Bay Springs to Smithville

Bay Springs to Smithville

The Channel

Today was a lock day, we traveled down the TennTom Waterway through 4 locks and about 37 miles. Pleasure craft take a back seat to all other traffic, Government traffic goes first, then commercial, and finally pleasure craft. We call the lock by cell phone before leaving the dock and if all is clear arrange for the next available lock down. Today we called at 7:30 the lock was clear and open and we proceeded into the chamber. The Whitten lock is 84 feet, Montgomery 33 feet, Rankin 31 feet, and Fulton 26 feet. The locks are so close together that they each use a different VHF frequency for instructions to minimize confusion. Some lockmasters are quite chatty while others don’t talk much. Each lockmaster in turn notifies the next lock on the status of ongoing traffic and toward the end of the day our group of three was reduced to two as one boat remained behind. We are not allowed to leave our boats during the locking procedure and must wear PFDs while in the chamber. This area of the waterway is called the channel it is the Tombigbee River that has been channelized and is quite deep sometimes 100 feet or more. A quiet ride today passing only a few tows and waiting for one.

Wood Pulp operation

Lock Control Room

Fulton Dam