Tenn-Tom

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Getting to an anchorage late in the day is not a good idea. We ended up near s stump field exposed to the weather. Sure enough the wind came up and it made for a noisy night with water slapping on the hull. Oh well better luck next night.

There are 12 locks from the start of the Tenn-Tom which is a series of rivers 450 miles long. We transitted 7 of these locks today. We had to get the boat on plane for the first 3 locks because on week ends they open on the hour. They are only 6 to 8 miles apart so missing one would have meant a fair wait. We made it with no waiting and no other boats in the lock. Last time there were 6 of us which meant waiting for everyone to be secured to bollards and announcing such to the lick master, very time consuming.

This waterway is actually tedious, not much in the way of habitation. This is a man made waterway so long straight canals with some flooded land with lots of stumps and deadheads everywhere. Apparently more earth was moved to make this waterway than fir the Panama Canal. It opened in 1985. After the beautiful Tennessee River, it is disappointing, we didn't remember this from last time. Some herons, egrets, king fishers and ducks but not as plentiful as other rivers. Lots of little fishing boats and a few tows. It is very narrow at times so we had to keep calling tows to ask which side to pass on. Between tows and locks, I was on the radio most of the we were not in locks. Lucky for us it was a cooler day with lots of sunshine and not too windy.

Some days it is work and not pleasure boating. We are now at a nice peaceful anchor on the Tombigbee River, the actual River not the man made one. We covered 64 mikes fir a total of 1226 thus far. We are in Aberdeen Mississippi.

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