November 6 & 7, 2009 Grand Harbor to Midway Marina

November 6 & 7, 2009

Grand Harbor Marina (449.8) to Midway Marina (394.0)

While we waited for fog to clear this morning, we took some time to get wisdom from Chip Lucas, marina manager, ex race car driver, and delivery captain for boats up and down the Tenn-Tom. He thought we could run at 9-10 knots, but watch for boat ramps, fishing boats and boats pulled up on shore in hunting areas. People are seriously held accountable for the damage their wakes do in this 450-mile stretch. If you do accidentally “wake” a boat, go back and apologize – may save a headache later. He thinks Columbus and Bobby’s fish camp are great stops. It’s 98 miles to Bobby’s from Demopolis so he starts before dawn with a call to the lock – if they can get you through right away, then by the time you get out of the lock it is sunrise – plenty of time to make the long run. Mark took our Mobile Bay chart to Chip and got more wisdom. We left the marina at 8:20.

The first part of the Tenn-Tom Waterway is called the Divide Cut and is 24 miles of 280-foot wide channel with rock riprap on the sides. This is the direct line made to connect the Tombigbee with the Tennessee Rivers. When the waterway opened in 1985 it looked pretty desolate, but today it has grown over and now almost has the feel of a park.

Today we traveled through 3 lock and dams. The first one was the Jamie Whitten Lock & Dam with a lift of 83 feet. This is the most we have done so far. Now that we are going downstream again, we are being lowered instead of going up. As we approached the Whitten lock, we were greeted by fourth graders on a field trip to the lock & dam. They cheered as we entered and Mark sounded our horn. Then as we were tied to the floating bollard, they peppered us with questions – “Where are you going?” “What is the name of your dog?” and “What kind of dog is he?” Of course the dog caught their interest. It was really fun for me to see kids and chat with them, and Mark got a kick out of it too. We also saw another wildlife drama play out in front of our eyes. Two bald eagles targeted a group of "coot" (Mark calls them that). They dove repeatedly and finally one eagle came away with dinner. We traveled all day and toward the end of the day, we found ourselves in a narrow channel with a tow. We slowed and gave him the lead and then passed and got to Midway Marina at Fulton, Mississippi.

We did spend Saturday at Midway as well and got some chores done – laundry and shopping at Walmart…….