Tuesday-Thursday, October 3 - 5: Tennessee-Tombigbee!

Here's a little "catch-up" since my last post on Monday:

Left Joe Wheeler State Park Tuesday morning and got right into the Joe Wheeler Lock!

Many homes in this area are built of brick.

Diving for clams?

Remember the Wilson Lock and Dam (the one with the 95 foot lift in 15 minutes?!)  Well, this time, going down was A LOT smoother; thank goodness!!!  We chatted with the lockmaster for a while before we started going down and he told us that this lock was the biggest single-lift lock east of the Rocky Mountains; I would agree with that!  The lockmaster also informed us that the upbound gates were designed to "go down" to act as a spillway in case of a major flood.

The upbound gates that go down are behind us.  We started 95 feet higher than we are right now!

As the doors open, we are greeted by a towboat!

As we leave Wilson Lock and enter the canal to get to Florence, Alabama, it's interesting how the leaves have seemed to change color in just a few days!

We stayed, once again, in Florence Harbor Marina.  This time in the marina, we met the twin to our boat, "Island Time".  This Jefferson Pilothouse is a 2004 (the owner had the boat somewhere else when we first stayed at this marina, that's why we didn't see it before).  

It was great visiting with the owner.

Found out that this tower is home to Florence's Marriott's Restaurant and Lounge.

Our slip neighbor at Florence Harbor Marina was kind enough to let us borrow his truck to go to the Marriott.  We LOVED the views!!!

Wilson Lock and Dam (the one with the 95 foot lift)!

You can tell how low the water is with the exposed rocks below the dam.

The windy Tennessee River to the east.

Beautiful sunset from the tower.

Wednesday morning we start our trip back on the Tennessee River to Pickwick Lake.  Cruising along, we see our fellow looper friends, Gary and Angie from Unruly, cruising by!

  Three hours later, we can see our left turn to enter the Tombigbee Waterway!  This is our last waterway before getting to the Gulf!

  

Tombigbee!!!

Ahead on the right is our stay for the night; Grand Harbor Marina.

Very nice marina!!!

So nice, there's room enough for each slip owner to have his/her own patio!

As well as room for your own golf cart!!!  Hmmm. . . I think they're onto something!😉

One direction from our slip at Grand Harbor, we view a beautiful sunset, and . . .

from the other direction, a beautiful full-moon rising!

The morning brings about some steam from the warm waters of the Tombigbee.

It will take us approximately eight to ten days to make it to "tidal" waters.  For insurance purposes, we cannot be in those waters before October 15, so we are a little ahead of schedule at this point.  Therefore, we decide to slow our motor, and hang around the beginning of the Tombigbee for a few more days.  Our next marina is only one mile away 😄, so we decide to anchor for a few hours in "Zippy Cove".

We had time to do a little exploring around the first few miles of the Tombigbee.  Believe it or not, this is the FIRST time we've had the dinghy in the water since leaving home!

Parts of the Tombigbee were cut as deep as 175 feet!

A beautiful wooden cross sits just a mile from where we're anchored.

Pretty, pretty, pretty!  So far the Tombigbee reminds us of the Boundary Waters.

As we're rounding the corner to head back to our anchorage, we see a towboat exiting the Tennessee River and entering the Tenn-Tombigbee.

Some of the parts of the channel on the Tombigbee are very skinny; even though this towboat had only four barges (a two by two), it looked tight from our angle!

After exploring, we pull up anchor, and head to Iuka, Mississippi from Counce, Tennessee (once again, we're on the border of three states; Mississippi, Tennessee, and Alabama).  We settle in at a "safe harbor" marina; Aqua Harbor Marina.

Update:  If you haven't read the "Memphis" post, you'll want to do so to get caught up on 

Hurricane Nate and how it has affected our plans.  We're watching the hurricane very closely; hope to continue downstream on the Tombigbee Monday!