TTW

(Fri July 3)
As we lifted our lines ready to move over to the fueling dock to pump out our holding tanks Tom yells “tie us off again I don’t have any port throttle”. Ehgads. So I quickly tie us off and Tom investigates. Turns out it was a simple fix this time, a set screw came loose. So Tom tightened it and we continued on with our plans. Pumped out and headed out.

Since we turned north from Mobile we’ve been on the Black Warrior/Tombigbee River (BWTB) however just north of Demopolis it changed to the Tenn-Tom (Tennessee-Tombigbee) Waterway (TTW) which is a manmade link from the Tennessee River to the Gulf of Mexico. (history lesson) This waterway was completed in 1984 consisting of 11 locks within a 234 miles section of canals/rivers and we expect to rise approx. 340 feet. Cool!


We passed by the White Cliffs of Epes before we entered into the Howell Heflin Lock (our first official lock on the TTW). We also passed under a RR Bridge just as a train crossed it – REALLY LOUD & COOL. There was a cruiser already in the lock waiting on us the “Brown Eyed Girl”. The lock masters will call up and down the river to see if anyone else is in the vicinity for a duel lock through and they did yesterday. Since they were waiting on us the first cruiser probably had to wait for about 30 minutes for the lock through, we just drove on in and tied off. Doesn’t seem fair, but I’m sure we’ll have our turn somewhere up the line. We lifted 37 feet.



We’ve encountered much more civilization today, many more homes along the river’s edge. More folks out playing and having a general good time on and in the water and in spite of them all it was an easy cruising day.

We decided to anchor in Cook Bend cutoff and drove the entire length of the oxbow to check it out. Once we rounded the bend we encountered numerous nice homes, boats, water skiers and tubers. Everyone having a great start to the Fourth of July weekend, and a few beers I think. We found a nice little nitch closer to the mouth of the cutoff and dropped anchors. Again, probably not necessary since it seems there’s a few feet of soft mud holding us in place – but we did anyway just in case. We popped our heads out at around 4am to enjoy a spectacular view of the stars.