Day 118 – Grand Harbor Marina to anchorage at Five Fingers - November 1, 2011

Today was our first official day on the Tenn-Tom (Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway).  The Tenn-Tom was opened in June of 1985 (that’s right, just 26 years ago).  More dirt was moved to build the Tenn-Tom than was moved to build the Panama Canal.  The first section of this Waterway is the 24-mile long Divide Cut.  Without the Divide Cut section, there wouldn’t be any Tenn-Tom.  When you are at the actual divide (where you go through the highest part of the original land mass) the cut is about 1,300 feet wide and 175 feet deep – 150 million cubic yards of dirt had to be dug out and hauled away in this section.

We stayed in a beautiful anchorage in Bay Springs Lake called the Five Fingers.  The last several nights have been very cool (in the low 40’s and upper 30’s) and we were a bit worried about how cold it might get inside the boat.  However, the day was sunny and we took the front shade off the windows and let the sun heat up the boats interior.  We got the inside temp up to 78 degrees before the sun went down.  We also used the oven for cooking dinner – as a result the boat stayed plenty warm all night.

             Miles: 36.4      Bridges: 5        Locks: 0

meeting a barge in the Divide Cut - there's not much
room to pass - imagine two barges passing each other

in the early portion of the Divide Cut - the banks here are quite short

further on along the Divide Cut the banks are beginning to get a bit higher

further still, the banks are getting quite high

and further along the Divide Cut, the banks are very high now

This point is at the divide.  The point were the most
land was excavated to build the Tenn-Tom.

When a stream or river enters the Tenn-Tom, it enters by flowing over
these barriers which help control erosion.  This is early in the Divide
Cut as it only takes four set of barriers to get from the top of the bank
down to the waterway.

Further on down the Divide Cut another stream enters the waterway.  It takes
eleven barriers to et from teh top of the bank down to the waterway.

This monument marks the place where the city of Holcut was originally
located.  Holcut was the only town that had to be moved for the
building of the Tenn-Tom.

This was the view off the back of Boreas at our anchorage in Five Fingers.
The charts often show areas where there is "submerged timber".  The water
was four feet down at the time we anchored and the timber
was no longer submerged.

another picture off the back of Boreas at anchor