The Jamie L Whitten Lock

November 1, 2016

Dave was up at 5:30. He likes to read the waterway guides to see what lies ahead each day. He keeps notes on things like anchorages and locks and places to ditch should we need to. We are excited to move onto the Tombigbee today; also a little anxious about the 27 mile canal section called the Divide Cut. This will take us from the Tennessee River to the Tombigbee. It is narrow here, only wide enough for two Tows to pass one another. Dave has chosen our anchorage just outside the Jamie L Whitten Lock, at Bay Spring Lake south end.

Sunrise on Panther Bay, Pickwick Lake

We pull anchor and say our farewells to the Joiners. We know this is not goodbye! We will meet again. It didn't take long for Mucho Gusto to fade into the morning haze, out of sight. We headed north on Pickwick Lake to the entrance of the Tenn-Tom at Grand Harbor near Yellow Creek. The marina looks really nice. We won't get to explore it but we can see it has a lot to offer.

Leaving Panther Bay, Pickwick Lake

Farewell, safe travels Mucho Gusto
Leaving Panther Bay, Pickwick Lake

As we passed Grand Harbor, a cute Grand Banks Trawler named In Deep Ship pulled out in front of us. They are faster than us but provide a target for us to follow until they slip out of sight. Behind us the rivers flow to the north; in front of us, to the south. The Divide Cut channel is indeed narrow but well marked. It is beautiful here with spectacular shoreline views. Once we entered the channel, the navigational markers switched to red on the left, green on the right. It was the opposite on the Ohio River. Our brains go into auto mode after weeks of heading up river, so Dave put our green life jackets on the right cockpit bench and our red life jackets on the left to help us remember. We really don't want to slip outside the channel in these shallow waters.

Grand Harbor Marina

Paddle boat Columbia ~ Grand Harbor Marina

Grand Harbor Marina Store

In Deep Ship leading us along the Tenn-Tom

The Divide Cut section is surprisingly boring. It's mostly just a straight line with banks on either side. There is no denying that this is a man-made ditch. We make it through without crossing paths with a Tow. This was a relief to us.

Spillway along the Divide Cut

Dave Navigating the Tenn-Tom

Pelican

Heron

Nest high above the Tenn-Tom

Fall colors on the Tenn-Tom

By the time we arrived at the Jamie L Whitten Lock two trawlers had caught up to us. All three of us headed over to the Bay Spring Lake anchorage. Tidings of Joy went up one channel and disappeared. Life's Travails aimed for the anchorage closest to the Visitor's Center which was where we planned to spend the night. They anchored first and we joined them in the small bay. Dave wanted to put a second anchor out because there is very little room to swing here. Mystic pulls to port when moving in reverse so we were having a heck of time dropping the aft anchor next to Life's Travails. We finally realized we could drop the stern anchor then move forward to drop the bow. This worked like a charm!

Life's TraVails at Bay Springs Lake

Paula and Tom, aboard Life's TraVails, offered to give us a dinghy ride to shore. We'd already decided to kayak so we thanked them and prepared for the trip. By the time we got to the visitor center, it had closed so we headed off on foot to explore. We found a nature walk and discovered a log cabin in the woods. This was a historic dwelling called a dog-trot, possum-trot, or breezeway house, made of two log cabins with a breezeway in between. One cabin is for cooking and one is for sleeping. The breezeway is meant to allow cool air to pass through the two cabins. This particular cabin was from one of the valleys that was flooded by the building of the dam. It was saved from the flooding, disassembled and rebuilt here at the Whitten Lock Visitor's Center. Click on the link below for more information on this architectural history.

Dogtrot house Information

The nature walk led us to the top of the Whitten lock which drops vessels down an impressive 84 feet. We hadn't brought our camera because it's still quirky and I was tired of messing with it in an attempt to get it to take photos. We didn't bring our phones either. The views were so cool that the decision to go get our camera was easy. We hurried back to the kayaks, rowed to the boat, grabbed our camera and phones and rowed back to the shore to take photos! We were so glad we did! This is something we may not get another chance to experience, let alone photograph.

View south of the Whitten Lock and Dam

View South of the Whitten Lock and Dam

Inside the Whitten Lock and Dam chamber

View from the top of Whitten Dam looking South

Whitten Lock and Dam

View Looking North from top of Whitten Dam

Our Kayaks at the Visitor Center Whitten Lock

Bollards North of the Whitten Dam

Beth on top of Whitten Dam

Dave on top of Whitten Dam

When we returned to Mystic it was getting dark. Paula and Tom, aboard Life's Travails, called us over for fresh baked brownies. We sat in our kayaks and enjoyed our treat right there on the water while we chatted for a bit with our new friends. We made our way home for the night in darkness.

Mystic anchored at Bay Spring Lake, Whitten Lock

In the morning, we were up early and ready to coordinate passing through the lock with Life's Travails and Tidings of Joy. In Deep Ship called from a nearby marina and asked the lock master to hold the lock for them. We dropped down the 84 foot lock as a flotilla of four then headed south together. All three of the power boats pulled into the town of Fulton, just north of the Fulton Lock. We kept going south and made our way through a total of six locks in one day. We need to get to Columbus Marina where we will leave Mystic for a detour to New York City and Connecticut.