Days 168

Columbus Marina, Columbus, MS Cooks Bend Anchorage, AL

• Start 8:05 AM
• End 4:14 PM
• Underway 8:33 Hours
• Distance 50 miles
• Total Miles on Trip 3433
• Av Speed 7.3 knots
• Locks 2
• Weather Sunny , 62 Degrees, Wind 3 Knts WSW

We spent another long day on the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway. As pretty as the waterway is, I am starting to agree with Angel, it is getting boring. In addition to long stretches of the river, the towns we do stop at either do not have anything close to the marina, or if they have a courtesy car, it is already booked.

Once again we are going down river with around 12 other boats, while we all travel different speeds we do end up locking through together. This means the faster boats sit there and wait for the slower boats to catchup. One advantage of this is there is always someone close by if you have a problem. Val and Tom (Wine & Roses) found out how important that this is. Shortly after leaving the second lock of the day, they hit something. The hit was hard enough to either bend or jam their rudder and they were no longer able to steer their boat. Rommel & Amy (Happiness Is), turned back to help Val & Tom. Not being able to find any cause of the problem, they took Wine & Roses under tow. They ended up towing them for two days, almost 70 miles to the next marina.

We ended our day anchoring at Cooks Bend cutoff. Cutoff's are natural sections of the river that are not part of the manmade channel. They are out of the channel and provide a perfect anchorage. We rafted off with Mark & Karen (Kay Dee), Rommel & Amy and Val & Tom. After everyone was secure we relaxed with docktails on Happiness Is.

When we pick anchorages the first thing we look for is an anchorage that is protected from traffic, after that some of the things we look for are; how well the anchor will hold, how many boats can anchor, things to see, places to dinghy to, cell service and the view. Cooks Bend covered everything but, things to see, and places to dinghy to.

Our next stop with be Kingfisher Bay Marina, in Demopolis AL.