Day 149 Aqua Yacht Marina to Midway Marina Fulton, MS October 15, 2018

Some sun and clouds and a shower. High 65

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The day started with a wonderful sunrise as we departed the Aqua Yacht Marina.

The day was warm at about 65 degrees to start the day.
For about three miles we traveled in the last coves of Pickwick Lake. We then entered the 24 mile dug diversion/connecting channel.

The dug channel is evident here as shown by the rip rapped channel edges. We expected it to be like traveling in a drainage ditch from the movie Grease. But it was fully filled in on the edges with vegetation and was a rather pleasant ride.

Here is a baffle to let in a stream to the channel. You can see from the height of the embankment how far down the channel has been cut in the natural land.

Here is further down.

And from the height of the embankment you can see the deepest cut of 175 feet below the original ground.

We had three locks to pass through in our 56 mile trip today. The first lock was the Whitten Lock. We drove straight into the open lock. We had to wait a few minutes for a southbound houseboat that came from the marina just before the lock.

The Whitten lock was a tall lock at 84 feet of drop. But it went down fast - almost too fast as you don't want for something to get hung up and have little time to react - but all went well. Next two locks were only a 30 foot drop.

We passed the 3500 mile mark. It that possible? I guess it is.

Our second lock was the Montgomery Lock. It was only about 6 miles from the Whitten Lock. And we drove straight in again. We did have to travel a little slower than I wanted to so the houseboat would keep up.  I drove straight in again.

And the final lock of the day was the Rankin Lock. It was also located about 6 miles from the Montgomery Lock. I thought my lock luck was about to run out as I could see on AIS that a tow barge was only 2 miles away when we were about 4 miles away.  But the Rankin lockmaster called the tow and asked that since they already had a full chamber and wanted to conserve water, could he lock us through first. The tow agreed and we drove into the Rankin Lock as well.

And the day has turned cloudy with showers. And the Admiral is holding up her end - that is a working senior officer if ever I saw one.

And here is the John F Secrest barge that waited for us.

And finally here we are arriving at the Midway Marina. (midway between the Rankin and Fulton locks)

We were tied up by 3:00 and we just missed passing showers. A very good day of 56 miles and three locks that did not seem that long at all.

After we tied up we watched the Pats beat the Chiefs from yesterday's Sunday Night Football. It was a great game and the Chiefs may have their own MVP quarterback in the making. As we watched the full length version (wonderfully without commercials) it is now evening and thus time to say..........

Good Night and May God Bless