Log 56; Day 160; Oct. 28; Bay Springs, New Site, MS.

Log 56
Day 160
Tuesday, October 28, 2008

5:45 AM CDT
Location: Bay Springs Marina, New Site, MS.
Weather: 37* and mostly clear (too dark to really tell); forecast is for 55 and sunny

I’m not sure when I’ll be able to send this log. We’re sitting Bay Springs Marina, at the end of a covered slip in a cove just off the main waterway of the Tenn-Tom. We have no phone service...no internet...we’re not connected. We do have satellite TV, so I can watch the news and weather this morning. I have the VHF radio on waiting for a conversation among about 5 boats to discuss when to leave the slip. We all have crossed paths in the last week or so, and we all ended up at the same marina, which is just above the Jammie Whitten Lock. Some of us talked yesterday and decided we would talk (on the VHF) about 7 am or so and if the lock was available we would all go together. The reason is these locks do a good job of sequencing traffic...so if several of us start at the first lock together, our hope is that the next lock should be open and ready for us when we arrive. We did this before when we were on the Tenn-Tom and it worked well.

Yesterday...we had an easy day of travel. It was sunny, but cold and windy. Thanks to our heated helm area we were warm and comfortable. We came our first 38 miles on the 450 mile Tenn-Tom waterway, which starts in Iuka, MS...and ends in Mobile, AL. This waterway is the largest project ever undertaken by the Army Corp of Engineers. It started in 1972 and was open in 1985 at a cost of over $2 billion dollars. It’s mission was to connect the Tennessee River in Mississippi, with the Black Warrior River in Alabama, to provide a direct route to the Gulf of Mexico, which would save 800 miles verses using the Mississippi River to get to Mobile. While it was originally planned for commercial traffic...it is mostly used by pleasure boats. It is the route all Loopers use to get to Florida.

Most of the next several days will be spent in the middle of nowhere (with very limited cell service)...crossing back and forth between the states of Mississippi and Alabama several times. They did not build this route very close to any towns and unless you are on the water there is no need to be here...so this is really a bunch of south bound boaters out here together. There are a few marinas in the first 250 miles...and then nothing until Mobile. In this stretch there are also 10 locks which will drop us 341 feet before we reach Coffeeville, AL (116 miles north of Mobile) and the beginning of sea level water. It’s an interesting trip.

Today...once we find out the lock status we’ll all head out. Not sure about the others, but HQ’s plan is to go through 4 locks and stop at Smithville Marina, in Smithville, MS. A distance of about 40 miles. If the locks treat us ok, we should be there in mid to late afternoon.

I’ll keep you posted.

BK.