Friday, August 3

What a difference a day can make ....... we woke up to the hot sun buried behind a densely overcast sky and the temps were actually pleasant. The Columbus Marina kindly called Stennis Lock for us and the gates were opened upon our arrival. The lock through took all of fifteen minutes. We were off to a good start!! The River Section of the Tenn-Tom is 149 miles long and includes four locks. To create this stretch, a channel 9-feet deep and 300 feet wide was dredged in the Tombigbee River. More than 30 rock dams were constructed to eliminate many severe bends. Still, this stretch has more twists and turns, obscuring the view of oncoming traffic. There are scattered areas of housing, a few camp groups, but mostly more of the same - forested shoreline. By 11:30 am, fifty miles into our day's cruise, Charlie turned to me and said ....."I'm bored." (You kind of start wondering if this isn't "Deliverance" territory - that would be too much excitement. Just thoughts of that movie are unnerving.) Sure enough, coming out of a river bend, we spotted the tow "Jody McMinn" - the same one that has bedeviled us throughout the Tenn-Tom. The Heflin Lock (our final one of the day) was still ahead, but we had a chance to outrun her this time. If it is not one thing, it's another - arriving at the lock with time to spare, we were told that maintenance work was being done to a valve. It took just long enough for the Jody McMinn to catch up with us and take her priority status. Worse yet, they were using this lock to provision the boat. A thunderstorm was brewing and we had a REALLY long wait in the rain - this time three hours. Have we mentioned our dislike of tows & locks lately? Finally we arrived at the Demopolis Yacht Basin at 5:30 pm. It's safe to say this is one funky place in the middle of no-where Alabama. At the boater's lounge we were greeted by a "left over hippie" sailor who invited us to join in a toke, we declined and instead headed for the on-site restaurant, the New Orleans House. It was obvious that this is a local hangout and once again we found the people to be very friendly. In particular, Tom, a local business man who we think should be the mayor of Demopolis - a wonderful ambassador for the town. When they starting setting up for Karoke at 10:00 pm, we made a mad dash back to the boater's lounge to catch some coverage of the Olympics - our hippie friend was no where to be found.

"Deliverance Territory" - River Section Tenn-Tom

Heflin Lock - 3 hr. wait in the rain

Dodging the river debris