THE TENNESSEE-TOMBIGBEE WATERWAY - PART 1

We Are now making our way south down the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway, better known as the Tenn-Tom.  It is absolutely beautiful, in spite of questionable weather.  Then again, it is winter.  I have thought a lot about this phase of the cruise as it is truly our last leg before we close our circle at the point where the Mobile Ship Channel intersects the Gulf Intercoastal Waterway.  So many cruisers rush through this leg and miss so much.  I am not prepared to do that, although admittedly, there is not a whole lot to do if you are one of those cruisers who thrives on nightlife and other excitement.  However, it is far from boring and desolate. 

Here you can see the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway in red.

After leaving Grand Harbor in Iuka, MS, for what we believe will probably be the last time, we headed south down Yellow Creek to the mouth of the TTW.  Here, you enter into a man made ditch that runs 25 miles and then opens up into Bay Springs Lake.  All along the waterway there is beautiful forest and an abundance of wildlife.  We saw at least two kinds of Eagles as well as gulls, turns, and a variety of black birds, the names of which we are unaware.  The environs are clearly man made as the sides of the river are terraced – up, up, and up.  We were running in around 15 feet of water and the terraces went close to 100 feet up.  It’s hard to imagine that there could be that much water in here. 

In that regard, it is interesting how the rain all flows to the rivers.  You don’t recognize this as much when you live in a concrete jungle like LA or even Ventura and Santa Barbara.  There, there are nice and orderly gutters that take the rain to nice and orderly run off canals and then out to the ocean.  Here, however, the water flows off the land and almost always, directly into the rivers, creeks, streams, etc., until all of it flows into the Mississippi and then ultimately, into the Gulf of Mexico.  It’s just very different.  We are running on the rivers and have noticed over the last few months how the weather affects us in very different ways than it does on the ocean.  Basically, it comes down to this:  No matter how much it rains, the water level on the Pacific Ocean does not change.

So, we have only done a small part of the TTW.  The TTW runs basically from the intersection of the Tennessee River and the Yellow Creek, all the way down to Mobile Bay.  This is about 450 miles.  Most of it is all natural, al beit now controlled with dams and locks.  It is hardly just a straight line, either.  Rather, and especially down towards the bottom where it flows into Mobile Bay, it is full of bends and curves.  I think the designers of the TTW took some lessons from the mistakes Distler made when he designed the Okeechobee Waterway.  If you run it too straight, the river will not be able to take care of itself and pollution and polluted runoff will become a serious problem.   In any event, the canal I described above is a small part of all of this.  Actually, at this point, we are in the “Chain of Lakes” section of the TTW.

We stopped at a place called Bay Springs where there is a TTW Visitors Center.  This was in any event a logical stopping point for the day.  It included a perfect anchorage way back in a protected finger off Bay Springs Lake.  We hopped in the dinghy and found the dinghy dock to the Visitors Center which was on the Lake just above the Bay Springs Lock.

The visitors center featured a great model showing the whole of the TTW from Yellow Creek all the way to Demopolis, Alabama and included recorded descriptions and explanations.  We learned a lot.  For instance, frankly, before starting planning this trip, I had never even heard of the TTW, yet, it was the biggest project ever undertaken by the Army Corps Of Engineers.  Furthermore, in spite of its relative anonymity, more earth was moved in the construction of the TTW than in the construction of the Panama Canal.  Actually, the TTW brings together 12 rivers into a single navigable system.  There are three sections:  River, Canal and Divide.  There are 10 Locks and dams that raise vessels the 341 feet to travel from Demopolis in the south, north to the Tennessee River.  The whole point in the construction of the TTW was to shorten the water route from the Tennessee, Ohio and Upper Mississippi River Systems to the Gulf Coast.  The TTW encompasses more than 16,000 miles of navigable inland waters.  Believe it or not, the TTW was only opened in 1985. 

No, that is not a prison.  This is the Bay Springs Lock and Dam Complex

We spent about an hour at the visitors center learning about this amazing waterway and then headed out on what is called the Overlook Trail which takes you on a nice long walk through the forest all the way to the Bay Springs Lock and Dam, aka Whitten Lock and Dam.  They handed us a pamphlet that identified a number of trees and other bushes that are commonly found in this area.    Other than to the trained eye, both, or should I say many, species appear the same at this time of the year – all bald. 

So, we followed the trail a little further and it lead us to an old cabin built entirely of old hand working implements back in 1860 in the Paden, Mississippi area.  and which was moved here when the TTW was built to save it from the inevitable flooding.  It was interesting to see this house and to read of its history.  This house is not merely a model, but actually belonged to a family that lived here many years ago.  It’s hard to believe so many folks lived together in such a small space.

Bay Springs was a great stop.  It got us off on the right foot for the rest of the trip down the TTW.

The following day, it was my intention to leave early and pass through at least 4 locks and get down to the town of Smithville.  Ever visited Smithville, Mississippi?  Neither have we so it seemed like a reasonable thing to do.  Plus, there is an anchorage right next to the lock that is described as one of the best in the area.  Unfortunately, when I turned on the computer as we were getting ready to leave, I noticed that the AIS showed a vessel approaching the lock from down below.  Well, that meant delay.  So, I called the lock on the radio and asked if we would be able to lock through when this boat was through the chamber.  Then, he told me it would be a while as he had another boat coming up, and another heading south that was due to arrive “pretty soon”.  So, it was going to be almost two hours before we could leave.

We have been doing this lock thing for long enough to know that you have to add almost an hour to your day’s journey for every lock just to be on the safe side of cruise planning.  Today, we had planned to make it through 4 locks.  This means add 4 hours.  So, although we planned only to go 35 miles, add to that the time it takes to get through 4 locks and it’s going to be a pretty long day.  We really did not know how long it would turn out to be.

We were permitted to lock down with this towboat and barge.  This was the first time since last year we could be in the box with a commercial boat.  He was just shovin' loads of rock, so there was really no risk.  At least, there was no risk once he was tied up and his engines in neutral.  We slid in there along side and tied up and they let us out first.  I had to be real careful so I wouldn't scratch his boat.  Ha!

The weather has been simply malevolent.  All day long it rained on and off.  The wind blew on and off.  And then there was the fog.  Couple some rather tough weather conditions with longer than anticipated delays at the locks and we had a very long day.  We had originally planned to get into Smithville at around 2:00 in the afternoon.  We did not get here until nearly 5:00 p.m.  It was getting dark and the fog got really thick all of a sudden.  So thick, that we could hardly see the front of the boat, not to mention our way into an anchorage we had never been in before.  So, it was interesting to say the least,  but, inasmuch as I am in fact writing this, we made it just fine. 

We never did make it in to visit Smithville.  It was too rainy and forecast to stay that way for the next day or so and thus we decided to keep moving south.

Now, it is very early in the morning and I am hoping to make it to Columbus, Mississippi today.  We have been anchored out the last few and would like to take in some sights, so we might just take a spot in a marina near Columbus and see what happens.  The weather is shit right now and that makes it hard to get too enthusiastic about anything.  We’ll see.

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We had a pretty interesting day rolling down to Columbus.  For the most part it was pretty straight forward.  4 locks, but at least the rain showers turned off. 

Actually, for Runway, the day's trip was pretty boring.

First thing in the morning I awaken and check our position.  It would appear we swung over a little closer to the bank than I was comfortable with.  We were still floating so all was not that bad.  Nevertheless, it was light out (well, almost) so I woke Brenda and started the engine.  We moved out of there and back into the main channel lickety split and called the lock for a trip down.  They were ready for us and off we went.  It was raining and foggy, but the weather service (National Whatever Service) said it would get better.

Well, get better it did.  While the sun never quite showed itself, it cooled down (a shift in the wind to the north signaling the end of the rain for a while) and the wind settled quite a bit as well.

After the fourth lock of the day, we turned left onto the Tombigbee River (sort of an oxbow the TTW runs through now) for a two mile jaunt up to the town of Columbus, Mississippi.  We decided to forego the fancy marina which I had heard nothing but good things about, in order to anchor right in front of the town.  Actually, we are anchored right in front of the area that is the "downtown" area complete with all the historic buildings including the home of Tennessee Williams, the great American playwright.  We got in sort of early so we laid around for a little bit and then took off in the dinghy for the 50 foot row to the dinghy dock (no point in putting on the engine for 50 feet).  In any event, we went to dinner and decided we would stay another day.  So, we'll explore the place a bit and then move on.  I'm sure I'll have more to say later. 

So, more later.....