Captain's Choice blog: Tenn-Tom to Columbus, MS

The Tenn-Tom Waterway connects the Tennessee River at Pickwick Lake with the Tombigbee River at Demopolis, AL. The waterway cost nearly 2 billion dollars and was dedicated on June 1, 1984, but actually opened 6 months ahead of schedule to tow traffic...amazing! The building of the waterway moved more earth than was moved in the construction of the Panama Canal. The best thing about it- it shortened the trip for the tows by as much as 720 miles and recreational boaters can almost avoid the Mississippi!
As a southbound vessel we will lock down 341' over the total distance of 450.4 miles. The waterway is divided into 3 sections; "Divide Cut", "Canal Section" and the "River". The "divide cut" is a 29 mile canal and for construction the entire town of Holcut, MS had to be removed and demolished. We will go through 10 locks, 9 of them about a 30' drop and the first one, Jamie Whitten has a drop of 84'.

Monday night the dockmaster told us there were 14 boats scheduled to leave Tuesday morning(that was just the 1 marina, there were other marinas and anchorages in the area). Sure enough the first group was away from the docks right around 7 am and we were right behind them. Our plan was to go about 30 miles and anchor in Bay Springs Lake at 5 fingers (2 miles from the Whitten Lock), many others were going to make the run to Midway Marina, 3 locks down. When we turned off for our anchorage we heard there were at least 11 boats being locked through. Our anchorage was gorgeous and so many spots to pick from. The weather had started out cool in the morning, 47 degrees but by the afternoon it was 80, sunny and we were in the water cooling off. This may be the last anchorage we swim in as I looked up where the alligators are in the Tenn-Tom and my google search showed Columbus, just 70 miles away. The stars at night were magnificent, a sliver of a moon so the stars were so bright as we sat and counted our "lucky stars".

Wednesday morning we called the lockmaster as soon as we were up and he said if you can be here in 15 minutes we will get you in the lock, we asked for 20 and off we went. There are 2 types of loopers, "laid back" and "go fast". We are the former but this time we were the latter and made it to the lock in plenty of time. As we left the anchorage we saw at least 4 boats that were also anchored there. When we got to the lock there were 2 other boats, one being Rudy and Jill on Briney Bug whom we had met at the Rendezvous.
The Whitten Lock is the fourth highest single lift lock in the US and gives you a little shower about 1/2 way down. I would imagine that feels great at 3 pm after a warm day but it was a little cold at 8 am. Well, after 4 locks and 37 miles and 8 hours we decided that was a long enough work day and dropped anchor at the top of the Wilkins Lock and Dam. Here we sat watching the tow Big Eddie go down in the lock. We had heard him on the radio earlier give details of his load; 600' long and 106' wide, drafts 9.5' and each barge (6 total) containing crushed limestone is 1,600 tons.

Usually we have to wait for the tows to lock through as they have preference, but Thursday morning we had the pleasure of locking down with the tow Dakota. This was a first for us and because he was only 70' wide there was no problem with us fitting next to him in the lock. We have entered the river section of the Tenn-Tom and we think we found the geese that migrated south from Buffalo, they are all over the place here. Of course we heard the weather is cool in Buffalo..lows in the 30's and high in the low 50's...no wonder the geese are here! High 80's are forecasted for the next week here. We had a bald eagle fly right in front of the boat and ducks, egrets, herons and birds are everywhere.

We made home at Columbus Marina in Columbus, MS Thursday and Friday night. We went to dinner with Scott and Mary from Jaycie Lynn Thursday evening and went to the Waverly Mansion on Friday afternoon. This mansion was formerly a plantation house, completed in 1852 and was originally owned by George Young, a colonel from Georgia. We had a wonderful tour from the daughter of the second owners, the Snows. Her father (91) and Melanie still live in the house and it is open daily for tours. The house was actually abandoned for 50 years before the Snows bought it in 1962 and started the restoration process. Amazing there was no vandalism at the home, although it was reported there were many a party there. Pre civil war the plantation was home to 1,000 slaves and was a self-sustaining farm that produced massive quantities of cotton. Other features of this antebellum home were a brick kiln, sawmill, tannery, gristmill, gardens and orchard. When thinking about the history of this home, we like to imagine being there and experiencing what it was like then.

Saturday morning we start making our way down to Demopolis, AL with several nights at anchor first.