Sunday

October 30th, 2016

Up at 5 am, in the lock by 5:30 with Loopers, Sweet Tea and Phase II in front of us.

This is using the flash...

Day lite finally!

We saw our first Gator....a big sucker!  Found him/her at Mile Marker 136 at 2:25 pm on 11-30-2016

This is Joell's first live Gator she's ever seen...(outside a zoo)

We're anchored for the night just short of Bobbies Fish Camp were we'll be getting more gas for the boat.

Saturday

October 29, 2016

We will be finishing up the Tenn-Tom today.  There were a total of 10 locks on the Tenn-Tom:  Jamie L.Whitten, Montgomery, John Rankin, Fulton, Glover Wilkins, Amory, Aberdeen, John C. Stennis, Tom Bevill and the Howell Heflin.  We have two more locks before entering mobile bay.  Those two locks are on the Black Warrior River and the Mobile River.  

Yesterday, Joell spent a few hours watching for Alligators.  She didn't see any yet.  Looks like at anchor tonight or tomorrow during the day is our best bet at seeing any.  Since no alligators were spotted yesterday, we swam in the river one last time.  We were at anchor with our buddy boat, Myron and Lynda.  They are staying at Demopolis, AL tonight, while we anchor again.  We will meet up with them again at 0700 tomorrow morning.  

When we anchor tonight, we will be 214 miles from mobile bay.  We have been traveling 40 to 60 miles a day.  We will do a few longer runs in the next couple of days.  At most, we run ten miles an hour.  

A few pictures from the last few days to follow, this evening.

Mile Marker 243 on the Tenn-Tom

A Tow running at night past our anchorage...

Elwood in one of the locks...

Flooded river area...

Mostly all Loopers...

Industry along the river...

A phone booth on the rivers edge...

An old paddle boat removed from the river and used for ???

Mikee Likes It rafted stern to port with Miss Bailey for the evening...

Having drinks with Myron and Linda on Miss Bailey...

Elwood after a swim at our anchorage...

On the river at 7am...

Rivers edge...

Here's Enterprise following us...

We wake at 6 am, leave our anchorage at 7 am.  Today we ran 63 miles, went through only one lock today at aprox. 8 mph and found our next anchorage around 3:30 pm just above the Demopolis Lock and Dam.  Tomorrow we repeat it all again...  but we're getting much closer to the Gulf of Mexico.

Our anchorage for Saturday evening...a little skinny getting in, but floating is 12 feet of water.

Tuesday

October 25, 2016

Left the Zippy Branch anchorage at 0700 and headed down the Yellow River towards the TennesseeTombigbee Waterway (Tenn-Tom).  Many looper boats were at Grand Harbor marina close by, and were also going down the Tenn-Tom with us.

A little bit of Tenn-Tom history

The Tenn-Tom is the largest civil works project ever undertaken by the Corps of Engineers.  The system is five times longer and has a total lift 3.5 times greater than the Panama Canal.  Construction required removal of 307 million cubic yards of earth, the pouring of 2.2 million cubic yards of concrete and the use of 33,000 tons of steel. 

The first known recommendation to build a canal linking the Tennessee and the Tombigbee Rivers was by a French explorer in about 1760.  Marquis de Montcalm believed a connection between the two rivers would help the French settle the South.

In 1820, the citizens of Knox County, TN (Knoxville) petitioned Congress to build a Waterway, so they could trade with Gulf Coast ports.

Ulysses S Grant's first official proposal in the White House, was to build a waterway from Tennessee to the Gulf.  His proposal included 44 locks and a price tag of $1.7 million, in 1874.

There were many additional studies before a workable plan was achieved in 1971.  The project started in 1972 and after 12 years cost $2 billion.  It officially opens on January 10, 1985.

The Tenn-Tom is divided into three sections:  The Divide Cut, the Canal Section and the River Section.    The Black Warrior and Tombigbee rivers, continuing on into Mobile Bay are not a part of this project.

Back to today

We went through the Divide Cut and part of the Canal Section of the Tenn-Tom.  We then anchored just before the Fulton Lock & Dam.  All the other looper boats traveling with us pulled into Midway Marina for the night, a few miles earlier.

Yellow Creek-just after leaving our Zippy anchorage

A beautiful morning drive down Yellow Creek

The Tenn-Tom - Divide Cut section is called a "ditch" by most.  We thought it was beautiful.

More of the Divide Cut.   Notice the water looks like glass.  

When you see these beautiful structures, there is usually a river hidden behind them.  They control the  flow of  water into the Tenn-Tom during rainy season.

Looper boats in the first of 10 Tenn-Tom locks.  The locks start in the  Tenn-Tom Canal Section.

The first Tenn-Tom lock, Jamie L. Whitten Lock & Dam, has a lift of 84 feet.

Another view of the Whitten locks as we were lowered 84 feet.

We call this a looper float-tilla.  We all went together from one lock to the next.  There were also two boats in front of us.

A view in the Tenn-Tom Canal Section.


Tomorrow we hope to get through 3 more locks in the Canal Section and one in the River Section, before staying at the Columbus Marina for two nights.  Might not make it, but we will see.  

Monday

October 24, 2016

Today we left Joe Wheeler State Park and headed back the way we came.  We had to enter two Locks we had gone through before.  The Joe Wheeler Lock & Dam and the Wilson Lock & Dam.  We then turned into the Yellow Creek, to continue our journey down to the gulf.

Here are our friends Myron & Linda, from Wisconsin, in the Joe Wheeler lock

We tie to these bollards and they go down or up the lock with us

This is looking up the wall where the bollard tracks up and down

Myron & Linda in the Wilson Lock

First push for Joell off of a lock wall.  

Mike taking a picture of us leaving Wilson Lock, as Joell drove

Beautiful view of our anchorage at Zippy Branch, MS.

Other side view of Zippy anchorage.

Barge going past the Zippy Branch anchorage after dark.