Friday, Nov. 2
What could be better on Halloween than to have our bright, shiny newly-balanced props installed on our propeller shafts! The excitement never ends! Then we did a test run to be sure the vibration issue had improved and we are happy to report that it did! 1800 rpms was feeling pretty good and even 2000 rpms was feeling fine! Yay! To cap off the day, there was another docktails event at the gazebo on our dock – oh the madness of it all! (A bit too dramatic – sorry.) Sue offered her phone to be the camera for the docktails group picture, therefore she did not get in the picture. :-( The picture had to be posted on the AGLCA forum website so others could get to it. That required a learning curve, but we managed to post it that evening.
Since rain was predicted for Thursday, we planned on staying until Friday. The day was spent prepping to leave – laundry, cooking and indoor cleaning for Sue, maintenance of engines, mechanical stuff and some outdoor cleaning for Brian. After a full day of no fun, we went to our last dinner at Aqua Grille and ran into some of our new local acquaintances. One of the best things about the Loop is meeting new people, not only other Loopers, but the locals in the communities we visit. After 2 weeks at Aqua Yacht Harbor, a couple of the couples we’d seen regularly at the restaurant had adopted us as regulars. By sitting at the bar, we’d had many an interesting conversation with Irene, Don, Jim and Linda, who invited us to come back to live in Iuka when we finish our Loop!
So it was time for us to take leave of Iuka on Friday’s sunny, cool (42F) morning. After another successful pump-out (we are once again able to trust our pump-out process) off we went to enter the Tenn-Tom Waterway! We had an easy day from Aqua to Bay Springs Marina (38 miles and no locks) to get back into cruising mode. Bay Springs Marina was a nice one night stop.
Today’s Lesson: The Tenn-Tom Waterway
The Tenn-Tom Waterway is a 253-mile stretch of rivers, lakes and canals that connect the Tennessee River with the Tombigbee River at Demopolis, AL. Creating the waterway (1972-1985, though really Dec 1984 – it was finished ahead of schedule!) required digging down 175 feet for some of the 25 northern-most miles and moving more earth than they did to construct the 50-mile long Panama Canal (1903-1914). Prior to the Tenn-Tom, the trip from Pensacola, FL to Chattanooga, TN by way of the Mississippi River was a 1541-mile journey. The Tenn-Tom cut that down to only 770 miles!
The Tenn-Tom is divided into 3 sections or “cuts.”
- The Divide Cut, from Pickwick Lake which is backed up into Yellow Creek (Aqua Yacht Harbor – Iuka, MS), to Bay Spring Lake, Lock & Dam in the NE area of Mississippi, about 38 miles.
- The Canal Section (or the Chain of Lakes Section, which sounds prettier), 52 miles and 6 locks beginning at the Bay Springs L&D (now called the Whitten Lock) and ending after the Armory L&D in Armory, MS.
- The River Section, 149 miles from Armory L&D, following the old Tombigbee River to Demoplolis, AL where it meets the Black Warrior River.
[I know that only adds up to 239 miles, but those are the numbers given in our guide book... the extra 14 miles are in there somewhere. The distance may vary depending on water depth and how you traverse the the canals, rivers and lakes along the way.(?)]
End of Lesson.