Tombigbee River

We left Demopolis Marina at 6 am with first light.  We had met up with Mother Ocean the night before and they were keen on getting an early start since they only travel at 7 mph and it was 71 miles to a decent anchorage.  With the short winter hours it gets dark by 4:30.

Now out of the Tenn-Tom canal system we were in the crazy natural river, wandering about in flat terrain. It was 216 twisty miles through rural Alabama to Mobile. No using the autopilot here, it was full attention and hand steering all the way.  Here is a screen shot of our chartplotter.

Our good luck with weather held, with sunny, windless days and cool nights.  Here was another group of animals enjoying the nice day.

We also saw large sandy beaches on many of the inside of river curves.

We also saw why they may have all were deserted.  This guy was easily 10 ft long and above the last dam, so he was in fresh water.

Coming into Mobile the scenery changed abruptly from swamp to industrial.  Our timing was lucky since it was Saturday after Thanksgiving and nobody seemed to be working.  I spotted over two dozen tugs, but none of them moving.  

There were large container ship loading docks, power plants, lumber yards, and even some military ship building.  These stealth looking trimarans were quite modern and imposing. 

We only glimpsed downtown Mobile as we cruised past into the bay.

Mobile Bay was our first saltwater since leaving New York Harbor.  It is not very deep, so we stayed in the shipping channel and hardly met another boat in the 30 miles it took for us to get to the ICW to Orange Beach.

So we made it back to the Gulf and only about 25 miles from where we started in Pensacola last December.  

Would have been nice to complete our loop on this leg, but we couldn't find a better marina than the Warf at Orange Beach.  It is modern, safe, well protected from storms, and has good restaurants onsite. 

It also close to a nice beach area.  We spent a couple hours walking along its white powder sand.

We've returned home for December and probably January.  Around the first of Feb we'll come back and cruise down to the St. Petersburg, FL area.  We are trying to decide our next plans for Happy Daze.  Commit to a second Loop, leave her in FL, or sell and move on to other adventures.  It's all good!

Tenn-Tom Waterway

Upon leaving Grand Harbor Marina we were in the Tenn-Tom Waterway.  This is a 234 mile, man-made canal with 10 locks, which links the Tennessee River to the Tombigbee River.  This canal was only finished in 1985, so a relatively new system.

We traveled through a few locks together with two other boats. One of them was this ocean going yacht from Switzerland.  They were five years into their trip, coming across by way of Iceland, Greenland, and St. Lawrence Seaway.

Angie's lock tending technique has really been refined with these bollard style walls on the Tenn-Tom.

Some mornings have dipped below 40 degrees.  One morning especially so with 1/2 inch of frost covering the boat.  Made it a bit tricky raising and washing the anchor.

We had numerous sightings of eagles, but few chances to get photos. Moving boats are not the best platforms to take telephotos from.

Tennessee River

We flew back to Nashville on Nov 13, stayed overnite near airport and drove to Green Turtle Lake the next morning.  Happy Daze looked good after her month long rest under cover.

We spent the afternoon, tidying up and shopping for provisions.  We then went to the nearby village of Grand Rivers and had dinner at Patti's old tyme restaurant.  Food and service were good, but the walk though their Christmas light display was fantastic.  Even better than the display in Panama City where we spent last Christmas.

We took the rental car back early next morning and with rain in the forecast we left about 10:30 am.  It would have been real easy to stay another day, all safe and snug in the marina under cover, but that would not get us any closer to the Gulf and winter is coming.

The weather did turn ugly for awhile, with wind and rain.  But we slogged along at 9 mph and made about 40 miles before pulling into a protected bay off of Kentucky Lake.  The whole time, we only saw one sail boat and one commercial tow with 15 barges.  The lake is large and gorgeous, with plenty of public shoreline and many coves for anchoring.

After about 150 miles the lake narrows and we found ourselves going up the wide Tennessee River.

The days were mostly sunny, with highs in 60's and down to low 40's at night. There were many vacation homes on both banks, but we saw hardly any people.  It was like a ghost town.  We really were traveling during the off season.

The next night we anchored in an oxbow just off the river, with a nice slow current keeping us aligned and wild goats wandering around on the nearby island.  Another very peaceful evening.

The next day we reached the Pickwick Lock and dam.  It raised us 55 ft to beautiful Pickwick Lake.  There were several very nice homes scattered around the edge.

Then it was another 15 miles to Grand Harbor Marina for us.  The forecast called for high wind and rain the next day so we decided to take safe harbor when available.  We've learned that the weather is the single most critical factor to having a safe, enjoyable and successful voyage.  We spent our lay day catching up on housekeeping, emails, and small maintenance items. 

Unfortunately, shortly after a nice evening meal, Angie started having strong abdominal pains and began vomiting.  At first we thought it might be my bad cooking, but by midnight she self-diagnosed it as an acute gallstone attack.  We wasted a lot of time trying to get access to the marina loaner car, find a taxi, or uber; all to no avail.  Finally, we called 911 and took an ambulance to the nearest hospital.  After plenty of drugs, the pain subsided.  An ultrasound, blood work, and ER doc confirmed her diagnosis.  Surgery will wait until we get back home.  We returned from the hospital around 8 am and since the forecast was good, decided to head out on the Ten-Tom waterway.  But that will be another post.