Lily, A Dog's Life Aboard Moondance: The Beginning of the Tombigbee Waterway...

Bay Springs Marina Tombigbee Waterway, MS 10- 30-31, 2016

Everyone got off before us this morning, but only Fins, another Mainship 400 beat us to Baysprings. We had one nice sailboat who we were getting ready to pass point out a coyote stalking a heron on the embankment. Mom was upset because she didn’t shoot fast enough to photograph him before he disappeared into the weeds…

That sailboat, our looper sailboat buddies and one other pleasure craft were all we saw until this one barge. We expected it to be a lot busier!!!

Since we only had about 30 miles to go we went really slow. Our speed became even slower when we got behind the Jason Belcher, a big tug with barge in a narrow spot where we couldn’t safely pass him…

Dad was getting really frustrated with the Bengals playing the Redskins over in London, so mom was driving.
(It didn’t stop her from finding time to trim my feet and nails & dad remove a tick behind my ear…GEEZ!…of course, not while M & D were driving!)

Arrived here in early afternoon with Cagney and Phil from Fins ready to catch our lines… Another really pretty and large marina tucked in a secure location! Met Bob and Sandy from Karine and Phil and Lynne on Fins for dock tails…when the bugs drove us all inside, M, D & I enjoyed leftovers on our boat.

We had all agreed to get out early tomorrow to travel through the locks together…

Baysprings View from the Hilltop this morning

2 Infinity leaving ahead of us this morning

Fins leaving behind us

More white pelicans just resting up for the next part of their journey

For some reason we had a bunch of seagulls stirred up here

Reflections

Thought some of them were going to join us on Moondance

S/V Gracie wanted to say they beat a Trawler

Kind of cool drainage areas

Loved the red sumac? on this overpass

We weren't sure what this cross was about here?

Smithville Marina Tombigbee Waterway, MS 10- 31, 2016

As planned 6 boats: 2 go fast, 2 Mainship Trawlers and 2 sailboats were at the first locks by 8 AM. It was a beautiful, but hot day down here in Mississippi…we were grateful for the breeze that showed up now and again!!!
If I couldn’t find the breeze, I was hogging the fans inside or on the flybridge!

It was slow going because we were all following a tug with barges through the locks and we could never get fast enough to pass him until the last lock. Our first lock Whitten is the fourth highest lift lock in the world! What was amazing is how fast it moved too!!! Mom was being silly and calling out, “Ladies, Lingerie on Two…” Those of a certain age may have some clue what she was eluding too???

We all took lots of photos while waiting in and between the locks…we are back in the wetlands or marshes at least on one side…

I have a link with another looper’s boat, “Cruising Life’s” blog where Lucas researched the Tombigbee Waterway and did a terrific job, I might add!

So, I’ll let him fill you in on this amazing waterway!!!

(Lucas)

This is a waterway that links the Tennessee and Tombigbee Rivers. Specifically, it starts at Pickwick Lake and connects to Demopolis, Alabama. The first time the Tombigbee was proposed it was in the 1770’s by the French explorer, Marquis de Montcalm. He considered a connecting link between the two rivers so that the French could be successful settling this region of the South. It was then again proposed in 1810 by the citizens of Knox County which is now the location of Knoxville. It was then surveyed in 1874 and again in 1913, but was found to be too expensive. It was studied again in 1923, 1935, 1938 and 1945 and each time there was opposition to the idea. The project was finally authorized in 1972. This means that from the time the project idea started, 22 presidents came through office and 55 terms of congress met. That’s a long time!

After 12 years of construction the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway was completed on December 12, 1984. The total cost was nearly $2 billion. This project was bigger than the Panama Canal and a lot of people do not know much about it!

The short form for the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway is the Tenn-Tom. The waterway shortened certain trips by as much as 720 miles. For example, boats travelling from Pensacola, Florida to Chattanooga, Tennessee travel only 771 miles using the Tenn-Tom, instead of 1541 miles by the Mississippi River.

The waterway is divided into three sections: Divide Cut, Canal Section and River Section. The Divide Cut is the stretch from Pickwick Lake to Bay Springs Lake. Pickwick Lake is backed up into Yellow Creek at Mile 443.7. It is 414 feet above sea level. It was cut through the backbone of the land here to a depth of as much as 175 feet for a distance of nearly 25 miles.

The Canal Section runs for the next 52 miles and connects dams and pools to form a 9 foot deep waterway. There are six locks in this section. They were once known as ‘alphabet’ locks (called Lock A, B, C, etc.) but have been renamed.

The River Section is 149 miles long. It goes from Amory Lock (Mile 366.3) to Mile 217, which is the junction of the Black Warrior River and Demopolis. This section follows the old Tombigbee River. There are four locks in this section.

Of the ten locks, nine of them drop you about 30 feet. The first one drops you about 84 feet.

Here are some other interesting facts about the Tenn-Tom:

Tombigbee came from two Indian names. The Choctaw Indians called the river ‘Itomba Igaby’ and is roughly translated as box (or coffin) maker. The initial ‘I’ was not emphasized, so the French settlers called it Tombeckbee.
The Whitten lock and dam has a lift only one foot less than the largest lift on the Panama Canal.
The Waterway system is five times longer and has a total lift of 3.5 times greater than the Panama Canal.
Construction used 33 000 tons of steel. If all that steel was made into ½ inch thick wire it would stretch across the United Stated eight times.
Construction used 2.2 million cubic yards of concrete. All the concrete could build a 120 story building covering an entire football field.
Construction of just the Divide Cut removed 150 million cubic yards of soil. That’s about half of what was removed for the entire waterway. This excavated material would make a road from Earth to the moon (the road would be 16 feet wide and 3 inches thick).
My family and I went to the James L. Whitten Visitor Centre when we anchored just before the Whitten Lock and Dam. We saw a lot of interesting things about the Tenn-Tom Waterway. There was a miniature recreation of the whole system and you could pick up a telephone to hear about each of the three sections. There were also a lot stuffed animals (real) from around the region such as a coy-dog (half coyote, half dog), deer, red-tailed hawk, rattlesnakes and river otters. They also had a nice walking trail that had labels for many trees. There are many we had never seen before. I am going to research them to see which ones we do not have in Canada

Lucas just turned 10 today on Halloween! What a gift his parent’s are giving him and his brother Marcos, this year as they all do the Great Loop!

It was a very tiring day in the heat…we did 4 locks but only traveled 36 miles… We were exhausted by the time we made it here to Smithville, MS…another interesting place with friendly, helpful people, and lots of dogs…I could have done without them! We even had one little kid trick or treater and I felt bad since mom only had an apple to give him…

Thanks to Phil & Lynne, we got a “You’ve Been Boozed” Treat!!! “Captain Morgan…AGHH! Mates!”

We all enjoyed another creative leftover meal by mom…I’m thanking Candy and Ken again for my leftover Prime Rib!!! YIPPEE!

It looks like we will have 7 boats going through the first two locks tomorrow…by the third one the faster ones will probably be way ahead of us trawlers and sailboats…We are looking forward to seeing USAF Capt. Molly Sexton tomorrow in Columbus, MS where she is finishing up her flight training! Can’t believe M & D knew her as a little tyke? Where has time gone???

Our one looper buddy, Denise C on Gracie is doing such a good job taking and posting photos on her Facebook, that mom has been lazy and just sharing her post…I’m trying to convince her to put up my latest blog tonight … She is getting really laid back on me!