When we last “talked” I was on my way to SC to ready the house for Florence’s possible visit, and much time has passed. As Jimmy Buffett says in his song Fruitcakes, I think I need to say mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa. I’ll interlace all my excuses for not writing in my narrative.
I made it to SC before the evacuation order took place. We started putting up storm shutters and kept an eye on Florence. It looked like she might only affect the northern border counties of South Carolina. The Governor cancelled the evacuation order for Beaufort County, so we breathed a little easier. Then on Wednesday morning things took a turn for the worse. Florence’s projected path had me very concerned, not for Beaufort, but for Lesson Plan resting 470 miles away. The Wednesday morning update from NOAA showed Florence making landfall near Wilmington, NC and then continuing toward Atlanta and then toward Birmingham and Northern Alabama. My concern was the 50’ bridges I had to clear with my 46’6” mast. For my comfort I like to have at least 48’ clearance. I recall from my days of sailing on Barren River Reservoir that 1 inch of rain in the Barren River basin can raise the Reservoir foot. Florence was predicted to be dumping feet of rain. I knew I better get ahead of this and get Lesson Plan down the river (and 10 locks) before the rain hit. We finished installing the storm shutters and left Wednesday afternoon. So, we headed out. Theresa to KY to visit with the grandchildren and former work mates and me to the boat.
I got back to Grand Harbor Marina on Thursday evening and had dinner with fellow Loopers from the Lower Place (Charlie and Robin McVey). Charlie and Robin were in Petoskey, MI in August 2017 when Steve and I also stayed there. The Lower Place was docked near us and we meet the crew at docktails that evening. It was good to catch up with them. (Got in too late to write.)
Grand Harbor Marina is at the junction of the Tennessee River and the Tenn-Tom Waterway. Take the Tennessee River east and you could go through Chattanooga and Knoxville. I headed south as I had last October down the Tenn-Tom. One day I would like to head east and travel the Tennessee River, one of these days.
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| The Divide Cut |
The first feature heading south on the Tenn-Tom is a section called “The Divide Cut”. The 29-mile divide cut connects Pickwick Lake (on the Tennessee River) with Bay Springs Lake, created by the first of the 10 Dams on the Tenn-Tom Waterway.
The Jamie Whitten lock is a behemoth of locks. It has a lift (or drop) of 84 feet. Thankfully it is a drop for me, going down is much easier than going up. I made 3 locks on day one. This week is another one of those where you want to keep moving to keep the air flowing as long as you can. I stopped at Midway Marina for the night, which is near Fulton, MS. I am sure that Fulton has its charms and interesting history, but the folks at the marina didn’t seem to know any. (Oh well, nothing to write about here.)
The next morning, I took off around 6:40 and followed fellow Looper, Elation, through the next four locks. Elation is a trawler and could have made a little better time, but these four locks were close enough that the lockmasters know two boats are coming and they will rarely lock through one RV (recreational vessel) by itself when they know another one is coming soon. The crew of Elation must have known this, for the captain called me and said they were just going to save a little fuel and pace along with me on the next four locks.
I got a text from Charlie just after locking through the Fulton Lock (the first one of the day). He was checking on my progress for the day and set just let him know if I need anything, its not that far to Columbus by car. Yep, I said; two hours by car, two days by sailboat, that’s about right.
The day went great. There wasn’t much commercial traffic that day, and we were able to radio ahead far enough that lockmasters had the doors open for us and the green light on. We reached the fourth lock around 2:00. Once we exited that lock (around 2:30), Elation took off. They were headed to Columbus Marina, which is before the Columbus Lock, I would be going on through the Columbus Lock to find and anchorage further down river.
I reached the Columbus Lock around 4:30. I had to wait on some bass boats to be lifted, but still got in the lock by 4:45. The anchorage I wanted to reach tonight was about 14 miles past Columbus Lock. There are not a lot of anchorages in this stretch of the river, there are some just after the lock, and then one about 14 miles. These are the ones marked on the chart, I might be able to find others if I had to, but since there are big barges traveling at night, I prefer to use known anchorages.
Just as the Columbus Lockmaster was closing the doors, I hear a call on the radio.
Columbus Lock this the southbound vessel Recess.
This is Columbus Lock go ahead.
This is Recess, we are going to duck in here to Columbus Marina and get some fuel and we will be right over to lock through.
How long will you be?
Not long, maybe 20 minutes.
I have one RV in the chamber now, we will wait on you.
My heart sank, I knew, in reality this fuel stop was going to take 40 minutes and I would not be able to make the anchorage (14 miles at 7.4 MPH, sunset at 7:02, you can do the math). I would have to stop with more than an hour of sunlight left. Oh well, I will try to anchor on the shady side.
Recess called back (after 10 minutes) and said they were going to just stay at the Marina for the night. I think I will make it after all.
I found the anchorage near a beach that was vacant. The reviews on this anchorage said the beach could be crowed, especially on weekends, this was Saturday. It was right at sunset, so I guess everyone had gone home for the day. I had a peaceful night and heard a few of the planes from Columbus Air Force Base flying around. A great night listening to the sound of freedom. (Enjoying the sounds of Freedom.)
Lesson Learned:
Never give up hope of making your goal.
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| Captured this when I got back Lesson Plan as I was dropping off the rental car. It is going to be a hot week on the boat. I plan to anchor 3 of the four nights. Just to hot to do anything other than just think about writing. |
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