View Larger MapLocation: 33 34 39.50 N, 88 29 39.50 W – Waverly Marina, WestPoint, Mississippi

We reluctantly left our anchorage this morning for another 50 mile passage taking us in and out of Alabama and Mississippi. There were lots to see along the shoreline as we moved from forest to developed areas. The river does not wander north of Demopolis as much as it did to the south. The shoreline has more development ranging from shacks to beautiful homes. In some areas conventional homes are the norm while log homes appear in other areas. Water depths are not as deep as we saw in first half of the Tenn-Tom. Today we saw a lot of areas with 10 -15 ft of water. We’re use to thin water with our years on the Gulf side of Florida so we were quite comfortable. There river is well marked all along its path with daymarks along the shoreline and also conventional red nuns and green cans floating in the current.

Today we did the Bevill and Stennis locks. Both have a 27 ft. vertical lift and again the mechanics are the same as the previous locks. The lock-masters prefer that you call on 16 a couple of miles in advance so they can plan their operations. Their working channel is 14 and once you move to the working channel they want you to standby on 14 until you leave the lock. We have now gone through 5 locks and in each case the lock-masters were helpful and polite. They also try to coordinate multiple lock transits and it helps them to know if you intend to transit the next lock. The lock-masters apparently communicate between locks to help coordinate traffic.


When we passed the Bevill lock we saw the Snagboat Montgomery on display along the shoreline. The US Montgomery sternwheeler was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1989. She was built in 1926 and worked the rivers until 1982. You can learn more by clicking on www.montgomery.sam.usace.army.mil/ When we were approaching the Stennis lock we saw this Corps of Engineers dredge at work. This is the first working dredge we’ve seen and we have traveled 338 miles since Mobile. In one of the wilderness areas we saw our first Bald Eagle. We were able to use the binoculars and we could see the bird had a fish in it’s talons and was heading for a perch in the trees. We tried to get some photos but we were not quick enough.

The Waverly Marina at mile 338.7 is out of the way and not visible from the river. There is a grain loading port in the river and the marina is behind the grain port on a cutoff. We chose this marina (instead of Columbus Marina) because of a lower fuel price. The price is $2.25 /gal. and the bonus was the overnight tie-up rate was $0.75 /ft. It is a simple marina as you can see from the Satellite photo with a turnaround basin where some live-aboard houseboats are located. Transients tie up along the entrance channel which also serves as the fuel dock. 30 and 50 amp power is available. For the $0.75 /ft. they also offer a courtesy car. We took the car and drove first to the Waverly Mansion. Unfortunately they were closed but you can learn more by clicking http://www.wpnet.org/waverley_mansion.htm We then drove into Columbus, Mississippi with a recommendation from Rita the Marina manager to find Rubin’s Catfish and Steak restaurant. We both ordered a 10 oz ribeye and two catfish filets. Dinner was good and it was well worth the 6 mile drive.