On the Move - Tenn-Tom Passage with Midway Stop (#74)

We left Safe Harbor Aqua Yacht Marina to officially begin our journey down the Tenn-Tom Tombigbee waterway. We left our other boats behind, but knew they would quickly catch up with us after they left later in the day.

It was beautifully quiet on the river. We had almost 30 miles before our first lock.

We passed a tow early on in our journey.

This is the entrance to the Tenn-Tom Waterway. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tennessee–Tombigbee_Waterway

From Wikipedia: The Tennessee–Tombigbee Waterway (popularly known as the Tenn-Tom) is a 234-mile (377 km) artificial U.S. waterway built in the 20th century from the Tennessee River to the junction of the Black Warrior-Tombigbee River system near Demopolis, Alabama. The Tennessee–Tombigbee Waterway links commercial navigation from the nation's midsection to the Gulf of Mexico. The major features of the waterway are 234 miles (377 km) of navigation channels, a 175-foot-deep (53 m) cut between the watersheds of the Tombigbee and Tennessee rivers, and ten locks and dams.[1] The locks are 9 by 110 by 600 feet (2.7 m × 33.5 m × 182.9 m), the same dimension as those on the Mississippi above Lock and Dam 26 at Alton, Illinois.[2][3] Under construction for 12 years by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Tennessee–Tombigbee Waterway was completed in December 1984 at a total cost of nearly $2 billion.

One boat, Shamrock, whizzed by us early the first day, only to wait for us all to arrive for all the locks of the day. Afterwards, Shamrock ended up being our lead boat for the next two days of travel.

The other boats stayed goign about the same speed. When going to a lock, you need to wait for the slowest boat so there isn't a need to rush.

This was the doors for the first lock of the day after we had lowered.

We arrived before dark, but didn't get pictures until later in the evening after we were settled. There is a large area of timber to the right of the marina. This area was flooded between 1974 and 1985, and some of the tree trunks are still visible.

We had been told the laundry choices weren't great. There are four machines that say "broken" and one says "out of order". Hmm.. difference between broken and out of order?

We borrowed a rental car and had dinner at a restaurant in between a car dealership and napa auto parts store. No one was there when we arrived and we were questioning the choice. Once the dinner arrived, we had a wonderful mexican meal.

Stay: 1 night

Columbus Marina

Pros: Marina, Fuel, electricity, courtesy car, staff

Cons: broken car, broken laundry, no restaurant on-site

Rating: 4 stars