back downstream

We left Pickwick Lake and entered the Tenn-Tom Waterway early this morning. We passed through 4 locks , traveled 74 miles and anchored near Smithville, MS right at sunset. It was nice to be traveling downstream again. For the last ten days, ever since we left the Mississippi River, we have been going against a current of ½ to 2 knots. Now we go with the current until we get about 100 miles above Mobile where tidal waters start to have some affect.
The single largest drop we had today was 84 feet at The Jamie Whitten Lock where the descent took about 20 minutes. The combined vertical drop for the four locks we passed through today was 174 feet. We are now at 245’ above sea level. In one of the photo’s on the blog you can see Jay tending the floating bollard at the lock. We tie up to the bollard when we enter the lock and it holds us in place as the water level goes down.