Catching Up

It's been a week since my last post and we've been busy! First, the great news: we've had four days on the water without a single equipment malfunction. Yahoo. Looks like my conversation with Santa when we ran into him in Grand Rivers paid off!

Taking stock, now at Midway Marina in Fulton, Mississippi, we are on our eleventh river/waterway (not counting Lake Macatawa and Lake Michigan). The inland rivers we've navigated along include: Chicago River, Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, Desplaines River, Illinois River, Mississippi River, Ohio River, Cumberland River, Barclay Canal, Tennessee River, Yellow Creek, and the Tennessee Tombigbee Waterway. We're also in our seventh state having navigated through parts of Michigan, Illinois, Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, and Mississippi. Each of the rivers has offered natural beauty, a myriad of birds, much commerce, and its own unique challenges including heavy tow and barge traffic, current, narrow channels, low water, sunken logs, and missing navigation aids--sometimes we encountered all of these at once!

The Tennessee Tombigbee Waterway connects the Tennessee River to the Black Warrior-Tombigbee River System near Demopolis, Alabama. The Army Corps of Engineers completed the twelve year project in 1984 at a cost of $2 billion. In doing so, they built ten locks and dams to lower (or raise) watercraft a total of 345 feet from the divide between the Tennessee and Tombigbee Rivers near Counce, Tennessee to Demopolis, Alabama. They moved the equivalent of 100 million dump truck loads of excavated material, more earth than was dug for the Panama Canal! Yesterday, our first full day on the waterway, was cloudy, gray and cool with occasional rain. We traversed a 25 mile canal--the portion of the Tenn Tom through the divide which was excavated 175 feet in depth, and then through flooded lakes with stumps and trees poking through the water menacingly on either side.

We went through three locks to get from Grand Harbor to Midway Marina. The first one lowered us 84 feet. That is a huge drop! The other two each lowered us 30'.

But let's catch up on some of the other things we've done. Back at Green Turtle Bay, the much awaited control board for the Washer/Dryer arrived. I once again took the laundry room apart and pulled the unit forward and the wonderful appliance tech, Nathan, twisted and turned, got the old board out and put the new one in. The moment of truth: no joy. Big, big sigh. His conclusion: we had also blown the appliance's internal surge protector. That's now on order and we hope to catch up with it tomorrow. He gave me a blow by blow on how to take out the old one and install the new one. Like the Little Engine that Could, I think I can, I think I can.

With that behind us, we left Green Turtle Bay to travel up the Tennessee River paying attention to the old sailor's mantra, red, right returning (going up river). This reality particularly challenged Jackie who has a hard time thinking that a river can flow north and thus we were headed up river going south.. To get from Green Turtle Bay on the Cumberland River to Kentucky Lake on the Tennessee River, we transited the short Barclay Canal where, of course, we met a towboat and barge under its only bridge. Getting to be old hands, no problem, just focused attention. We subsequently traveled 70 miles up Kentucky Lake by following the channel as it wound back and forth on top of the former river bed. What a gorgeous lake! Most of the east shore (and in some places, both shores) is part of the Tennessee National Wildlife Refuge and so lacks any development except the very occasional boat launch and campsite. It offers sandy beaches, quiet anchorages and lots of bird life including our favorite white pelicans, coots, bald eagles, great blue heron, and white egrets.

That took us to Bird Song Creek and after a very tricky 2.5 mile trip up the creek, we arrived at Bird Song Marina. We had arrived in Bubba Land at its finest with countless RVs, numerous cabins, 100s of fishing boats, too many Trump/Vance signs, wonderful, friendly people, and a bass tournament going on. We got to the Marina early afternoon and had this view from our dock--an old derelict river queen with only its top two stories now above water.

As we docked, the dock guys Rick and Sammy told us that the bass tournament weigh in would be at 3:00. And, sure enough, as the hour approached, 30 bass boats arrived at our very own dock to unload both fish and the boat trailer driver. What they didn't tell us was that, at 06:00 the next morning, they would all be there again to take off for the Tourney's second day. No matter, we're early risers and I went out to listen to the logistical announcements, the very Christian prayer, and the Pledge of Allegiance for which they all stood with hand on heart. I also took this picture just before the staggered start which does not do justice to the number of fisherman present.

We later had a chance to talk to the tourney organizer. The way it works--they fish from about 6:30 to 2:30 on both Saturday and Sunday, bring back their five biggest bass (alive thank you very much) each day, weigh and then release the fish. The boat with the heaviest weight for the two days is the champion. I didn't get to ask the champion but the third place boat landed just over 33 pounds. We also toured the marina's freshwater pearl collection and together did several loads of laundry.

The next day we traveled to Clifton--a 50 nautical mile journey further up the Tennessee. As our ship's log reports, this part of the Tennessee River is just "drop dead gorgeous" with Tennessee National Wildlife Refuge on both sides of the river for much of the way and all the bird species we've become familiar with.

Jackie and I walked the half mile into the village of Clifton--a pretty, sleepy, walkable, river town with a sadly quiet and largely abandoned Main Street.

We left Clifton and journeyed to Grand Harbor Marina on Pickwick Lake, our first stop on the Tennessee Tombigbee Waterway. The day offered glorious weather and numerous great blue herons. To get up to Pickwick Lake, we had a 55' lift at the Pickwick Landing Lock.

At Grand Harbor Marina, they relegated us to the fuel dock. The view was the same out both the port and starboard windows:

However, if you walked to the end of the dock, sunset was glorious.

And now, as I said at the beginning. we're docked at Midway Marina in Fulton, Mississippi. Eleven Looper boats left for the first lock at 06:15 this morning. We would have been with them except that Jackie is fighting a flu like bug and just feels punk. So, I'm off to do laundry and grocery shop and maybe see a thing or two in Fulton!