Date: November 9, 2013
Day on the Cruise: 187
From: Columbus Marina, Columbus, MS
To: Pirate's Marina Cove, Pickensville, AL
Statute Miles: 28.9 SM
Time: 3.75 Hrs
Cumulative Miles: 4,860.0 SM
On Board: Susan, Chuck, Maggie, Trooper, Peanut
Tonight we are at the Pirate's Marina Cove near Pickensville and Aliceville, AL, hard along the Alabama/Mississippi state line.
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| Pirate's Marina Cove, Pickensville, AL |
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| Pickensville is near tuscaloosa |
We were sort of hurried this morning on our departure with "Sun Gypsy". Stennis Lock at Columbus is right next to the marina. At about 7:45, I talked to the lock on the VHF and asked them about traffic for a 9:00 lock through. The lock master suggested that we come on then as he was putting three sailboats into the chamber. We "scrambled the jets", got everything started, unhooked, and untied, then headed the short distance to the lock. We were off the dock at 8:00 and into the lock at 8:08.
At 8:30 we were out of the lock. What greeted us when the lock doors opened was a mass of water weeds, water hyacinths, lilly pads, etc. that wound up stretching for about 7 miles down the river below the lock. These flora and fauna were floating and looked to extend about 8" to a foot below the surface. The concern is getting this stuff caught in the prop or rudder, and also sucking it up in the raw cooling water intake for the engine. "Sun Gypsy" lead the way through all this vegetation and sort of pushed it out of the way. I told Rick that I was going to call his boat "Weed Whacker" from now on.
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| View Out of the Front Door this Morning with "Weed Whacker" Leading the Way |
We passed two down bound tows on the way to Pirate's Cove. One had two barges of big process piping that looked like it had been fabricated somewhere up river and was being shipped down some where. Our pace today was a leisurely 8 to 8.4 mph as we ran in fuel saver mode. As we got closer to Pickensville, we started to see more and more river houses and development. We also passed the famous telephone booth that is on the bank of the river out in the middle of nowhere. This is famous because it seems to appear in every blog that is published about cruising on the Tenn-Tom, so here it is in one more blog!
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| Big Pieces of Process Piping on Two Barges |
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| Getting Around the "Claude R" with a Load of Process Piping |
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| The Famous Telephone Booth Out in the Middle of Nowhere! |
Our arrival at Pirate's Marina Cove came as we approached the Tom Bevill Lock. We made a turn to Port just before the lock and headed up the short channel to this old marina. We are glad to be here, but the marina is very basic. Just a very old wooden floating dock with some slips and dockside power. There is an old double-wide trailer with a wooden covers porch is the marina office and store. There are some travel trailers on the property behind the store, and a lot of dogs. Some in pens and some roaming around. There are some old junk Ford Thunderbirds behind the store. Yep! Vintage rural West Alabama on the Tombigbee River!
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| Marina Store in Double-Wide Trailer |
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| Marina Store with Wooden Covered Porch |
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| Travel Trailers at the Marina |
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| Slips at the Old marina |
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| Junk T-Bird at Pirate's Marina Cove |
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| Another Junk T-Bird |
As we docked, Rick from "Sun Gypsy" advised that he is still having transmission oil issues. He has now identified a leaking seal around the shaft at the rear of the transmission. He spent a lot of time on the phone during our run today trying to find repair parts. The mechanic from Columbus will come down here on Monday morning with the parts and repair the seal problem. We told Rick and Leila that we would hang with them, so we will stay here again tomorrow. We should be able to leave Monday after the repair.
My control problem thankfully did not reoccur today. We ran almost 30 miles and 4 hours and everything worked fine with the upper helm. I did not get a trouble code on the system either. I will continue to watch this situation. While I now know what to do if the system goes into alarm mode, my concern remains when we pass these tows. I must be very careful to make sure we are well out of the tow's path in case I get a shut down again.
After getting to Pirate's Cove, we borrowed the marina car and went down the road to a restaurant called "Down Yonder" for lunch. It was very good. Just a small place on the side of the road out in this very rural area.
After lunch, we went next door from the marina to the Tom Bevill Visitor's Center which is run by the Corps of Engineer's as the Visitor's Center for the Tenn-Tom Waterway. It is located in an antebellum style home that was specially constructed to be used as the center. The complex sits on the River next to the Bevill Lock and Dam. There is an old steam powered paddle wheel snag boat named the "Montgomery" that is also on display at this Visitor's Center. one of the features of this old home is the large cupola in the center of the house that projects above the main roof. We climbed up into the cupola and the view was great!
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| Front of the Visitor's Center |
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| Rear of the Visitor's Center Facing the River |
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Tom Bevill Visitor's Center Showing Cupola Above the Main Roof
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| Looking at the Tom Bevill Lock from the Visitor's Center |
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| Looking up the Stair Case into the Cupola at the Visitor's Center |
Tom Bevill was a multi-term congressman from West Alabama who at his heyday, was chairman of the House Appropriations Committee. He was a very powerful political figure in the mid to late Twentieth Century. There are many things named for Bevill in Alabama, including not only this Lock and Dam on the Tenn-Tom, but also a big bio-medical research building that I was part of building at the medical center in Birmingham back in the early 90's. a picture of this building hangs in the Bevill exhibit at the is Visitor's Center.
The displays in the visitor's center were very interesting, especially those having to do with the age of steam boats on the rivers. It must have been a real adventure to have plied these rivers in old stern wheelers before the rivers were dammed and totally navigable. Our Great Loop Trip is tracing the routes of these very basic forms of river transportation.
The steam powered snag boat "Montgomery" is a 170' work boat that is displayed on the hard. It was built in 1926 in Charleston, SC, and it's purpose was to work the Southern rivers to remove snags and obstacles to navigation from the rivers. The boat was operated by the Corps of Engineers, Mobile District, and retired from service in the early 80's. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
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| The Snag Boat "Montgomery" as Seen From the Visitor's Center |
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| Starboard Side of the "Montgomery" |
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| Port Side |
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| Pilot House |
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| Paddle Wheel |
We enjoyed our little jaunt around this area today. Tomorrow we will lay over here at Pirate's Cove with Sun Gypsy, then hopefully Monday we can leave and make it to an Anchorage at Sumter Recreation Area down river.
Thanks for Reading!
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