Tenn-Tom

Saturday – Monday

Saturday turned out to be a nice sunny day, but we had a few problems.  First off our toilet bowl gasket was  leaking which required complete removal of the toilet in order to repair, luckily we had the part aboard!  Thanks to a good captain! The plan was for us to lead the other boats today, but our auto pilot started to act up and all it would do is go in circles.  John checked the manuals and didn’t find any help, very frustrating, since it would work for a little while and then act up again.  John then went down in the bilge where there is a compass that is part of the auto pilot system and gave it a good smack its has been OK ever since! Knock on wood.

We spent the night at Bay Springs  marina which is about .5 mile from the first lock. On weekends the locks operate on a schedule and not on demand as we have been used to.  This will require a bit more planning to get to them at their scheduled opening.

As we were pulling in Kadadi hailed us on the radio, they had spent the past two nights at anchor across the bay form the marina. Most likely we will run into them at the first lock opening.

Sunrise at Bay Spring

Sunday morning we only had a short distance to our first lock of the day the Jamie Whitten Lock, it was the largest on the Tenn-Tom with a 85 foot drop.  We were then lucky to get through the next three locks with out any waiting. We are traveling with Jeramiah, Southern Belle and Kadadi and we spent the night at Smithville Marina.  It was very rustic with lots of house boats being working on in various ways.  The people were all very friendly.

We left Monday early at 7ish for or first lock that again was only 600 yards from the marina. Again no difficulties locking through the next three lock today.  We did have a lot of logs floating in the water so every one was on the look out for these, as no one wanted to hit one with their prop.  That would not be a good thing. All along the banks the trees and bushes were very pretty with their oranges and yellows.

Flooded timber

Bad day on the water

Train on railway bridge

We arrived at Columbus Marina in Ms. The harbor master T.Caldwell told us that there are alligators in the water around here. I am on the look out and will try to get a picture of one if I can.  Our plan as of right now is to stay here again tomorrow and then start of on Wednesday morning depending on weather, thunderstorms predicted, so we shall see.  To be continued….

Mary & John