South to the Gulf of Mexico

The Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway (Tenn-Tom) is fed from the water of Pickwick Lake on the Tennessee River. The first part that leaves the Tennessee is Yellow Creek, 450 miles from Mobile, AL. Yellow Creek empties into the Divide Cut section, which at it's widest point is 175' deep and 1300' feet wide. The waterway is flat for the first 38 miles. The first lock lowered us 85 feet, and then six more locks within the next 77 miles lower us from an elevation of 414 feet to 163 feet. At mile 366, 84 miles from the Tennessee River headwaters the canal joins the Tombigbee river and then basicall follows the riverbed toward the Gulf. Because the top part of the canal is fed by the waters of the Tennessee, the dams are fixed with only a lock through them. The rest of the Tennessee River water flows down through the TVA dam system where hydro power plants and flood control dams are used as the Tennessee flows to the Ohio, it's natural course.

Today, Friday November 9 was our first day on the Tenn-Tom. We are anchored just off the channel near Fulton, MS just above Fulton Lock. In the three locks we passed through today, we were lowered 144' closer to sea level.

Saturday we traveled to Columbus, MS and spent the next two nights at Weaverly Marina. What an experience that was! Upon arriving Clint, the owner suggested if we wanted to see Weaverly Manson we should go right now, it might not be open on Sunday. "Take the van and go." The van was an old Dodge Caravan with 192,000 miles on the odeometer. It got us there. Weaverly Manson has an interesting history and the second owner, now 82 still lives there. When the first owner died, none of the heires were interested in the house and property so it was left vacated for many years with little vandelism. Finally, an antique dealer bought the house for a song 40 years ago and put substantial money into restoring it. It was probably in pretty good shape 20 years ago but now is quite run down. We assume the state will buy the house when the present owned dies and restore it again. It is a beautiful site and antibellum home that needs lots of TLC. When we got back, the Saturday afternoon neighborhood party was well under way, with kareoke singing and the Mississippi football game going on the TV. Hamburgers and fries was the menu. A real experience in small town Mississippi social life! Sunday we used the van again to go to Columbus to look at their historic district and do some grocery shopping.

As the Tenn-Tom Waterway became more of the Tombigbee River and less of an excavated canal and we crossed the state line into Alabama, we started seeing "White Bluffs", high banks of lime rock. There are large deposites lime in this part of Alabama and a cement plant in Demopolis.

The "White Cliffs of Epes"

On Monday afternoon we arrived in Demopolis, AL. On Tuesday we deployed our bikes and spent the day visiting the historic sites and visit to the grocery store.

Wednesday morning we started our four day run to Mobile. We arrived at our selected anchorage at about 3:00 PM, and we weren't happy with exposure we had to the river so we traveled another 15 miles down the river to Bashi Creek. "Time Out" another looper was already here but we found a secure place in the creek itself. Thursday morning was cold and we had frost on the decks and the river was fogged in. By 8:00 AM the fog was lifting so we started down the river with "Time Out" for Coffeeville Lock. The lock was free when we got there so went went right through. For us it was our 129th and last lock, at the bottom of the drop we were back in tidal, salt water again. We spent the night anchored at mile 67 with "Time Out", about 30 miles further down the river than our original plan. Friday morning was again cool and the river again fogged in. Again by 8:00 AM the fog was lifting, so we proceeded down the river towards Mobile with a plan to get to an anchorage at mile 12. The tide here has one cycle every24 hours and it was low at 4:00 PM so we got a nice push all day. We arrived at mile 12 at 3:30 PM and found two other Loopers already anchored there. So four of us enjoyed the anchorge. Today, Sunday November 18, we pulled into Eastern Shore Marina in Fairhope, AL at about noon.

On Wednesday we are going back accross Mobile Bay to Grand Mariner Marina for our Thanksgiving cebration with other boaters. the Grand Mariner closes their restauraunt, prepairs the turkey, ham, and potatoes and the boaters bring all the other side dishes.