June 26 - At the crack of dawn, we said farewell to Dog River Marina and headed up Mobile Bay.
We were following a container ship as we approached downtown Mobile. Received a call on our VHF radio that the ship was going to be turned around in front of us, and fortunately they allowed us to sneak by before the turn took place.
Turning the Blue Whale
The ship took up the entire channel as she was turned around by the two tugboats.
There were a lot more ships at the docks in Mobile this year that we have seen in our previous visits.
Cranes were busy loading or unloading them as we cruised by.
Mile 0 of the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway is in front of the Convention Center in downtown Mobile. It is 450 miles from there to the junction with the Tennessee River at Pickwick Lake. We were anxious to be there by July 3rd so we could enjoy their Fireworks Spectacular again as we did last year. So we boogied right along to make it there in eight days. Our average speed is about 9 mph, and there are 12 locks on the Tenn-Tom. The commercial tows (barges pushed by a tugboat) have priority at the locks, so this can mean a delay of several hours for us to make it through a lock.
The first night we anchored at Three Rivers Lake at Mile 64. This is the place where we sat through Tropical Storm Ida last November. We had the entire anchorage to ourselves this time. The water level was much lower this time around.
Day two took us through our first lock (Coffeeville) and to Bobby's Fish Camp at Mile 118.9. Coffeeville Lock was scheduled to be closed for a month for maintenance starting July 2nd so we were pleased to have it behind us. The only dock at Bobby's Fish Camp was the fuel dock, and it was not as long as OMEGA. Fortunately, we were the only boat needing dockage that evening. Two nights before there had been six boats there rafted together. Glad we missed that experience!
Bobby's Fish Camp is definitely out in the sticks! There are no adequate places to anchor for over 100 miles, so they definitely have a corner on the market!! They charge $1.00 a foot for dockage with no power. You can imagine what they took in the night they had six boats rafted together at this one little dock!
We were disappointed that their restaurant was not open on Sunday evenings. No catfish dinner tonight!
Capt. Bill started our engines at 5:35 AM on Day 3 as we had 94 miles and one lock to go through to reach Demopolis, AL.
Remains of Old Rooster Bridge
Do you remember seeing this? On the Internet back in 2002, hundreds of thousands of users were startled to see photographs that showed a powerful current turning the tugboat Cahaba sideways and then pushing it down and under the Old Rooster Bridge. This actually occurred back in 1979 when the river, at a record level of 24 feet above flood stage, came to within a few feet of the steel drawbridge. The captain couldn't buck the current. The tug disappeared into the muddy water and popped up on the other side. Badly battered and with water pouring out of its pilothouse, the tug still had one of its two engines running. Three crewmembers were badly shaken, but not seriously injured. The bridge, already scheduled to be demolished, was removed a few months later.
There was lots of tow traffic on the waterway today going both north and south. While we made good time until we got to the Demopolis lock, we had to wait 2 1/2 hours while two tows were locked through ahead of us. We anchored at Foscue Creek shortly before 7 PM; we had the anchorage all to ourselves which was nice. We are beginning to think we're the only recreational boat on the Tenn-Tom this time around.
June 29 - On Day 4 we refueled at Demopolis Yacht Basin and continued north passed the White Cliffs at Epes which are an impressive sight. Our anchorage for the night was Cochrane Cut-off at Mile 287.4. Looks like we'll make it to Pickwick for the fireworks display.
OMEGA Passing White Cliffs of Epes
We hauled the anchor up at dawn on Day 5 in anticipation of enjoying the afternoon and evening at Columbus Marina in Columbus, MS. It was only a 48 mile run, so we expected to be there before lunch. Well, so much for expectations! Little did we know we would be in the midst of a TOW-JAM as we approached the Stennis Lock!
A TOW-JAM ON THE TENN-TOM WATERWAY
We caught up with two northbound tows and had another one behind us. As we rounded one of the thousands of bends in the waterway, here was another one headed southbound. The one in front of us was the J.O. Bradford. As he inched past Eleanor headed south with the sides of their barges practically touching, Eleanor ran aground,
J.O. BRADFORD PASSING ELEANOR
At the head of the northbound parade was Sue Chappell. She pushed her barges over to the left side of the river into the opening of a little creek, and unhooked to go back to free Eleanor. Meanwhile we anchored to the right side of the waterway below the lock and waited while J.O. Bradford entered the lock chamber for the lift up. About 15 minutes later, we heard the lockmaster calling Sue Chappell on his radio, telling him that his barges had come loose and were floating down the river. Sometimes it just doesn't pay to get out of bed!! We looked over at Sue Chappell's barges and sure enough, they were afloat. Glad we were upstream of them rather than below them.
Thank goodness we finally made it into the lock after a 90-minute wait and docked at Columbus Marina at 1:45 PM. We were welcomed by the friendly staff that we enjoyed meeting last year - Dockmaster "T" Caldwell, Jimmy, and John. Borrowed the marina courtesy car to go to dinner at Hunk's and did a little reprovisioning. Bill met Charley on Slow Flight (44 Defever) and invited him over to Omega for a brief visit.
July 1 - Another long day of cruising for us (12 hours, 82 miles, and 7 locks) to Bay Springs Lake. We didn't have any delays at locks until for one. We celebrated when we were in the last one (Whitten) which lifted us 84 ft. to 414 ft. above sea level.
Captain Bill at the Bow
First Mate Charlotte at the Stern
We were happy to drop our hook on beautiful Bay Springs Lake. We decided to hang out here an extra day to enjoy swimming in the crystal clear water and do some meandering in our dinghy. It was very relaxing after six longs days of cruising.
We decided to stay at Grand Harbor Marina for four nights to wait for Daughter Debbie to arrive from Tulsa, OK to spend some time with us. We had a ring-side seat at our slip to watch all the folks enjoying boating, tubing, jet skiing, wakeboarding, etc. continuously throughout the holiday weekend. There's no telling how many gallons of fuel were burned by the hundreds of boats in motion there.
The Pickwick Belle passed by us on the 4th on her return from a dinner/sunset cruise.
Geese on Parade for the 4th
It was nice to again attend Mass at Our Lady of the Lake on the 4th, and we enjoyed dining at Nueva Vallarta Mexican restaurant where we were serenaded by a Mariachi group during dinner. There were fireworks that evening at Pickwick State Park. While we didn't go down to see them, we saw many boats on the waterway returning home afterwards. They really needed a cop to direct traffic. It's a wonder there wasn't an accident!
July 6 - Daughter Debbie arrived from Tulsa, and we were delighted to welcome her.
Dad and Debbie relaxing on the aft deck
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