Mississippi: Midway Marina to Columbus Yacht Basin

Day 132
NM Today: 51
NM Total: 2751
Locks Today: 4
Locks Total: 97

"Up by 7:00; out by 8:00" was today's mantra.  At precisely 7:45 the first of six vessels left Midway Marina together to travel down the Tenn-Tom Waterway.  One sailboat, Namaste, and one motor vessel, Sea-to-See, joined our caravan south which included yesterday's foursome of Grand Baron, Sum Escape, LeeLoo, and Sea Moss.  When we left Midway, the latter four boats planned to anchor together just after Amory Lock; however, as Clark and I traveled south with the group, we looked at the current weather (no rain) and the forecast a couple of days from now (heavy rain) and decided that we should make as much distance today as daylight would permit.

We set a new target for ourselves - Columbus Yacht Basin in Columbus, Mississippi -- adding 31 miles and one lock to our original planned 28 miles and 3 locks making our new target mileage 59 statute miles and 4 locks.  To get to our target destination of Demopolis, Alabama, we will need to stay in at least one anchorage.  By changing our plans, we are hoping for a dry anchorage instead of a rainy one.

The Fred Myers Cruise Guide says that we are supposed to relax and enjoy our time on the Tenn-Tom to admire the waterway's beauty.  Perhaps it is the lack of sunshine, but I find the waterway quite tedious.  The most interesting part of each day's voyage is locking through the locks, which after having completed over 90 locks has become quite mundane in and of itself.  I may become excited should I spy an alligator as one looper did recently.  Until then I find that I look forward to alternate scenery further along the Great Loop.  In other words I had no issue with my captain's proposal that we push on as far as possible today.

After we entered the first lock for today, the lockmaster closed the doors as usual only to open them again shortly afterwards.  Another looper boat, Good Day, had called the lock requesting a lock through.  Since Good Day was only a short distance away, the lockmaster decided to wait for him to arrive.  When he reopened the doors, I noticed that a Great Blue Heron was enjoying a free ride. Unfortunately by the time I got Clark to the stern of the boat to take a picture, the heron decided that he had been riding the door long enough.  He appears in the picture below flying away as Clark snapped the shot.

Blue Heron Leaving the Scene

When we exited the lock, the lockmaster told the rest of us to wait for Good Day to exit first.  He was a fast boat, so we let him go so we would not get in his way and force him to pass us later on.  He took off when the doors opened, and we never saw Good Day again for the rest of the day.

The Skipper Bob cruising guide showed pictures of the structure below called a Baffle.  I thought it interesting and requested that Clark click our own picture should he see one.  A baffle is a structure restricting water from rushing in where a creek flows into the canal.  The picture below proves that he found one although I did not see it myself.

Baffle on the Tenn-Tom Waterway

Tenn-Tom Waterway Reflections

Clark noticed two different "bridges to nowhere" on the canal.  Below is a picture of one of them.

Bridge to nowhere on the Tenn-Tom

As we approached Columbus, Mississippi we heard one jet plane after another going overhead; however, with the cloud cover, we did not get to see even one of them.  Columbus Air Force Base has runways only a couple of miles east of the waterway.  This base was used heavily during World War II and then again during the Korean War.  Now this base trains about one-third of all U.S. Air Force pilots.  No wonder we heard so many flying over.  Clark said that, given the sounds, he assumed they were practicing take off and landing, i.e. "touch and go" maneuvers.

Sunset occurred today at 5:00.  To see if we could make it to the marina before sunset, the captain did some calculations and predicted our arrival at Columbus, Mississippi to be 4:45 based on distance and travel speed.  We pulled into the marina at 4:47 and were docked by 4:55.   His calculation were right on the money, but wow ... Nothing like cutting it close in terms of losing daylight!!

When we walked up to the office to check in for the night, we found the owners of Drifters there waiting for their laundry to finish drying.  We had a nice chat and learned that several other vessels are here for the night and heading out tomorrow with the same plans as ours - anchorage tomorrow night followed by arrival at the marina in Demopolis, Alabama Thursday night before the bad weather arrives on Friday.

Drifters called tonight to solidify plans to leave together at 7:00 a.m. tomorrow.  We are heading for the same targeted anchorage for the night.  Looks like we will have some company for our trip on the waterway tomorrow!