Columbus, MS to Pickensville, MS to Aliceville, AL

Hi folks...this is going to be a 2-fer...that is 2 days worth of blog in one. We left the Columbus Marina on Wednesday, traveling with California Lady and InSpeyered 2. We were only about 1/4 mile to the first lock, and by the time we actually locked through, there were 6 boats in the lock - all Loopers. After a lock-full like this, it takes a mile or so for everyone to spread out and find the pace they like moving forward.

 

 

The 3 of us traveled the rest of the day together, targeting an anchorage in the area of Pickensville, where the Snagboat Montgomery is docked and can be toured. Snagboats were in service from the early 1900's through about 1970, and were used to clear debris (rocks, stumps, logs, etc.) from the dams and rivers. Initially these were steam powered vessels, but were converted to fossil fuels in the 50's (if we remember correctly).

To get a sense of the size of this boat, look at the white spec in about the center of the picture...that's Sandy.

Although there were some shallow spots, we figured it out and found ourselves in a beautiful anchorage at the Pickensville Recreation Area, only about 100 yards from a boat ramp for dog walking, and idyllic scenery. And an almost clear night with an almost full moon made it very nice. Docktails aboard InSpeyered 2 were a blast...2 hours worth of great conversation and many laughs.

California Lady at anchor.

InSpeyered 2 at anchor.

On Thursday morning, the 3 ladys and Captain Al from Inspeyered 2 went for an hour walk (with Leroy the wonder dog from California Lady) and we departed at about 10 am. Another nice day of cruising...great weather and great traveling companions. This morning, we were about 2 miles above a lock (Stennis) and we had an even bigger crowd...7 (or was it 8?) boats in the lock. The surprise of the day for us was the arrival of Happy Happy, who we met way back on Day #3 at Goose Pond Marina. It was great to see them again. They were traveling with a faster pack of boats, but as it turned out, we all ended up at about the same place at the end of the day.

See the guy waving at us?

 

Now do you see him? It gives you a sense for how big these barges and operations are.

We think that this one is a recycling plant.

InSpeyered 2 with some of the better color that we have seen so far.

 

We did end the day with a bit of confusion, as by the time our trio arrived at the anchorage that we had selected, the Inn was quite full. It would have taken quite a bit of maneuvering and moving of boats already at anchor to make room for all of us. Disappointedly, we broke up and headed in 3 different directions. Inspeyered 2 went back up-river to an anchorage that had caught their eye; California Lady took the risk that paid off by pushing forward through another lock to an anchorage just below the lock; and we (being the smallest boat of the lot) were able to raft off of others already at anchor...Encore and Happy Happy.

California Lady found themselves all alone in a beautiful anchorage, and ahead of the crowd for Friday's travel, while we found ourselves in a really nice anchorage with 6 other boats in rather tight quarters. Inspeyered 2 found a great anchorage also, but will have a few extra miles to travel. In the end it will all work out, as all of us are headed for the same (and only) marina in Demopolis, AL tomorrow.

Update: We're posting this from Demopolis, AL. We arrived yesterday afternoon, and will post another blog with an detailed update...to follow sometime...

Smithville Marina to Columbus Marina

We made it to Columbus, MS in advance of the remnants of Hurricane Patricia. Our day was mostly just overcast and cloudy with periods of very light rain. We could see that we had a couple of days ahead of us that would be windy and rainy, and Columbus was the best choice of destinations for us to be holed up for a few days. And it worked out just right. We are in a covered slip, plenty of dog walking area very close by, a town with everything that we could need in the way of shopping and restaurants, marina courtesy car, and lots of other loopers here to share time and stories with. And not to worry Gigi...we are safe and in no danger from the wind and rain!

We continued our travels with the twin Nordic Tugs today, and had reasonable luck with the locks. Our young friends aboard the sailing vessel Perigee also joined us through the first 2 locks. We had a tow in front of us for the first part of the day, which added about 2 hours to our schedule. We had to wait to leave the dock an extra hour as this tow was just entering the dock below the marina. Then, with the second lock only about 5 miles away, we had to pace ourselves behind them through this second lock. Once through the Glover Wilkens and Amory locks though, we had a straight forward travel day for the most part from there. In total we dropped about another 90 feet through 3 locks, the 3rd being the Aberdeen lock.

A few shots of the commercial activity today...

Typical passing lane for this part of the journey.

 

 

One "interesting" event occurred when we passed one of the above tows who was working to maneuver a barge at a loading/staging area. These tows put out quite a prop wash behind them when they are maneuvering these heavy barges around. We needed to pass between this working tow and the channel marker about 50 or 60 feet to his stern. This meant we had to plow through his prop wash and be prepared for a big sideways push. And it was a fun ride for a few seconds! We knew it was coming, planned for it by boosting our rpm's and adjusting our steerage, and smashed right through it. It won't be the last time we will encounter this, but it'll be just as exciting the next time!

Captain Sandy and the able crew at the helm.

When we arrived at Columbus marina, the staff was terrific in managing all 3 of us into covered slips very quickly. It was nice to have able help guiding us in and handling the lines. The only surprise was that we had some vegetation to wade through. This is a floating invasive species that is actually quite pretty...water hyacinth. It floats around on the surface of the water, traveling wherever the blowing wind takes it. And right now, this batch is right in front of our boat at the slip, and behind us, and beside us. It is a nuisance more than anything, but we will have to leave the slip with some care...we just need to make sure that we don't suck any into our engine water intake or bow thrusters. With any luck, the wind will blow it away when we are ready to leave in a few days.

 



 

 

This afternoon (Monday the 26th) we rented a car for a day...Enterprise picked up Sandy just a few minutes ago right here at the marina. She is off to run a few errands, and then go explore a few of the antebellum mansions that are open to the public in the area. This has been on her wish list since the start, so she is excited to venture off. Rob is back on the boat tending to some work and a few boat things. There might be dinner out or a movie, or both later on!

 

We are camped out here at least until Wednesday...the wind is blowing and we have on and off showers right now. We are in no hurry for the next bit of travel, so we'll just relax and wait for nice travel weather to proceed.



Bay Springs Marina to Smithville Marina

We joined our newly found friends aboard the "twin" Nordic Tugs who we met at Bay Springs Marina - we had collectively chosen an early start, and were on the water by 7:30 am. Our initial plan last night was to have a leisurely day, travel through 3 locks and a total of about 18 miles. However, after some discussion and a better look at the weather forecast, we decided to transit 4 locks and travel about 35 miles. This sets us up to make a run to Columbus, MS in the morning. This will put us in Columbus 2 days or so earlier than we had planned, but in advance of some heavy rain headed our way. So, we'll likely camp out in Columbus for a few days...there will be more to keep us busy there than other choices we have available. And the marina is supposed to be a good one.




 

A gray day awaits...the Nordic tugs take the lead.
  

Pearl

Melinda B

 
The first lock was Whitten Lock, less than a mile away, and one of the 9 largest locks in the US in terms of elevation change - we dropped 84' in this one today. And for the day, we dropped a total of 174'.

Look how small a 40' boat looks in this lock...yikes!

It was gray all day long, with only a smattering of rain here and there. We wish it were sunny, because some of the scenery would have been beautiful in the sunlight.

A pine mulch plant by the river...we later passed a mulch laden barge. Boy, did it smell wonderful!

The Rosinton

The H B Stewart - see the steam rising off the mulch?

 

 

We arrived at Smithville at about 2:30, a really productive day having cleared 4 locks. In total, we only waited about 25 minutes and the rest was smooth as silk. Smithville Marina is tiny, but very enjoyable. The marina and surrounding property has been in this family for 180 years, plus another 170 or so acres that they had to sell to the US Government when the dam was built and the lake created. There is only room here for maybe 4 boats our size, but it has all that we need. Most of the other boats here are smaller and much older...but we love places like this...it's wonderful!

 



 We'll be gathering with the folks from the other Tugs later for some light dinner, and then likely early to bed. We anticipate another busy day tomorrow, and probably some rain.

All for now...

Grand Harbor Marina to Bay Springs Marina

Today, after a morning of chores (and some work stuff for Rob) we headed out to venture down the Tennessee Tombigbee waterway. For those that are interested in just what this waterway is, we suggest you do some exploring here: TennTom Waterway . The really short version is that this is a waterway that connects where we are to Mobile, AL, and it very roughly parallels the Mississippi river. There is a considerable amount of commercial traffic (tows and barges) and 12 locks to traverse between here and Mobile. But it is much more friendly to travel than the mighty Mississippi for pleasure boats like us. We will be traveling through some very rural and remote parts of the south...but we will have plenty of company as we expect that somewhere in the range of 50 boats like ours will be on this waterway at the same time in different locations. One interesting fact about the TennTom is that more dirt was moved to construct it than was moved to construct the Panama Canal.

Today, we got through some of the more boring cruising that we will have...a 24 mile man-made cut that is the first portion of this waterway. It isn't entirely straight, but for much of the day, our chart plotter looked an awful lot like this:

View out the front window....



And the view off the stern.

Just a tad more color is starting to show in the trees. We are guessing that we left the best color behind us when we started heading south, but we'll see...

 

This is one of the few (only?) cruising boats that we have passed. At our speed, we either get passed, or travel along about the same speed as other cruisers. This is a young couple who we met in Florence a few days ago. They started in Troy, NY and are having the adventure of their lives! We saw them briefly on the dock this morning, but didn't realize that we would be passing them. More than likely we'll be playing leap frog with them along the way for awhile.

And now tonight we are tucked away at Bay Springs Marina in New Site, MS. It is a medium-sized marina, but we can tell that we are out in the sticks. We feel fortunate to have enough cell phone coverage to be able to get internet access. But the only TV stations we have tonight are some PBS channels...not very exciting!

We stumbled onto a pair of Nordic Tug 37's here at Bay Springs who are travelling the loop together, and we plan to depart with them in the morning. They are like older siblings to our American Tug, as the folks who started American Tug were formerly principals at Nordic Tug. These boats are very similar...these particular Nordic's are very sharp looking, and about 10 years newer than ours!

Florence Harbor Marina to Grand Harbor

It was a beautiful day as we left Florence, AL on Wednesday morning. The highlight of our time in Florence was dinner with Fred and Joanie Myers, the original owners of our boat. We have kept in touch with them over time, and had promised to get together when we traveled through their hometown of Florence. Fred is a bit of a legend in the Looper community as well as the Tennessee, Tenn-Tom, and Cumberland river systems, as he and Joanie spent the better part of 2 decades cruising these waters and writing cruising guides. His books on this subject are still considered to be the best guides available in this part of the world. And on top of that, they are great folks to spend time with...a real treat for us!

Pickwick lake was very enjoyable...and the weather again was as perfect as it could be. Temps were in the low 70,s, hardly a cloud in the sky, and 10 mile visibility. We had no locks to contend with, and only needed one puppy pit stop in the 42 mile cruise. The Looper community is small at times as we experienced in these 2 days. On Wednesday as we made our pit stop, a couple came to help us with our lines from their dinghy parked at the dock where we were stopping. They had come across the lake from their anchorage to use this spot as a place to take an afternoon walk. Then, to our surprise we ran into them again on Wednesday as we were touring the Shiloh Battlefield National Park...both of us having traveled further downstream, taken slips at different marinas, and both using marina courtesy cars to drive 30 minutes to tour Shiloh.

At the end of the day, we landed at Grand Harbor marina. It is an interesting piece of geography, as the mailing address is Tennessee, while the physical location is actually in Mississippi. And just across the river is Alabama. If you look at a map, it is in the precise spot where these 3 states meet. The boat was very happy here, as it had returned to its long-time home. This is the exact marina where Fred and Joanie kept her from 2001 through early 2014.

And now some pictures...and more on Shiloh...

Trusty crew helping with route planning.

Some of the color is just starting to show...we hope to see more before we get too far south!

OK...admittedly not a great photo, but it was the best we could do. This is our first sighting of a flock of white pelicans. We know we'll see more down the line.

Early Christmas decorations? Actually just some cormorants sitting in a tree.

TVA's Colbert Power Plant...coal fired.

 

Coal hopper being loaded from a barge...

This is a whole lot of coal.

Sandrobber at Grand Harbor.

On Wednesday, we took a couple of hours to tour the Shiloh National Military Park in Tennessee, the site of the Battle of Shiloh in 1862. The Battle of Shiloh was fought over two days, April 6-7, 1862. In an effort to stem the Union advance toward the important rail junction of Corinth, Mississippi, Confederate General Albert Johnston led 44,000 Confederate soldiers in a surprise attack against the Union forces of Ulysses S. Grant encamped at Pittsburgh Landing, Tennessee. The attack was very nearly successful, but a premature cessation of fighting on that first day, and the subsequent arrival of Union reinforcements, turned the tide and the Confederate Army was driven back toward Corinth on April 7.

Shiloh was a bloody, bloody battle that resulted in just under 24,000 dead, wounded, or missing. Two days of fighting had resulted in more casualties than all the previous wars of the US combined, and with no net gain of territory for either side. It was a harbinger of the bloodbaths that would follow before the Civil War drew to a conclusion in 1865.

One of the sad truths that we came to discover was that the National Cemetery that is part of the park was only reserved for Union troops. Confederate troops were buried in mass graves, of which 5 have to date been identified. It is a testament to the times when this cemetery and park were first built, and a bone of contention for those from the South to this day.

Confederate cannon site that was used to fire on Union supply and troop ships on the Tennessee River.

Union cannon positions on the front lines of one of the battle sites.

One of the five known Confederate mass burial sites.

Confederate war memorial.

Part of the confederate war memorial.