Day 60 – 61
At 7:30 on Tuesday morning, 11/10/20, we left Aqua Yacht Harbor in chilly, misty and inhospitable weather. We were both dressed in layers and had the flybridge completely closed up around us to head down the TennTom Waterway, which begins in Lake Pickwick, via Yellow Creek.
More than twenty years ago, when we sailed our various sailboats on Pickwick and slipped them right there at Aqua Yacht Harbor, we used to talk about the “someday” far into the future, when we would retire and take our live-aboard trawler down the TennTom as we started on our Great Loop. To be perfectly honest, I never saw that day as anything more than a pipe dream, as it was so far into the future and how could we possibly know what our circumstances would be at retirement age? IF we were even able to retire! Besides, what were the chances of me ever selling my home and beloved flowerbeds, selling 95% of my belongings, and moving onto a BOAT full-time?? Steve, however, never gave up hope, and – sure enough – the day had arrived. As the TennTom has multiple locks on it – none as impressive as those on the Tennessee River, mind you, but certainly plentiful – I “looked forward” to traversing three of them in one day – all wearing my rain-suit, to boot. Yippee! We cruised through the Divide Cut, which is the largest, man-made 29-mile-long “ditch” dug in the 1970s to connect the Tennessee River to the Tombigbee River, which flows into the Gulf of Mexico, via Mobile Bay. Scenery-wise, the Divide Cut is about as exciting as it sounds. No houses or businesses, just miles and miles of ditch with grass and trees foliage growing on both sides of it, running an average of 280-feet wide and 12-feet deep. Cutting this channel was one of the largest earth-moving projects in history, requiring 10 years of work at a cost of nearly $500 million. A total of 150 million cubic yards of earth had to be removed, about 1.5 times as much as for the Suez Canal. When it was first completed, the cut had no aesthetic value at all, both sides resembling a strip-mine, but over the decades Mother Nature has softened the banks with grasses, shrubs and trees.
About 3 hours from the start of the cut, we met our first oncoming tow and barge. Steve hailed the tow captain on the radio to ask him which side he’d like us to pass him on. He said “On the Two”, which is tow-speak for passing with our starboard to his starboard. (“On the One” means passing port-to-port.) Steve started heading Legacy to meet the barge, when suddenly the port engine died and would not restart! He placed the starboard engine into reverse, and IT died and wouldn’t restart! YIKES! My biggest fears were being realized, but way earlier into our journey than I’d imagined. This was obviously a fuel issue, since both engines were inoperable simultaneously. Even though we thought we had filled both engines with diesel before we left Aqua, when Steve went below to check, he found both engines had been pulling from the port fuel tank, due to operator error (a valve was left closed that shouldn’t have been), and it was now empty, which meant both engines were fuel-starved so they would not restart. Meanwhile, the barge was still approaching and we were in its path. Steve jumped onto Channel 16 to hail the Coast Guard and let them know the situation with our engines and that we were adrift in the channel, since our hydraulically-powered anchor windlass would not operate for us to drop anchor without the starboard engine running. Holy crap! Because he was understandably shook up, Steve’s voice wavered on the radio, causing the Coast Guard operator to ask if there was any kind of medical emergency onboard. We assured him there wasn’t, so he asked us to switch off of the hailing channel (16) to Channel 22, so we could communicate freely. But when we did that, apparently the Coast Guard could not hear us, which unnerved us further, especially since our helpless boat was slowly drifting toward the port shore! Fortunately, that also meant we were drifting out of the barge’s path. WHEW! When the Coast Guard again reached us back on Channel 16, the operator asked for Steve’s cell number so he could call us. But, of course, our cell coverage on the TennTom was non-existent at that point. Ugh! Suddenly, Bay Springs Marina broke in on Channel 16 and asked the Coast Guard if they’d like them to help us, since they were close to our location. The Coast Guard agreed and Bay Springs told us they knew our location and would come to tow us back to their marina. By this time, Legacy had drifted all the way over to the side and we felt the bow hull run aground. The only thing that still worked on our boat was the battery-powered stern-thruster, which we used intermittently, attempting to keep the propellers from also hitting the bottom and possibly sustaining damage.
Several boats passed us as we languished up against the bank and offered to assist, but we advised that our help was on the way. After an hour, we finally saw our towboat from Bay Springs Marina approaching us from the south. One of the crew threw us a line, which we tied to one of our bow cleats, and the towing ensued.
Our towboat driver pulled us back very slowly, so after another hour we arrived at Bay Springs Marina in New Site, MS. They towed Legacy to the end of their transient dock, where we tied up and connected to power. Bay Springs Marina mechanic, Greg, came onboard to inspect our engines and advised the fuel system for each diesel engine was now full of air, so he’d have to bleed the air out of each before they would restart. He worked until 5:00 pm and then finished his work the next morning. The roof of the dock next to which we were tied completely blocked our satellite signal, and there was no wifi or cell coverage at the marina, which made for some long evenings. We were forced to resort to reading or actually talking to each other! By the time the engines were repaired, it was too late for us to leave, so we stayed at Bay Springs Marina until the next morning. Fortunately, Bay Springs has a courtesy vehicle, so we drove it into Booneville, MS, to Walmart and lunch at Market 105.
Position: N 34° 32.423, W 88° 20.482
Distance traveled: 31.8 NM
Total distance traveled: 1029.8 NM
Total marina nights: 50
Total nights at anchor: 11
Locks today: 0
Locks Total: 15