All to soon the alarm rang. We quickly got dressed for another great day. Did someone forget to turn on the sun? The air outside and in was thick enough to cut and it was misting outside. When it rains, the water drops periodically clean off the window. When it mists, we have to wipe them frequently. So as we continued down the Yellow Creek to the Tenn-Tom Waterway and for the first 3 hours from 7-10 we wiped windows inside and out. Tom even tried a fan on the inside of the window to keep it from fogging up! It did not work!
The Tenn-Tom connects the Tennessee River at Pickwick Lake with the Tombigbee River at Demopholis AL. Below Demopolis it is called the Black Warrior-Tombigbee Waterway. Construction on the Waterway began in 1972 but was not completed until June of 1985. More earth was moved in this project than for the Panama Canal! It shortened the trip by as much as 720 miles. A vessel going from Pensacola FL to Chattanooga TN would travel 771 miles rather than 1,541 via the Mississippi River .
The Waterway runs downhill 341 feet over 450 miles from Pickwick Lake to Mobile. We are back on green for RBD and red for LBD. The Waterway is divided into three sections. Today we entered the 27 mile "DIVIDE CUT" which ends at mile 441.9 and the Whitten Lock, our first lock of the day. It connects the Tennessee and Tombigbee River basins and is 280 feet wide and 12 feet deep. Along this stretch we passed one barge 2 x 2 and one pleasure boat passed us! Also in the Divide Cut we passed into the state of Mississippi .
The next 52 miles is the "CANAL SECTION", which consists of dams and pools. It contains 6 locks and dams. We will cover 20 miles of the Canal Section today and the rest tomorrow. The Divide Cut is separated from the Canal Section by the Whitten Lock and Dam (above). It is the third highest lock east of the Mississippi and the fourth highest in the nation. The drop is 84 feet.
It took us an hour to clear Whitten Lock. We waited about twenty minutes for the lock to filled, went in, tied up and then slowly descended as the water was let out. Looking up a bollard really gives you a feeling of the depth inside.
The final lock of the day was Rankin, also with a 30 foot drop.
Compare the depth of Whitten (picture before) with Rankin (below).
Our home for the night is Midway Marina, four miles further down the river and the halfway point on the Canal Section. We finish the day at 56 miles including 3 locks in 8 1/2 hours. After gassing up (we are getting almost 6 mpg with both engines at 3,000 rpms), we borrowed the loaner car and visited Walmart for an extension cord to put a light in our fresh water pontoon. Dinner at Wendy's. It is predicted to be 20 degrees tonight? We are glad to be on the downhill river flowing into the warm weather gulf!
