The Ditch

Today was our first full day on the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway, another engineering marvel that you’ve probably never heard of (before reading this blog). The Tenn-Tom is 234 miles long and as its name implies, connects the Tennessee River to the Tombigbee River, with 10 locks and dams to manage the 340-foot elevation difference. The Tenn-Tom is the largest earth moving project in history, requiring the removal of 310 million cubic yards of soil, considerably more than the Panama Canal (210 million yards) and Suez Canal (105 million). Completed in 1985 (two years ahead of schedule), it shortened the water route to the Gulf of Mexico by 800 miles, compared with taking the Lower Mississippi River.

Today we traveled on the 30-mile Divide Cut, a man-made, 280-foot wide canal that connects Pickwick Lake to Bay Springs Lake. Known as “The Ditch,” it has no marinas, anchorages, docks, ramps or stopping unless you break down. It does have these interesting baffled spillways that enter into it periodically.

It was overcast with a high of 61F as we made our way through The Ditch, which was somewhat relaxing—it’s mostly straight with no channel markers and easy to navigate. We kept Dragonfly right in the middle, except for the one time we passed a tow and had to briefly slide to the right. 

Once on Bay Springs Lake, we chose an anchorage close to tomorrow’s first lock. The swing room was limited, and as we were setting our stern anchor, we noticed that the bow anchor rode didn’t look right. Upon further investigation, we discovered that it was fouled around a large submerged tree branch. After multiple attempts—and with both of us hauling—we finally freed it, retrieved both anchors and moved to another anchorage. We are currently by the Bay Springs/Whitten Lock Visitors Center with three other boats. It was warm enough to grill and eat in the cockpit, which we haven’t done in a while and are enjoying the evening sounds of nature as we close out the day.