The sun was shining and soft breezes blowing as we glided easily into our covered slip with room to spare. Welcome  to Columbus! I’m Jimmy the dock master! Throw me a line!

Docktails at 5 tonight!  About nine looper boats were docked with us at Columbus Marina. An opportunity to renew some friendships and make some new ones.

Two courtesy cars were available for our use in two hour increments, one van and one truck. Denny immediately signed up for the truck and we went in search of bolts, having gone through our last supply quickly. The propeller shaft with its keyless compression cup is still  spewing out broken bolts at a rapid pace. 

Columbus is one of the largest cities in Mississippi, but according to “Maps”, the nearest hardware store is 23 miles away. God’s Grace joined us on what became our journey to nowhere in search of hardware. Lots of talking and revelry caused us to miss a turn here and there and 50 miles later the hardware store was in sight. Unfortunately, the store had no bolts but we left fifty dollars poorer because there is always something you need in a hardware store.  It was only 23 miles back to Dream Seeker.

We cannot seem to get south fast enough to stay with the good weather. The following day turned rapidly from 70 to 35 degrees, windy and dreary. This time we took the van and shopped for hats and gloves. A big front is coming down east of the Rocky Mountains and we are experiencing the result of it. 

Denny says, this weather pattern is similar to Texas, where his Uncle Bob used to say, “there is nothing between West Texas and the North Pole but a barbed wire fence.”

We are leaving our good friends on God’s Grace in Columbus. It has been fun traveling with them but they are taking a hiatus from Looping and flying to Polynesia. We wish them Godspeed.

At the convergence of three states, Tennessee, Alabama and Mississippi is the beginning of the Tenn-Tom waterway, constructed by the US Army Corps of engineers. Originally proposed by a French explorer in 1792, the project, to connect the Tennessee River to the Tombigbee River was finally authorized by congress in 1946. 

After a big harangue over whether the project was worth the cost and how much the project would stomp on mother nature, the waterway opened in 1985. The total cost was two billion dollars. 

Miscellaneous fact: more dirt was moved to build the Tenn-Tom than was moved to build the Panama Canal. The waterway runs from the Pickwick Dam in Tennessee to Demopolis, Alabama. It is 234 miles long, 300 feet wide, has a minimum depth of nine feet and includes a series of ten locks.

Trees are usually removed before flooding lakes but weren’t entirely on this waterway. Drowned trees are rising out of the deep and causing  a hazard to navigation. Baffles are used all along the sides of the waterway to control the flow of water and prevent erosion from the tributaries.

We are traveling through four of the ten locks today like an oiled machine, quickly and efficiently. Now we can cruise between the Gulf Coast and the Midwest and not have to face the wrath of the Mississippi River, which is amazing considering I didn’t even know this waterway existed two years ago.

The compass is pointing due south, the sun is out and the afternoon temperature is in the sixties. This man made incredible waterway is taking me home.

Things are looking up.

 

Are you familiar with the idiom “out in the middle of nowhere”??;  Well I just found where that is. 

Aqua Yacht Harbor in Iuka Mississippi, pronounced, i-you-Ka, is surrounded by woods and according to the book, lots of wildlife.  We traveled for many miles along windy hilly roads with the courtesy car but never saw any wildlife;  probably because it was Sunday. But we did find a Baptist Church and a closed liquor store.

A stop in Joe Wheeler State Park in Alabama proved to be another “nowhere”, an appealing park but no courtesy car, no Uber, no Lyft, no rental car; but they did have the Nina and Pinta replicas.

The Wilson Dam is one of the most significant structures on the Tennessee River. The dam is 137 feet high and 4,541 feet long. The dam was completed in 1925 and designated a National Historic Landmark in 1966. It was a long way down.

The lock masters an all these river locks have been extremely helpful in expediting our progress up or down the river system. The lock master on the Joe Wheeler Dam told us that the river was very busy that day and there could be a four hour wait to get through the Wilson lock. 

The tows and barges were lining up and The American Princess Paddle boat out of Memphis was coming through,  but if we hurry and could get to the lock by 1PM they would lock us through before the traffic.  Denny  was motivated. He pushed his engines to the limit, from 8 to 9 knots and watched our ETA to the dam slowly decrease. We made it!

Pulled in early to Florence Harbor Marina in Alabama. A house boat convention took up the courtesy car time for the day so the Looper Harbor Host lent us his car to get to the obligatory grocery and hardware stores; southern hospitality or just downright thoughtfulness?

Docktails with three other Looper boats, although it was cold it was fun.

Frost is on the sidewalks and no one is walking anywhere. We are in Decatur Alabama and freezing.

It is so easy to forget, in this climate, that Florida is the Sunshine State. So aptly named. My friends tell me it is still hot and humid there, where I long to be. My current world is freezing, literally 32 degrees this morning.

For the past two days the winds were so high we had to spend two nights and one full day tied up to the town wall with the generator blasting and 20 mile an hour winds forcing their way through Dream Seeker’s hull. The drapes in the salon were waving, the driving rain caused seepage through secret apertures and there was pooling condensation on the pilot house windows.

This must be what it is like to be in prison. Many of my options  for living are taken away. It is too cold to go outside. It is too windy to move the boat.

We watched many small fishing boats trying to brave the wind and partake in their local fishing tournament but everyone of them was forced back by the sea. The wind is blowing us onto the dock. The fenders are crushed against the dock doing what they are designed to do. There are white caps on the river.

But then I realize:

I can still read! I can still knit! I can still play games!; and sometimes even with Denny.

I can write my blog! I have four bars and a hotspot on my phone, I can still communicate with the outside world. I can shop! We are securely tied to a floating dock. We are safe!

It is morning again. The winds are quieter! I am trying to hurry Denny (an impossible task). Finish your breakfast we need to leave here!

The sun is shining and we are off and running south.

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