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These are all pictures taken today on the Tom BIgbee with ice on the trees grass and our boat early in the A.M. moving on to pictures of various places on the waterway. The weather stayed chilly all day.

Today we awoke to very very cold temperatures and frost on everything. I wanted  to take pictures and almost slid off the boat.:-) Boy that would have been cooollldd! We had to wait on the fog to evaporate some before we shoved off. Steve with his tough demeanor braved the cold and started the boat, raised the anchors, and made sure i was warm inside boat. We started under the first bridge on the Tn Tom and boy was it close we had about 1-2 ft clearance. From what i have read all the bridges are like that. The GPS reads that they dont have 50 foot clearance but the books on Tn Tom state they are all 52 ft and above, which is correct because our 50 ft mast cleared. After the bridge we started down the Tn Tom to the Whitten Dam, The Dams are so close they keep in touch to help keep you moving, thats great. We figured out the perfect way to tie up in the lock after several other attempts with different rope positions. Took us several attempts to tie up at Montgomery Dam due to one of our techniques, needless to say we wont be using that technique again. The picture of the tie up in the lock is the Rankin Dam. Perfect position. Passed several barges in waterway, they are huge and you must radio them to determine which side of waterway you pass them on. The captains have all been friendly and some make you laugh. We came across a sawmill (i have a picture of that in slideshow) on the waterway. Those of you who know sawmills check out that sawdust pile! We have had plenty of pretty scenery today.

Spent the night at Midway Marina with the couple in a big cruiser who locked thru Rankin Dam with us. We got settled in took the courtesy car with Pete and Linda. Pete and Linda are a wonderful couple from Osh Kosh WI.  We went and ate Mexican and made the (getting to be common event) trip to Wally World in Fulton for a few thing. Found out that the world is smaller than you know Linda does sewing, upholstery and she has made a lot of things for her boat!  My boat will not accommodate my sewing machine it barely accommodates our stuff. We came back and went to marina laundry to wash clothes and shower. Word of advice don’t use the second dryer from the right it doesn’t dry very well. Steve and i watched some Big Bang Theory while waiting on close to dry. I worked on this blog and we went back to boat and sleep. Keep checking other days we have sailed i correct some things and add some. 🙂

CAPTAINS LOG – Midway marina is at mile marker 394, No credit card to use gas pumps so you have to wait on someone to turn pumps on at 8 am. Be aware of milfoil, it is very thick and can wrap around your prop. It is in channel on way heading straight out. I had no issue on way into marina coming in at angle from North.