We got an early start because we had 3 locks to go thru today. The weather started out in the high 50’s and the temps went into the 80’s once the sun came out. The first lock was about 3 ½ hours away so we had a pretty long cruise to get there.
We called the lock from about 4 mile away and were told that they were doing maintenance and it could be anywhere from 1 ½ hours to 4 hours before we could lock thru. We just idled up to the lock and tied up to the lock wall. It was almost 4 hours before the lockmaster came on and said they were ready. They had to fill the lock to get it ready for us. We had a total of 7 boats in the lock that had come from the Tennessee River area.
One of the boats in the lock was a Pilothouse Trawler style named Passage. It is a custom made boat that was in the slip next to us a Grand Harbor. Nice boat with a lot of room inside. Also a very well taken care of boat.
After locking thru we asked the lockmaster if he would inform the other locks we were going thru today and he said he would let them know and they would probably be ready for us. It worked great for the next 2 locks. They had the doors open and we were able to go right in. We needed to pace ourselves because they waited for all 7 boats and the one sailboat was the slowest.
The scenery along the way was not much for the first part because we went thru a 25 mile are called the divide that was totally dug by the Army Corp when they connected the Tennessee River with the Tombigbee River. Once past the divide we were in Bay Springs Lake which had some very nice fall color coming in but still quite a ways to go.
With the delay we got out of the last lock at about 5:30 and we still had 4 miles to go. Dusk was setting in but the dock master was great at Midway Marina. He probably has done this before and he was able to get 5 boats in and tied up in about 15 minutes. The other 2 boats anchored out for the night.
Midway is exposed to the Tenn-Tom but it did not matter last night because there was no traffic that set up any wake. It was pretty peaceful for sleeping. Lenore had a touch of a cold so we ate on board and she was able to rest.