Aquaholic: 7/7/18 - Saturday - Bay Springs Marina (New Site, Mississippi) to Columbus Marina (Columbus, Mississippi)

We awoke at our usual 6am. While taking the first couple of sips of morning joe we called the first of 7 planned locks for the day to inquire whether there were any delays. We were told that we needed to get there in 10 mins or so, or we would be stuck behind three separate barges and would have a several hour delay at this first Lock and likely be behind them the entire day. This would mean we would be lucky to make it through 3 locks and travel 18-20 miles today. At break neck speed we disconnected shore power, started blowers, checked systems, and shoved off. We scooted on down 1 1/2 miles or so to the lock at a blistering 25mph 🤭. We arrived just as the lock master had finished filling the chamber and was opening the doors to allow us in.....wheeeww! Glad we made it in front of the downriver regatta of barges before they got in front of us 🤩
We continued our way down "The Ditch" (nickname for this section of the Tenn-Tom Waterway) with no issues. The first 3 locks on the waterway only have about 6 miles between them so they come up quickly. The first one (Whitten Lock) was a large drop of 90’. All of the remaining drops are much smaller (about 30’ or less). We were starting to catch up with a downriver barge by the 3rd Lock (Rankin Lock) and also had caught up with a 30’ recreational sailboat who would be locking down with us. We conversed with them on the radio and found that they were coming down out of Peoria Illinois traveling all the way down to Florida. Once through Rankin Lock we made a pit stop at Midway Marina where we filled up the fuel tanks and checked fluids. We had been asked by the two gentlemen on the sailboat if we knew of anywhere they could get a fan belt for their 2 cycle Yanmar outboard. We inquired with the dock hand at Midway Marina and he informed us that they had a courtesy vehicle and that there were several auto parts stores within a short distance. We radioed and let the guys on SV "Alessandra" know this and they turned into the marina as well to try and get the belt they needed. We had nice conversation with them and found out that they were brothers, one of whom had recently been diagnosed and was being treated for kidney cancer. He went on disability for his truck driving job, sold everything, and was sailing/motoring down to Florida where he is planning to live aboard his boat. Seemed like nice guys! Also at Midway Marina, we saw replicas of the Pinta and Nina boats that were docked there....pretty cool!
We did now catch up to, and get stuck behind a commercial barge. We had to wait approximately 1 hr for them to get him locked down. Once through the lock we passed the barge and were able to get ahead of him before the next lock. This put us back on pace to get to our destination, about 80 miles and 7 locks! We arrived at Columbus marina between 5 and 5:30pm just before they closed at 6pm.
After dinner and while preparing to get showered up to go into town we discovered the fresh water pump was not working. We decided to mess with it when we got back and headed to town to catch a great lead meeting(lots of people! about 100!) and stopped at walmart for oil, trash bags, and boxes for packing. Erik found a little ice cream shop on the way home! Back at the boat we looked at the wiring for the water pump and determined that it was all good. It appears that the pump itself is bad 😕. Fortunately, it was bought and installed by us almost exactly 1 yr ago and we do have the receipt (it has a 4 yr warranty). Unfortunately, that will not do is any good for the last few days of our travels since we will not be able to get it exchanged/fixed in that timeframe. Oh well...we were tired and decided to sleep on it and decide how to handle it tomm. We don’t really need water for much and what we do need we can use out of jugs (ie flush toilet and wash dishes). It was late and off to bed we went.