Wednesday, August 1

Feels like the middle of nowhere - Midway - Tenn-Tom Waterway

Midway Marina - Tenn- Tom Waterway

Too many locks - too many delays

Running full throttle - Tenn-Tom Waterway

The 234-mile Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway (Tenn-Tom), which links the Tennessee River eventually to Mobile Bay, is a popular route for commercial and recreational vessels because it shortens the distance traveled on inland rivers and lacks the fierce current of the Mississippi and other rivers.
After 12 years of construction, at a total cost of nearly $2 billion, this man-made canal officially opened in January, 1985.  It 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.
The first section is the 27-mile Divide Cut that connects the Tennessee and Tombigbee river basins.  This canal is 280 ft. wide and only 12 ft. deep.  Using modern day equipment it took seven private contractors almost eight years to complete.
Next is the 56-mile Canal Section, also known as the Chain of Lakes segment.  Here the Corps chose to bypass the Tombigbee River altogether with a series of five locks forming small lakes.  We had really lousy timing here and found ourselves caught in the middle of heavy commercial traffic, stuck at one lock for over two hours.  With no wind & high temps, it was especially annoying.
When it became apparent that we would be waiting that long again at Fulton Lock (our 4th of the day), in the middle of a thunderstorm, we turned back to spend the night at Midway Marina.  The dock master, Pat, was a great guy from Grinnell, Iowa, who during his youth had spend many summers in Clear Lake.  A few years back, he and his wife left Rock Island, IL. on a 40 ft. river boat bound for New Orleans -  stopped here, liked it and now he runs the marina. 
We hope to have better luck on the Tenn-Tom tomorrow .............