The Tenn-Tom

Tuesday, November 1

We only covered the first 38 miles of the Tenn-Tom Waterway today from the beginning just past Grand Harbor Marina to Bay Springs, Mississippi. The waterway was first proposed in the late 1700s but not completed until 1985. The deepest cut was 175' and the entire construction moved more earth than digging the Panama Canal. There's your engineering marvel and history lesson for the day!  

We stopped for the night at Bay Springs Marina, mile marker 412.  The next 3 dams are fairly close together so we should be able to get through all of them in one day.


Wednesday, November 2

Whitten Lock was already open when we called at 8 am. Three other boats were already tied up and waited for us--Life's TraVAILS, Tidings of Joy, and Mystic. This lock drops 85 feet, the 3rd largest elevation change in locks east of the Mississippi. We all stayed in line going down the Tenn-Tom through all 3 locks. Then we all went in Midway Marina at mile marker 394. Kelly and I borrowed the courtesy car to see the visitors center showing a lot of information on building the locks and canal. Later that evening 2 more boats pulled in the marina.

Thursday, November 3

Boats started pulling out of the marina at 7:30 am. We are the slowest boat so we went last. Another boat came down river and that makes 7 boats in Fulton lock. This part of the Tenn-Tom is moderately narrow so we all followed each other in line from Fulton to Wilkins to Amory locks. Coming out of Amory two of the boats said they were going 20 mph. Five of us went through Aberdeen Lock together and then two sped ahead out of the lock. It ended up that all 5 of us are at Columbus Marina, mile marker 335 on the Tenn-Tom for the night. We still have 3 more locks until we get to Demopolis.