View Larger MapLocation: 34 59 27.00 N, 88 14 51.00 W – Aqua Yacht Harbor Marina, Iuka, Mississippi, Tenn-Tom 448.7

Our passage today was 54 miles on a relatively cool day into stiff north winds. We left Midway Marina with a companion vessel owned by a couple who wintered at Midway. They are moving their home port to the Knoxville area and perhaps Fort Loudon Marina. They have been living aboard for many years and recently bought a condo in Cape Coral, FL at a bargain price. They intend to summer on their boat and winter in Florida. We had 3 locks to transit in the morning. The first two had lifts of 30 ft. The third lock was a whopper at 84 ft. We have 6 remaining locks on the Tennessee River and one of them, the Wilson lock, has an even greater lift than we just did today. We can’t wait!

Take a look at the photo inside the Fulton lock looking to our stern at the boat behind us. To provide perspective, that boat is a 40 Ft Present trawler. Those lock doors are absolutely huge. The photos just don’t do this gigantic hole in the water full justice.

Now for some statistics: As of today we have travelled 1067 miles since leaving Punta Gorda. We have run the main engines for 114 hours for an average speed of 9 miles per hour. We have consumed 951 gallons of diesel fuel producing a calculated fuel burn of 8.34 gph or 1.12 mpg.

The scenery was varied from the relatively narrow confines of the divide cut (where they dug more dirt than the Panama Canal) to the wide expanse of Bay Springs Lake. The terrain has changed from the flat land in the south to the beginnings of hills. See the photo taken in the divide cut with the hill in the distance.

Aqua Yacht Harbor Marina was on our original float plan and we made arrangements to receive our mail and replace the generator’s muffler. Both our mail and the new muffler arrived today. Some work on the muffler was done today and it should be completed tomorrow. Diesel at the marina was $2.59 /gal. and overnight tie-up is $1.25 /ft.