" When Pigs Fly"

Good morning from the captain! It’s Tuesday October 16. It has been 28 days since we departed Ditto Marina for the Tenn-Tom Waterway. At our current pace we should complete our loop in April 2016. Yes, eight miles a day is a bit slower than we originally planned but its all good for the most part.

Anna has again departed for home. She left last Friday and will return in a couple of weeks. Another birthday party is in order again this time along with the normal grandkid fix, doctor appointments, catching up with things on the home front, not to mention her culinary fix featuring her favorite Chinese and Mexican restaurants. She needs this time on shore to remind her how much fun we’re really having fixing the boat, and buying gas at $4.25 per gallon, 250 gallons at a time. I stayed here in Mississippi to hold down the fort/boat, but I may sneak down to Florida for a few days to see some friends.

On the current leg of our travels we departed Ditto the morning after Anna arrived back in Huntsville, her with birthday cake and ice cream still fresh on her breath. That visit home was for the big one year birthday celebration for her grandson as well as all the other things mentioned above. Our trip back down the Tennessee River to the entrance of the Tenn-Tom was accomplished without incident. I wish I could say the same about our stay at Aqua Harbor.

Aqua Harbor is a beautiful marina to spend a little time, but 15 days is a bit extreme. Our plan was to stay 3-4 days to restock. As we’ve mentioned in earlier blogs things got a little complicated with the boat maintenance, unplanned engine repairs, and storms generated from a cyclone off the California coast, of all things. After waiting out the foul weather we made two attempts to leave but ended up staying longer due to engine problems. In addition to providing solid mechanics, Aqua gave us a break on docking fees for the extended stay.  For the additional 7 days we spent on the transient dock we paid nothing.  The $950 repair bill wasn’t exactly “nothing”, but we would have been staying some place so we figure we got a deal we could live with. The crew at Aqua Harbor really provided great service and was clearly customer oriented. This is a real “six pig marina” by our 

standards.

   

With the boat finally fixed we were more than ready to get out of Dodge. We awoke around 6:00 AM to the thickest fog I believe I have ever seen. Opening the curtain in the salon I couldn’t even see the water 5’ away. This wasn’t anything close to our plan for the day, but we did get to check out the new Garmin Radar in the fog. It worked flawlessly. We were able to see all those little bass boats, the islands and buoys. This fog held us up for 3 hours from leaving and the affects of the late departure haunted us all the way down the Tenn-Tom to Columbus Marina.

When we originally planned the cruise from Aqua Harbor to Columbus we thought we’d take four days, anchor out a couple of nights and generally take it slow and easy.  There are seven locks on this stretch and we knew it would be difficult to anticipate how long each would take. With the extra days at Aqua we decided to push a little harder, try to make Midway the first night (Tuesday) and be in Columbus the second (Wednesday). Anna had a reservation to fly home on Friday and our leisurely schedule had dwindled. We still had plenty of time but we didn’t really need any more delays.  After checking fuel prices through Active Captain, we planned to take on fuel at Midway since their price was $3.99/gallon, best on this section of the river. 

We had to go through three locks that first day and things went off without a hitch.  Due to the fog delay though, we arrived at Midway around 5:00 PM, just at closing. It takes us an hour or so to fuel up and pump out the holding tanks so we waited till the next morning for these services.  We wanted to get started as early as possible so we were in position to get these chores done when the gas dock opened at 8am.  

As we were fueling we saw a barge of coal heading toward the lock. Fulton lock is just a couple of miles down from the marina so when we were ready to leave at 9:00 AM I called the lockmaster for information on timing. I was told there would be at least a 2 hour wait to lock down. One barge was coming up and one was going down, then he would fill the chamber to take us down. We pulled out of Midway at 11:00 AM and cruised up to the lock. The lockmaster decided to wait for two pleasure boats that had just exited the Rankin Lock some 7.5 miles behind us and traveling 6 MPH to take us down all together. You gotta love those lockmasters. We finally cleared the Fulton Lock around 12:30 PM. We had been up at 6:30 AM to make a fast get away and we’d only traveled 2 miles. We had slowed down to a snail’s pace of 1,500 feet per/hour. This Loop could take a life time to complete.

Close fit for barges in the lock.  About 2.5' clearance on each side

After clearing Fulton we started looking at time and distances.  There were still three locks between us and Columbus and we had two barges full of coal ahead of us. The next two locks were pretty close together and we had to wait on for the barges at each of them.  We spent a lot of time circling at idle speed killing time. 

Once we got through Amory Lock, the third lock of the day we were still behind the two tows pushing the coal. Both were making way at about 4 MPH and at this speed it would take us 5 hours to get to our destination. That in itself wasn’t a terrible length of time, but we were running out of precious day light. So we did the only thing we could do, something I promised the pig I would never ask her to run like a race horse, but we did: we requested permission from the first barge to pass.  Once ahead of the first barge it didn’t take us long to run down the second barge. Again we requested to pass on the “one”. The barge skipper agreed; pass on the “one”.   

Colors on the Tenn-Tom

                  

I have no idea how fast we were going while making these passes. From the side of the barge to shore was about 50’-60’.  The Pig accounted for 15’ leaving about 20’ on the port side for the barge and about 20’ on the starboard side to the shore. Anna was diligently watching our depths, sounding them off 12’, 15’, 10’ and so on. I was white knuckled on the wheel. I only looked down once and saw 46.7, no that wasn’t our speed it was our fuel burn rate for one hour. That’s 46.7 x $4.25 gal. = $200/hour; plenty fast enough for us.

As you approach the stern of a barge to pass there is a tremendous suction, like a rip tide. This suction literally pulls your boat laterally towards the stern of the barge. This is why I was white knuckled. The only way to compensate this suction is with speed. I was woopin’ the crap out of the Pig to get her to go faster, she was screaming and squealing like never before. When it was all over there was pig sweat all over the bridge. I really didn’t know she had it in her; but the ole Pig did good. As we cleared the stern of the barge we were in clean water, we just needed to get past the bow of the barge, add a safety factor of 150 yards, pull in front of the barge and slow to our cruising speed of 9 MPH, push our heart back down our throat, and start getting some feeling in our fingers. They say the Tenn-Tom is hours of boredom with 15 minutes of excitement that was true today.

After all the excitement of the high speed chase was over I contacted the second barge and asked his size he said, “105’ wide x 600’ long”. Now you need to know the locks on the Tenn-Tom are 110’ x 600’. Not much room for error when entering the lock.  You have a new respect for the job these guys do.

As we arrived at the Aberdeen Marina entrance it was about an hour past my comfort level. Already the sun was setting fast among the tall trees behind us. We saw a maze of red and green sticks with a sign that says Marina with an arrow pointing off towards the left. I called the marina on the VHF for the route in; they said to stay between the red and green buoys. “I don’t see any buoys I say, all I see are sticks”, she replies again stay between the buoys and come on in, and so we’re off, staying between the red and green sticks they refer to as buoys.

Departing the Aberdeen Marina

                                

Sunset on the way in to Aberdeen Marina

Not a lot of margin for error. Get outside the sticks (buoys) and you get to visit the prop doctor or worse. There are hundreds of cypress knees sticking above the water 8” to 10”, the route in is curvy, an “S” here then another “S” there, and it’s getting darker by the minute. But the sun was showing us the way in with each stick’s reflective tape glowing in the dimming light. I never used the wheel once to make a turn in the channel. It was all with the transmissions, in and out of gear, one forward one reverse, as I watched the average depth of 7’ pass on the Garmin. In the marina it opened up to an astonishing 8’. This is again hours of boredom with 15 minutes of excitement.

The next day was uneventful for the most part; one lock and an easy 20 mile run to Columbus Marina. Once again, the path into the marina offered some challenges. The channel was supposed to start at the end of the yellow lock wall.  All the books said to turn left and follow the buoy sticks in.  The problem was all I saw were weeds and I sure didn’t want my props tangled up in weeds. 

There was a very small section of water that had no weeds but I needed to pass a point of an island and not knowing the depth brought on some additional concerns. We slowed to idle speed bouncing the engines in and out of gear and gliding with our intermittent power. Again Anna did great job watching the depth and pointing out the buoy line. We finally eased into the marked channel then into our covered slip, which would our new home for the next few weeks. Again hours of boredom with 15 minutes of excitement.

About those weeds: I later discovered that the weeds are a form of a Water Lilly that floats on top the water. They have roots that hang into the water. Each stem has a bubble on the stem that kind of acts as a life jacket. Each plant is the size of your hand but they migrate into these huge green islands as they float around scaring boaters that have never seen them.  That seems to be their only purpose in weed life.

We should be back on the river around the first of November.  Hopefully, no more surprises between Columbus and Marathon.  With any luck, we’ll be sitting in the Keys in about 8 weeks.  The adventure continues. 

See ya on the water