We've reached the Tenn-Tom Waterway

We have entered the Tenn-Tom Waterway, the last 450 miles of our trip to the Gulf, and have just passed through the third lock. We are making a quick (hopefully) stop at the Midway Marina to have the alternator belt replaced. The pulley for the alternator was bent when the water pump broke last week. We thought we had straightened it out enough to make it usable, but early this morning, just as we got underway, it burned up and then broke. Fortunately the batteries were fully charged up so having the belt break is an annoyance that needs attention, not a disaster. Oops, Mark just discovered that one of the attachment bolts for the alternator bracket is missing so we may have a bigger problem than just the pulley and the belt. A mechanic says he is on his way and hopefully we will get the problem fixed today. Meanwhile, we've decided we will have to spend the night here so I will try to make arrangements to go to the nearby Walmart SuperCenter for restocking supplies.

We anchored out near Pickwick Landing Friday night through Sunday morning. The weather turned quite cold and rainy with a vicious wind that made just being outside unappealing and neither of us wanted to consider motoring on Saturday. Sunday dawned clear and sunny . Though the temp was close to freezing, it was so calm and so bright that we didn’t feel the cold. We motored the last few miles on the Tennessee and turned into the Tenn-Tom waterway. The first stretch of the waterway after Yellow Creek is called the divide cut and is a 25 mile canal that connects Yellow Creek to Bay Springs Lake. It apparently is the largest canal in North America in terms of sheer digging. Finished in 1985, it is one of the prettiest stretches we’ve seen with lots of varied trees and shrubs along both banks. We stopped for the night in a beautiful little cove in Bay Springs Lake and Max had a great outing for swimming, exploring and chasing sticks. We hiked to a lovely little family cemetery (Davis and Armitage), well kept up, that is now within the Core of Engineers property. Some of the headstones are too old to read but seem to date back to pre-Civil war days.
Immediately after Bay Springs Lake is the first lock on the Tenn-Tom, called Jamie Whitten Lock. It is a drop of 84 feet – the deepest we will have on our trip. Fortunately the wind was completely calm so we had no trouble keeping the boat still. We loosely tied to a floating bollard that lowered along with us as the water dropped. The floating bollards are hollow drums and as the water lowers they all make a singing/groaning that sounds much like a pod of whales. The second lock, five miles later was only a 33 foot drop and uneventful. The third lock was another 6 miles downstream . Ten minutes or so after we arrived, two boats from Minnesota pulled in (one was Summer Song, one of Hubbard’s boats from St. Mary’s Point; the other was Tommy Girl from Wabasha). Both are headed for Florida. So the first two boats we’ve seen from Minnesota since leaving Iowa we meet up with in Mississippi!
More later. Pictures attached!