After leaving the AGLCA rendezvous and transiting two locks with nineteen boats, we were happy to spend the night at Grand Harbor Marina which is at the beginning of the Tenn-Tom Waterway.
The Tenn-Tom is a man made waterway that connects the Tennessee River to the Tombigbee River and eventually the Gulf of Mexico at Mobile, Alabama. The waterway was completed in 1984 after much political wrangling. It is the largest water resource project ever built in the United States. Completion took twelve years and cost $2 billion. There was more earth moved in building this canal than in the Panama Canal.
As Loopers, we are all happy that it exists. Without the Ten-Tom, we would have to transit the lower Mississippi to New Orleans, which is not at all friendly to pleasure boats. There are few support services and they are very far apart. We do not have the range of around five hundred miles required for this route.
There are more support services on the Ten-Tom but they also are few and far between. This requires anchoring rather than marinas to spend the nights. When we anchor we need to get off the main channel and into a creek. This choice of an anchorage keeps us out of the way of the tows that travel twenty four hours per day. At the conclusion of the rendezvous there were a lot of boats traveling concurrently with us and we all needed to use the few anchorages. This made for a lot of planning and coordination with the other boats.
Some of our anchorages were a little narrow and shallow but all were adequate. While I like anchoring, Jan has reservations. Because the hours of daylight are short in the fall we always wanted to be anchored before dark. We were mostly successful. We and Average Looper are early risers and ready to weigh anchor at first light. Some of our anchorages gave us beautiful sunsets and sunrises.
One day we were thankful to Steve from Atla for sharing his anchorage with both of us. Steve is single handling his boat and enjoyed the company for the night. He joined us for dinner and Average Looper for breakfast. I think both meals were better than his menu offered!.
We traveled ten days on the Tenn-Tom and spent six nights at anchor and four nights in marinas. This waterway was not expected to be a highlight but the beautiful warm, sunny fall weather really helped. We were ahead of the fall colors but the warm weather was a nice trade off.
The Tombigbee River was a series of switch backs. We traveled many miles east and west while moving south toward the Gulf. Our last day on the Tombigbee was relatively straight and one of the most enjoyable boating days of the entire loop so far. Average Looper and some other boats wanted to travel at ten knots. Navigator doesn't like going over eight knots without going on plane and traveling much faster. To accommodate everyone I told them to travel at their ten knots, I would travel at eight knots and once an hour I would power up and catch them. That happened three or four times and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
We eventually made it to Mobile Bay and Dog River Marina. To my surprise Mobile Bay is very shallow and even with many ocean going ships everyone has to share the same channel. Another surprise was that I was glad to get back into salt water. We had been in fresh water since the first lock heading north on the Hudson River in New York State. The dirty waterline on the boat proved that things float higher in salt water than fresh water. A huge advantage was that the spiders we had accumulated along the way all disappeared. I am extremely happy to be rid of them! The corrosive effects of salt water is obviously a problem but I don't seem to mind that as much as those darned spiders and spider poop.
The next post will be the Florida Panhandle, then the Gulf crossing and the West Coast of Florida and the completion of our loop.
We never tire of these beautiful scenes.
Look carefully to see the spiders overnight work.
We toured this mansion.
It was lovingly tended by the owner, his daughter and a tour guide.
The Snow family purchased the home in 1962 after nearly 50 years of neglect.
There is quite a story behind the families restoration of this originally beautiful mansion.
I hope they can afford to maintain it.
How old must this tree be?
They had live peacocks on the property.
While we were there a tour bus delivered a lot of people to tour.
They don't allow pictures taken inside the house.
Just a little foggy this morning.
Some people have an interesting sense of humor!
This is out in the middle of nowhere.
Another beautiful anchorage.
Jan wants to know how far it is to a Target!
A beautiful foggy morning.
A little more foggy this morning.We actually went back toward our anchorage waiting for clearing.
White cliffs - so beautiful.
We waited at a lock for some stragglers to leave the marina.
The lock master was insistent that he wasn't waiting very long.
This waterfall is the reason for the last lock.
This could almost be a photo from Canada.
More white shoreline banks with a beautiful sky above.
We really had beautiful weather on the Tenn-Tom waterway.
Happy Birthday, Tom
Thanks for the cake, Jane!
At anchor you learn to make due with what you have available.
The Garmin is showing us actually going almost north on our way south.
8.1 knots is equal to 9.3 miles per hour.
Notice the mile markers to get the proper perspective.
This picture shows about five miles total.
The picture the same on the Raymarine.
Going into an anchorage off the main channel.
This morning it was foggy enough that we had to turn around and wait until
the fog lifted.
Average Looper is just below the sun in the picture.
Civilization can't be far away now.
This is the beginning of Mobile, Alabama.
This captain communicated with us about passing.
We were going wherever he wanted us to go!
Although most of Mobile was industrial, there was some nice buildings.
This looks like it could be a cruise ship terminal.
Lots of containers here.
I find it fascinating to watch these ships get unloaded and loaded again.
Mobile is a busy seaport.
This picture shows Navigator floating 2 to 3" higher in salt water.
It wasn't as hard to clean as it looks.
Until next time---
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