Saturday, Nov. 17
Another foggy morning, but at least we got to sleep in a little longer! By 8:30am, all five boats at Bobby’s Fish Camp had left the dock and were heading for the last lock of the river system, the Coffeeville L&D! A tow without barges, the Maxx B that had settled on the shoreline last night just north of Bobby’s, needed to lock through too. Fortunately, we were allowed to lock through with him as long as we waited for him to tie up before we entered the chamber and allowed him to leave the lock before we let go of the bollards. The lock master also needed everyone’s documentation numbers. Only one other lock on the entire river system had asked for that information. As the Maxx B left the lock, it appeared to be running on only it's port engine - which might explain why it had no barges - maybe heading in for repairs?
We left the lock at 9:10 and were on our way again. This time the fastest boats were in the front of the lock and slower ones were farther back so no one had to pass by another boat to get to their preferred cruising speed. As the first two boats blasted off for Mobile, the rest of us putzed along far behind even with the fast current giving us a couple extra miles per hour. Each of us three “slow” boats knew that we’d end the day at different anchorages depending on our speed.
And so it was that 4pm we were anchored and were set for a quiet night on the Tensas River (sometimes on maps as “Tensaw” also pronounced Ten-saw, like Arkansas) about a half mile off of the Mobile River. Wait a minute, you say! How did we get on the Tensas and Mobile Rivers? Good question… Just a few miles before we came to the Mobile-Tensas confluence, we passed the junction of the Tombigbee River and the Alabama River thus putting us right at the start of the Mobile River! Voila!
Okay – it is confusing with all these different rivers and waterway names. So, here is a summary of the rivers/waterways we have been on through today:
1. Lake Michigan
2. Calumet River Lock 1 (Thomas O'Brien)
3. Cal-Sag Channel
4. Chicago Sanitary & Ship Canal, Lock 2 (Lockport)
5. Des Plaines River Lock 3 (Brandon Road)
The junction of the Des Plaines and Kankakee Rivers creates the Illinois River.
6. Illinois River Locks 4-8 (Dresden, Marseilles, Starved Rock, Peoria, La Grange)
At Grafton, IL, the Illinois River joins the Mississippi River.
7. Mississippi River Locks 9-11 (Mel Price, Alton, Chain of Rocks)
At Cairo, IL, the Ohio River flows into the Mississippi River - we turned left onto the Ohio
8. Ohio River Locks 12-13 (Olmsted, Lock 52)
The Cumberland River flows into the Ohio River near Paducah, KY.
9. Cumberland River Lock 14 (Barkley)
The Barkley L&D on the Cumberland River creates Lake Barkley.
10. Lake Barkley
11. Barkley Canal is only 1.75 miles long and connects Lake Barkley to Kentucky Lake
The Kentucky L&D on the Tennessee River creates Kentucky Lake.
12. Kentucky Lake
13. Tennessee River Lock 15 (Pickwick)
The Tenn-Tom waterway begins at Pickwick Lake (created by Pickwick L&D) in TN, and ends at Demopolis, AL.
14. Tenn-Tom Waterway Locks 16-24 (Whitten, Montgomery, Rankin, Fulton, Wilkins, Armory, Aberdeen, Stennis, Tom Bevel)
The Black Warrior River flows into the Tombigbee River at Demopolis, AL. Though we were never on the Black Warrior, it is also combined with the Tombigbee as another waterway system - the Tombigbee-Black Warrior Waterway.
15. Tombigbee River Lock 25-26 (Demopolis, Coffeeville)
The junction of the Tombigbee and Alabama Rivers creates the Mobile River.
16. Mobile River - which will deposit us into Mobile Bay at Mobile, AL tomorrow, if all goes as planned!
Soooo.... since August 15, we have been through 26 locks on 16 different bodies of water covering 1321 miles while underway on 25 days.