Iuka, MS to Destin, FL

Total Miles Traveled 780

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After visiting with our friends at Aqua Harbor Marina for a few days, we departed October 12^th and cruised 36 miles on the Tenn-Tom waterway to Bay Springs.  This is a large body of water formed by the creation of the waterway and it is also the first lock of 12 before reaching Mobile Bay.  We anchored here for five days, the weather was perfect!

We called Whitten Lock about a half an hour before daybreak on October 18th and discovered a tow was approaching the lock.  The tow captain offered to let us and another boat lock though with him if the lock master approved.  We have locked through with tows before but it is not a normal occurrence.  Some barges are red flagged meaning they are transporting fuel or hazardous materials so other boats are not permitted to share a lock with them.  Fortunately for us the lockmaster agreed to lock us together saving us more than an hour delay.

We locked through the next 3 locks with the tow and later discovered he was transporting two nuclear reactors.

We anchored near the Wilkins Lock on October 18^th, and then passed through Wilkins, Amory, Aberdeen, and Stennis locks on the 19^th.  We anchored in an Oxbow off the river at Columbus, MS.  This is a great anchorage near the city which has a dingy dock providing access to Columbus,  if barges are stored here it can be a little narrow getting to the anchorage.

 We met our friends Randy and Sheri on “Priorities” anchored here, and our friends Steve and Libby on “San Souci” we staying at the marina, so they picked us up in the courtesy car and shuttled us to dinner.

We weighed anchor on October 21^st and passed through the Tom Bevill Lock and the Howell Heflin Lock before anchoring just downstream of the lock in a cut about 2 miles from the spillway.  We traveled 66 miles today with perfect weather conditions.

On October 22^nd we arrived at Demopolis, AL at the Kingfisher Bay Marina.  A week before leaving Kentucky this fall our hot water heater started leaking so I ordered a new one and had it sent here.  We stayed at the marina 10 days, partially due to replace the water heater and a few preventative maintenance items, but also due to our insurance requirements.  According to our boat insurance policy, hurricane season ends on November 1^st  so we can't be too far south of this area before that date.  I checked the weather and there is a tropical storm moving west to South America, expected to upgrade to hurricane status and hit landfall near Nicaragua in a few days. 

We departed Kingfisher Bay Marina November 1^st and traveled 93 miles to an anchorage at Okatuppa Creek, about 6 miles from the Coffeeville Lock, the last lock of the waterway.  We had a few days of heavy rain earlier in the week, so the river current has increased 2-3 mph allowing us to cruise at 10-11 mph at normal engine rpm.  We also left the marina with 10 other boats making locking through a little congested.

On November 2^nd we passed through our last lock, the river current continues to be strong enabling us to travel 87 miles to an anchorage at the Tensas River.  After the Coffeeville lock there are no marinas or fuel, and very limited cell service until approaching Mobile.  Our plan was to cruise about 30 miles to the Briar Creek anchorage on November 3^rd, then cross Mobile Bay on the 4^th.  We awoke to dense fog so our plan to only cruise 30 miles worked perfectly.  We anchored in Briar Creek with “Priorities” and “The Blessing”.

On November 4^th we arrived at the shipping channel of Mobile Bay, as luck would have it we had very little commercial traffic to deal with and passing though the shipping docks was very smooth.

Mobile Bay still has its hazards...

After crossing Mobile Bay, we entered the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway and stopped at Lulu’s to pump out, top off our water tank, and have lunch.  We continued on to Ingram Bayou and anchored with “Priorities” and later “San Souci”.  As soon as we entered the Orange Beach area we witnessed the destruction of a hurricane that passed through this year.

We slept in a little on November 5^th and traveled only 16 miles to Ft McKree, this is one of our favorite anchorages near Pensacola, FL.  The Blue Angels are stationed here and the runway approach is directly overhead.  We didn’t have any flyovers while anchored, but watched them doing maneuvers on our way.

We finally put our feet in the Gulf of Mexico....

Randy, Sheri, and Steve

We’ve been monitoring hurricane Eta daily, who would have thought when it hit Nicaragua it would make a U-turn and head for Cuba…..and Florida. On November 6^th we cruised 52 miles to Destin Harbor, FL. 

We will stay at this anchorage to monitor Hurricane Eta, as of today November 7^th, all of the projected models indicate it will pass through Cuba and turn to the Gulf then move back East and make landfall near Tampa Florida.  If the storm indicates a westerly direction we’ll move East and if it indicates a Northerly direction up the coast we will move back West and continue back up the river if need be.  We are only two long travel days from our anchorage to Briar Creek, 10 miles upriver from Mobile Bay.