Fulton, Mississippi - waiting for November 16

Yesterday we cruised to Fulton, Mississippi. We will be here several days because our boat insurance won’t let us go farther south until after hurricane season, November 16.  After having lousy Wi-Fi and cellular coverage for the past several marinas, this one seems to be pretty good. Thank goodness, because there are bills to pay. 😆 

We took Yellow Creek to the Divide Cut, a man-made canal that took us through the hills, where we will ultimately join with the Tombigbee River. 

We began our trip this the morning at 7:30 am.  It was 40 degrees and a little foggy.  Remember the 56 degree cruise a couple of days ago?  That was balmy compared to boating in 40 degrees.  We felt like a couple of popsicles!

40 degrees and foggy

For details on the Cut, check out Tennessee-Tombigbee

To connect the waters of the Tennessee River with those of the Tombigbee, a channel had to be cut across the terrain dividing the two watersheds.

Key Facts from tenntom.org:

Cutting the channel is one of the largest earth-moving projects in history, requiring 10 years of work at a cost of nearly $500 million and completed in 1984. 

  • A total of 150 million cubic yards of earth had to be removed, about 1.5 times as much as for the Suez Canal.
  • The breadth of the cut at the top is nearly ½ mile, and the average depth of excavation was 50 feet.
  • The soil removed was deposited and landscaped into the valleys along the canal, solving one of the most potentially serious problems in constructing the waterway.
  • The canal formed by the cut is 280 feet wide with an average depth of 12 feet.
Eventually we will end up at the Gulf of Mexico. 

The Divide Cut reminded us of the Cape Cod Canal although it’s not as wide but is certainly longer.

The Divide Cut

Seriously, what IS this? ~




We had three locks to go through today.  The first lock was 84 ft. down 😬.  But we did fine as it had the floating bollards.  Check out this video for the Song of the Bollards.

The other two locks were 33 ft. and 31 ft.  We started the day 414 ft. above sea level.  By the time we get to the Gulf, and go through all the locks, we will be at sea level. 

The first 84 ft. Lock:










Open 84 ft. Lock Doors


I thought you might like to see how big these tows are in the rivers. The boat next to it (small object on the left) is 51 ft. long.

We had two buddy boats with us yesterday morning.

And finally, you don’t always need a chart to know if it’s too shallow for the boat.



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