I was told that people time their Loop to chase 80 degrees for a year. I didn’t realize it was going to be a game of hide and seek. It’s been ranging from the upper 40s to painfully low 50s for the last few days.
It’s hard to complain too much: we’re on a boat.
We bundled up and left the Midway Marina just as the sun was about to come up so that we could get through our first of four locks of the day: the Fulton Lock. It was very near the marina, so a quick call to the lockmaster let us know we’d be able to get right in if we hurried. Hurried people make mistakes, and we have a nice little scuff on our brand new dinghy to prove it. Just a little bump into the dock, but that little mark will be a reminder that there’s no need to rush.
Since the locks are pretty close together on the Tenn-Tom, you “dance with the one who brung ya” all the way down, meaning that you all go as fast as the slowest boat. If you don’t, you will just race your way to the next lock and have to wait for the slowest boat anyway. So just settle in and save the fuel. Sometimes you go fast, sometimes you don’t. We buddy-boated through the Wilkens, Cochran (formerly Amory), and Aberdeen Locks. Others continued on from there, but some of us called it a day and stopped at the Columbus Marina, in Columbus, MS. We were guided into the marina by Steve, the high-energy comedian who runs the show and single-handedly pulled our boat into the fuel dock with two lines. There is a narrow entry there, but we were guided in by radio and arm motions. After fueling up, we were sent to a covered slip where Brandon tied us up and hooked up our power.
Columbus Marina has showers, laundry, and courtesy cars, which are needed to go anywhere in Columbus. The cars seemed to be in high demand the day we were there!
We settled in for a date night and watched a 90-minute video about anchoring. Good times!
Bowlines Thrown 