Hi y’all !
Since we’ve been in the deep south for over a month, I thought a southern greeting was appropriate. We have had little internet coverage for the past 2 weeks and I’m not sure when we will get it again so this may be a while getting out.
For the past two weeks we’ve been traveling through Alabama, Tennessee and Mississippi and are now in Alabama for the rest of the trip until we reach Florida. As I write this we are on the Tom Bigbee/Black Warrior River about 125 miles from the northern end of Mobile Bay.
Our trip down the Tennessee from Chattanooga was delightful. We passed through beautiful countryside and used several nice anchorages. We did have a slight snafu one morning when the anchor marker drifted under the boat and tangled in the prop. Fortunately the engine wasn’t running and after a short swim I was able to untangle it and we could pull up anchor and get under way. At the Wilson lock we had the unique experience of having the lockmaster call us when we were several miles out and tell us he was holding the lock for us! We cleaned out the carbon in the engines pretty well in getting there!
We stopped at Joe Wheeler again and had a nice dinner on Sun Cat with the crews of Gypsy Time, Salty Dawg and Time Out. The fall colors were fully out there and it was beautiful. The Wheeler lock was the last one for us on the Tennessee and we were able to drive right in the morning we left Wheeler and made good progress down the river that day, anchoring in a very nice little cove that night and another one the next night.
 |
| Sun Cat and Gypsy Time at Cotton Springs |
From there we left the Tennessee and started down the Tenn-Tom Waterway toward Mobile, 450 miles away. We only went about two miles down it that day as we stopped at Aqua Yacht Harbor in Iuka, Mississippi where we borrowed the courtesy car and went to Savannah, TN to play tourist and reprovision. I was also able to purchase a new water pump for the air conditioner as we found the old one didn’t have enough lift to adequately feed water to the new unit which was now up in the bridge rather than under the galley. We then set out down the Tenn-Tom which has been as pretty as the Tennessee and even more remote. We stopped that night at a very nice protected anchorage at Cotton Springs and the next day started down through the locks of which there are eight on the Tenn-Tom and two on the Black Warrior.
We stopped at Midway Marina in Fulton, Miss for a night. We walked over to the park visitors center but found it closed. It was a good walk anyway. The major purpose of stopping there was to use their cable TV to watch the Patriots-Colts game. We were very pleased with the outcome. The next night we stopped at Aberdeen Marina, primarily because they had the best fuel prices on the river. The courtesy car was out of commission but the owner gave us his truck to use and we were able to get to the hardware store to get a few pieces I needed as well as getting Jean and Pat (from Gypsy Time) to the grocery store. The entry was interesting, weaving our way through a narrow, winding channel with stumps on both sides and only around 5 feet of water.
 |
| On the Tenn Tom |
 |
| The crew handles another lock - we are going down |
 |
| More Tenn Tom |
We spent the next two nights at the Columbus (Miss.) marina. The first night we had dinner out with Pat and Pat from Salty Dawg at Woody’s restaurant which has a great reputation and lived up to it. The next day we took the courtesy van for the afternoon with the crews from Gypsy Time and Salty Dawg and played tourist at the Waverly Mansion which is a restored plantation home built in the 1850’s. It was very interesting, especially since it had sat vacant and open for over 50 years and still had all of its original wood, fireplace tiles, light fixtures and windows as well as a god bit of its original furniture. The house was large with a four story atrium (55 feet high) in the center. There were then 4 large rooms in each corner off of that center core and the second floor was laid out the same. The top two floors were primarily storage. All of the top floors were accessed with circular staircases beginning on the ground floor and the fourth floor was an octagon of windows which when opened created a chimney effect which drew the warm air out and cooler air into the lowest floor. There were extensive gardens as well but they were not very exciting in early November. We toured Columbus a little, did some shopping and then had dinner at a Mexican restaurant.
The next morning we took off early and went through two locks to a very nice anchorage in Cook’s Bend Cut-Off which is roughly at mile 280 (and is in the middle of nowhere). It was a good stop. The next night we stopped at Demopolis Yacht Haven (mile 216) and took a nice walk though downtown Demopolis even though it was late afternoon and just about everything was closed.
Yesterday was another early day as we were off before 7 to catch the Demopolis lock and went down it with 10 other pleasure boats. The lockmaster did a great job of keeping everything organized and the locking went smoothly. It was another beautiful sunny day spent passing through woodlands which were colorfully decorated by mother nature. It even warmed up enough that we could go back to wearing shorts for the afternoon. After a long day, we anchored for the night in a wide spot in the river at Mile 145. The locals had recommended it as a place they often used and it turned out to be a good place even with the tows passing 300 yards away. We rafted with Gypsy Time and Salty Dawg and Pat on Salty Dawg served a very nice homemade soup to all after a nice happy hour.
This morning (Sunday) it was very foggy when we awoke and we had planned on an easy day after a couple of long days anyway so we didn’t get moving until after 10 AM – just in time to have a tow go by us that we wound up following all the way to our anchorage at Okatuppa Creek which is at Mile 123. The creek is quite narrow. We rafted to Gypsy Time and then put out bow and stern anchors to keep from swinging into the banks. We got in early so we took one of the dinghies and went exploring up the creek which is surrounded by a wildlife preserve.
Tomorrow we go through the Coffeeville Lock and Dam which will be our last for quite some time as we will be back to sea level and in tidal waters for the first time since the Hudson River back in June.
Tenn-Tom pictures with next update.
Steve and Jean
Aboard M/V Sun Cat
No comments:
Post a Comment