View Larger MapLocation: 32*31’36.00"N/87*50’20.00"W, Demopolis Yacht Basin, Demopolis, AL

We decided to get an earlier start this morning because we changed our plan to anchor 50 miles north. There were two possible anchorage locations and neither made us comfortable. Both anchorages were not protected from the river and were little more than pull to the side of the river and pray that a river barge doesn’t run us down at night. The third option was to run 100 miles to Demopolis. In order to transit that distance in a reasonable amount of time we decided to blow the fuel budget and crank up our speed by running at full cruise of 2200 RPM which normally would translate to 17 – 18 mph. Since we are still running against the current our actual speed over the ground was 15 to 16 mph. That translated to about a 6 hour passage at that speed. Persistence got up on plane and performed beautifully.

Our passage today was another zig-zag course line where we could travel 3-4 miles to travel 1 mile north. The photo shows the typical path of this winding river. The shore line continues to be heavily wooded with lush vegetation all along the waterway. Water depths vary but average 25 -30 ft with some deep spots of 60 to 80 ft.

Near the end of today’s passage we had to go through the Demopolis lock. The Coffeeville Lock we went through yesterday had a vertical lift of 34 ft. Today the Demopolis lock was 40 ft. There are a total of 12 Locks on the Tenn-Tom. The smallest lift is 25 ft and the biggest lift is 84 ft. The lock photos show the entrance to the lock and a floating bollard that we tie a line to and a photo as we exit the lock. Essentially we used two ball fenders one aft and one forward. We tie a line from our mid cleat around the bollard and back to the cleat where it is made fast (tied tight). We have a sharp knife available to cut the line should the bollard get stuck. We will go through a lock every day we are on the Tenn-Tom. On one day we will have 4 locks to go through. It will be good practice for the even larger locks on the Tennessee River. When our trip is complete we will have climbed a mountain of nearly 900 ft above sea level.