At Cotton Springs we are very near to Whitten Lock which makes it convenient to listen to tow traffic on the VHF radio and call the Lock Master to find out locking status before we ever bother to pull up anchor. In listening to the VHF last night, we were able to decipher that the Army Corps of Engineers work boat "Tenn-Tom" was anchoring below the lock for the evening and would be locking through first thing in the morning.
We figured we would listen to the VHF this morning for when "Tenn-Tom" would come up and then we would lock down. Before that ever happened we saw a tow and barges heading down river. Listening to the VHF we heard that "Tenn-Tom" would lock up after that tow "Jeff Brumfield" locked down. We went ahead and called the Lock Master and got on the list to lock down after "Tenn-Tom" came up.
All of this and we haven't even lifted anchor yet, but we did at 7:45 a.m. We milled around waiting for all of the above to get done. While we were milling two other pleasure boats called Whitten Lock but opted to wait until all of this tow traffic got cleared. However, just as we were about to enter the chamber, they called the Lock Master again asking if they should join us. They said they would be 30 minutes before they could get there so the Lock Master told them he couldn't wait that long. We didn't get out of Whitten Lock until about 9:10 a.m. after about an 85 foot drop.
Once we exited the lock "Alice Parker" was the next tow headed up stream, so we met and passed. Then "Gary Moss" was the following tow headed up stream, so we met and passed them. At 10:00 a.m. we anchored above Montgomery Lock to wait our turn still following "Jeff Brumfield". By the time we were able to get into the lock for our turn at 11:30 a.m. the other two pleasure boats, "Ariel" and "Time Out" caught up to us along with a third pleasure boat "Ramblin Girl". We were all out of there by 12:00 p.m. "Cherokee" was the next tow we met and passed after that.
Still following "Jeff Brumfield", we kept a slow pace to Rankin Lock knowing it would be the same kind of wait. We had some discussion with the other pleasure boats trying to explain that there was no sense in going faster. All agreed. We arrived at Rankin Lock at about 1:30 p.m. By this time a Sea Ray named "It's Wanda-ful" joined in the wait to lock down. An hour later we were all out. Leave it to the Wanda-ful Sea Ray to decide to go 20 miles an hour and pass us all with a tremendous wake. Ray gave him an ear full, using a few more expletives as he asked where he thought he was going to get to. We're still all in line to follow "Jeff Brumfield".
Midway Marina and a few of its residents gave the same guy an ear full too as he went blowing by. "Ariel" and "Time Out" pulled into Midway Marina as things were still being said about Mr. Wanda-ful. When we arrived to Fulton Lock at about 3:15 p.m. "Ramblin Girl" was more diplomatically telling "It's Wanda-ful" about his inconsideration. All along Mr. Wanda-ful sounded like he was about 80 and smoked at least a pack a day. I think we were pretty accurate as he proceeded to explain how he has run boats for 50 years and this was his 39th time on the Tenn-Tom. How he hasn't been shot, I don't know.
A half hour later we were out of Fulton Lock, glad to see "It's Wanda-ful" go. Fifteen minutes later we pulled into an abandoned port, Itawamba, in Fulton, Mississippi. If you are keeping track, all of our overnight anchorages except last night have been new to us. This was no exception, but in keeping with adventure, we decided this would be the closest anchorage to Walmart to get a few provisions. Almost immediately Ray lowered the dinghy into the water and took me to shore. Ray wanted to stay with the boat since we have never been here before, we only read that it was abandoned and it was okay to anchor here, and the winds were blowing out of the north at about ten miles an hour. Not exactly comfortable for this narrow port that was used to load and unload barges. It is probably about the size of a football field with a steep embankment up to road level. Speaking of football, I headed off to Walmart with the score Georgia 24, Tennessee 3 as we were listening to the game on Sirius radio. It ended up being about a mile trek each way with fences preventing a lot of short cuts. When I returned just before 6:00 p.m. the score was tied at 24. What happened? Then it went downhill from there. Also if you're keeping track, we traveled about 25 miles (some of that milling in figure eights) but it took us over 8 hours.
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