October 19 - 20...Our friends Paul and Stacy Brannon from Athens, GA cruised with us down to Wheeler State Park. Ray and Patsy Whitney came to wish us farewell and cast off OMEGA's lines.
Stacy and Paul brought all kinds of good food with them. After a cold and windy cruise down to Hambrick Hollow just above Guntersville Lock, we anchored for the night, enjoyed a tasty bowl of chili and delicious pound cake, and played a game of Farkle. Stacy beat the socks off us!
Early the next morning, we locked through Guntersville Lock and headed downstream towards Wheeler State Park. It was cold as you can see by the way we were dressed as we passed beautiful Painted Bluff.
CAPT. BILL AND FIRST MATE CHARLOTTE
STACY AND PAUL AT PAINTED BLUFF
We were greeted at Wheeler State Park dock by Bob and Kem DeGroot (Spirit Dancer) from Houston, TX, friends we met when cruising up the Tenn-Tom in 2009. They have recently completed their Loop and were at Wheeler for the Loopers Rendezvous. Enjoyed visiting with them while having docktails aboard Spirit Dancer, and went to dinner at a Mexican restaurant with them and the Brannons.
We headed on downstream on the 21st and locked through Wheeler and Wilson Locks (93 ft.).
We anchored for the night at Zippy Branch across from Grand Harbor Marina.
October 22-23...It was foggy early; when it lifted, we moved over to Grand Harbor Marina to await arrival of daughters Joan from Athens, GA and Debbie from Tulsa, OK. Johnny and Jean Creel drove over from Booneville, MS to have dinner with us, and we enjoyed visiting with them. Johnny grew up in Sebring with Charlotte; they shared many years in band together at Sebring HS and Florida State University.
We attended church at Our Lady of the Lake on Sunday morning and enjoyed greeting Fr. Anthony and our friend Debbie, who always gives us a warm welcome. We enjoyed a walk down to our favorite residential area along Pickwick Lake. Joan arrived mid-afternoon, and we enjoyed dinner aboard OMEGA and visiting with her.
AT GRAND HARBOR MARINA
October 24...Debbie arrived around 3 PM after her nine-hour drive from Tulsa. How nice it was for the two sisters to enjoy time together with us. We went to Nueva Vallarta for dinner and drove down to Pickwick State Park to show Joan around since it was her first visit here.
STATE PARK
TENNESSEE RIVER
October 25...Our departure down the Tenn-Tom was delayed by morning fog. We finally got underway as the fog began to lift around 9:30 AM.
When we left Grand Harbor, we were 414 ft. above sea level. There are 12 locks on the Tenn-Tom; each one lowers us a certain number of feet. After locking through the twelfth lock (Coffeeville), we will be back down to sea level. We locked through three locks on the 25th - Whitten (84 ft.), Montgomery (30 ft.) and Rankin (30 ft.) Joan had not been through a lock before, so she took lots of photos.
FIRST LOCK SOUTHBOUND ON TENN-TOM
CHARLOTTE AND JOAN ENJOYING FLYBRIDGE
NORTHBOUND TOW LEAVING RANKIN LOCK
FALL COLOR ALONG THE WATERWAY
We anchored for the evening above Fulton Lock (Mile 391). Enjoyed spaghetti dinner aboard and played Farkel...Debbie was the big winner!!
October 26...We cruised 53 miles down to Columbus Marina in Columbus, MS, locking down through four more locks. After locking through the last one, we were 163 feet above sea level. Debbie and Joan took over handling the boat hooks in the locks.
FULTON LOCK DAM
CAPT. BILL'S CREW ENJOYING THE CRUISE
JOAN HANDLING THE STERN BOAT HOOK
DAD AND HIS GIRLS
BARGE LOADING SITE ON THE TENN-TOM
TOWBOAT U.S. TOWING MOONSTRUCK UPSTREAM
Moonstruck, a 44' Defever, met with tragedy several weeks earlier while passing a tow on the Tenn-Tom. Four people were aboard on the flybridge when she heeled over and sunk in a matter of moments. All aboard were thrown into the water, but fortunately no one was hurt. Cause unknown. She was being towed up to Lee Spry boatyard on Pickwick Lake.
GALLEY STEWARD AT WORK
We arrived at Columbus Marina mid-afternoon and Dockmaster "T" put us in a covered slip, which was nice. Visited with Frank and Joyce aboard Daphne; we had met them last year and renew our acquaintance each time we pass through.
OMEGA AT COLUMBUS MARINA
Bill and the girls went for a walk down to the park by Stennis Lock while Charlotte got dinner ready.
BILL AND DEBBIE
DEBBIE AND JOAN
SUNSET AT COLUMBUS MARINA
October 27...We left Columbus Marina in a rental car at the crack of dawn to take Debbie and Joan back to Grand Harbor where they left their cars. Enjoyed breakfast together at Pickwick State Park lodge before they both left for home about 10 AM. We returned to Columbus and caught up on boat chores, laundry, etc.
October 28-November 1...Between these dates, we cruised downstream from Mile 335 to Mile 31.9 with overnight stops at anchorages at Sumter Landing (Mile 270.1), Foscue Creek (Mile 214), Bobby's Fish Camp (Mile 118.9) and Tensaw River (Mile 31.9) - 304 miles and we locked through the last five locks - Stennis, Bevill, Heflin, Demopolis and Coffeeville. The weather was darn-right cold with temps down to 33 degrees with fog early in the mornings.
Since this is our seventh time making this trip, we didn't take many photos, but thought the one below of the White Cliffs at Epes with the pretty Fall colors was worth capturing (Mile 249.8).
FALL COLORS ON WHITE CLIFFS AT EPES
COLORFUL DISPLAY AT FOSCUE CREEK ANCHORAGE
After hauling our anchor at Foscue Creek on October 30, Bill put OMEGA in gear and we heard a scrapping sound like we were aground. We had plenty of water under our keel, but evidently we dug something up from the bottom and damaged our port prop. A real bummer, for sure! Thereafter, we had a vibration which is a pretty definite sign of prop damage.
BRRRH! IT'S MIGHTY COLD GOING THROUGH DEMOPOLIS LOCK!
OUTFLOW FROM DEMOPOLIS DAM
On October 31st, we locked through our last lock (Coffeeville - Mile 116.6). This brought us to a grand total of 314 locks since Bill retired in 1997. If anyone knows how to do it, it's him!!!
One of the unknowns about this cruise down the Tenn-Tom regarded the replacement of the 14-Mile Railroad Bridge. The waterway was scheduled to be completely closed from Oct. 30-Nov. 3rd while the old swing bridge was removed and the new lift bridge was moved down from Mile 21 and put into place at Mile 14. All southbound tows and boats were instructed to contact the Coast Guard by phone when they reached Mile 45 to be assigned a priority number. We called on October 31st and were assigned #8. The Coast Guard official told us he would call us when we could move closer to the site. We anchored at Tensaw River that afternoon to await further instructions the following day. On Nov. 1st, we took a little ride in the tender to explore the Tensaw River.
November 2...At 5:30 AM our phone rang (quite a surprise!). It was a Coast Guard official telling us the new bridge would be open from 5 to 9 AM, and we could come on down. It was pitch dark; we knew we couldn't cruise 25 miles by 9 AM, but the CG official said come on down anyway. As soon as it started to get light, fog moved in. We didn't get going until 6:35 AM and then it was with great caution as visibility was very poor. Capt. Bill sounded the horn every few minutes, and we kept a sharp lookout. Of course, our radar decided to "go on vacation" about that time! Fortunately, it came back on after Capt. Bill tweeked it for a while.
As we proceeded downstream, we passed six tows headed northbound, one right after the other. Had we been down near the bridge site earlier, we would have been waiting for all of them to pass through the new bridge. As it turned out, there was no one waiting when we got there at 9:30 AM, and the bridge tender lifted the bridge on request for us to pass. All in all, it was a very efficient operation.
We headed on downstream to Mobile and down Mobile Bay to Dog River where we are staying at Dog River Marina. Norm and Vicki Naughton (Tide Hiker) are "on the hard" in the boatyard. We met them last winter in Marathon with the other Defever owners who spent the winter there. They dropped by for a visit.
November 3-8...OMEGA was hauled out of the water, and Capt. Bill assessed the damage to our port prop at Foscue Creek. He determined that it did need to be repaired. The boatyard sends props to Panama City, so on the 4th we borrowed a boatyard truck and drove our prop over there (380 miles round-trip). On the 5th and 6th, Bill repainted OMEGA's bottom and on the 7th, we drove back to Panama City to pick up the prop...lots of driving!! We had hoped to be back in the water today, but the replacement of the seals on our stabilizers is still in the process of completion. We hope to be "splashed" tomorrow and on our way SE on Mobile Bay to the Florida Panhandle tomorrow, but a cold front with winds and rough waters are headed our way which may postpone our departure.
NOTE HIS LEFT SHOE - IT WAS BROWN!!
Besides working on OMEGA, we enjoyed going downtown with Norm and Vicki for dinner at Wintzell's Oyster House on Saturday evening, and we went to Our Lady of Lourdes Church Sunday morning.
Our next post will be from our home state of Florida!
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