is November; still a ways to go to get to Mobile and some turkey!
chashurley
I remember a huge lock on the Erie at Little Falls, I think, but nothing compared to this one! And more great sunsets!!