As We Go South

Leaving town

The first portion of this trip was just going back to Chattanooga.  My great friend Tom came from Maryland to experience the Navy, go to the game and go down the river,  We left on Sunday, Nov 16, and ran down river to Blue Springs Marina.  That's about half way and they were the only place that still had a restaurant open!  Then on Monday, we completed the trip to downtown Chattanooga.  Those two days were beautiful, sunny and actually quite warm for November.  Of course, not everything can be perfect, so to prove that, my brand new alternator failed on the way down!

The grass is turning brown so the "T" is a little hard to see.

Settled in at Blue Springs.

My plan was to spend two days in Chattanooga getting the engines serviced.  Now we had to add getting another alternator replacement to the list.  I've got a great mechanic there and Jerald did not disappoint at getting everything figured out and completed.  The only downside was that instead of leaving early on Thursday morning, it turned into a 1:30 in the afternoon departure.  Best laid plans as they say.  The late start combined with a delay at Nickajack lock got us into the dark and fog about 5 miles past the dam.  Allen got out on the bow and we crept into a spot where we could anchor the boat out of the channel behind Long Island (who knew TN had one of those?).

Allen working in the rain.

Friday started out about the same.  Again hoping for an early start, the fog didn't permit it.  Once again, Allen went to the bow and acted as the lookout as we idled along until the fog finally broke up.  The destination was Riverwalk Marina in Decatur, AL where we would meet Regina who was flying into the nearby Huntsville airport.  Along the way, a stop at Goose Pond Marina was required to get fuel.  That was when we discovered the bugs!  Apparently these things descended upon us while we were anchored.  There had to be about a 100 million tiny black bugs all over the boat which I attacked with bug spray.  We got to Riverwalk marina at about the same time as Regina's flight was landing.  The harbor master took Allen to the airport to pick up his rental car and Regina.  While he was doing that, I was getting everything connected for the evening and washing the boat!

The Admiral gave me a break.

When we woke up on Saturday morning, Allen headed back to Knoxville and we started out toward Wheeler lock.  The rain was finally gone and the sun was shining - for a while.  We were cruising down the river and suddenly the fog was back.  Only thing to do is just slow down, use the chart plotter to navigate and turn on the radar in hopes of seeing anyone else who ended up in this mess.  Fortunately, it cleared soon and we got to Wheeler lock and through with only a short delay.  Next comes Wilson lock.  This is the highest single lift lock east of the Rocky Mountains at about 100'.  We had to wait for a bit while they brought up a large tow boat and barges.  As we left, there was a boat similar to mine who led the way to our next stop at Aqua Yacht Harbor Marina. 

The upper door on Wilson lock is quite different.

Aqua Yacht is one of the 2 marinas at the top of the Tennessee - Tombigbee Waterway.  Turning off the Tennessee River to start the trip down was a little sad knowing we were finishing another piece of the Era that I talked about before.  In the past, I've always stopped at the other marina, so as we continue new things, I changed this time.  It was a nice location with very helpful staff.  They even had a little bar and grill at the marina where we got to watch the Vols win the game in Gainesville!!  How good can it get!!

From the Tennessee River to Mobile Bay, it is roughly 455 miles.  The other three times I've made this trip I have had to make stops at literally every fuel stop because the old boat didn't hold as much fuel as this one does.  I filled the tanks to the top at Aqua Yacht and off we went. Sunday the 23rd was our first day and we did pretty good.  The first lock is Whitten where we had to wait about 45 minutes.  Then we hit the the next 4 perfectly.  They were ready and waiting for us to arrive and go through.  But at the fifth one, our luck ran out.  A tow was coming up and we had to wait with some other boats.  I had hoped to get through 7 locks that day.  We completed 6 and found a spot to anchor about 15 miles short of Columbus Marina.  

Day 2 on the Tenn-Tom started with fog again.  We had to wait a bit before we could start and that caused a wait at Stennis lock.  After going through that lock, we made it on down through Armory and Aberdeen before suddenly developing an alternator problem.  I was getting warning alarms for overcurrent on both engines if I ran over 12 mph.  So for a little over 4 hours, we crept down the river to get to Kingfisher Marina.  I had planned to go there for fuel, but now I needed a mechanic.  Luckily they were able to get a guy there that night after we had arrived in the dark.  And even better, he found the problem and had it fixed in about an hour!

Day 3 on the Tenn-Tom began by getting fueled up for the remainder of the run south.  As I was filling up the tanks, the dock master mentioned that the lock had some unusual schedules and suggested that I give them a call.  So I called and the lock master said "If you can be here in 20 minutes, you can go through.  If not, it will be 3 hours."  Don't think I have ever gotten the boat moving that fast before!  I had wanted to do a little test run to be sure the alternator issue was fixed, but that turned out to be a race to the lock and fortunately, everything worked correctly.  We got through Demopolis lock as well as Coffeeville lock (the last one)while in and out of showers all day.  Finally about 4:30 the rain got so bad that we just had to stop and we were very close to an anchorage I had used before so into Three Rivers Lake we went.  Interesting place down a sort of long, narrow entry creek, but totally protected.

I think this is not in the right place!

Tenn-Tom day 4 started out nice and sunny.  I have never gotten down this far, this fast.  Now it's only about 100 miles to the bottom of Mobile Bay.  The cruise down the rest of the river was uneventful.  We arrived at the end of the Tenn-Tom about noon and entered Mobile Ship Channel.  Big ships are everywhere.  After the Channel, it's into the Bay.  The winds have been picking up and are blowing straight out of the south.  The top of the bay isn't too bad, but by the time we got mid-way, it was getting pretty choppy.  That was about the time that a Coast Guard cutter went roaring by leaving a 5 or 6 foot wake!  I'm pretty sure that we had to be airborne for a couple of seconds before slamming into the next one.  Then we had to make a turn that put us broadside to the wind generated waves, not a comfortable ride!  Bottom of the bay got better as we headed east toward the ICW.

For some reason this has been nicknamed the Dolly Parton bridge?

This guy is the one!!

Once on the ICW, we had about an hour and a half until w reached Pensacola.  That was pretty much a nice smooth trip until we got closer to the city.  The approach toward the city harbor was getting very choppy from winds.  The next few days are going to really be blowing, but since we are taking a little break for Thanksgiving all is good.  I'll start the next couple of legs over toward Carabelle, FL with a new first mate.  Regina goes back to work and my buddy Wayne will join me until we can get across the Gulf and down to Sarasota.

All my Tennessee flags are flying here in FL.

Back into salt water so routines change.  Boat gets a bath after every trip and we're surrounded by sport fishers!

The End of an Era

I had to borrow Regina's tee shirt

To borrow a phrase from Taylor Swift, I've reached the end of my Vol Navy Era.  The other day I was chatting with some old friends and the idea hit me to start a new Vol Navy fleet on the Atlantic coast.  It seems like there should be some Vol fans who have boats and live in the Charleston, Hilton Head, Savannah area.  Why couldn't we find a location to tie up or raft up for game day just like we do in Knoxville?  Maybe it's a crazy idea, but seems like it would be better than going to a sports bar to watch a game on tv in the middle of groups from five or six other schools also playing on tv.

The last game was Oklahoma.  That Saturday morning, the river was covered in fog and as the sun came up it was both eerie and beautiful.  After a couple of hours, the fog burned off and it went from a chilly morning to a beautiful warm day.  There was even a Oklahoma boat in the Navy!  These guys had come from somewhere on the Arkansas River to be here which was a 9 day trip.  We were all hoping that they would have a long, sad ride home, but the Vols managed to lose another game that they should have won.  I will always bleed orange, but these boys are trying to kill me!

The full moon rose early this week.

Last week, I moved the boat for the first time since I got here in September.  Fortunately, the crew from the Volunteer Landing Marina will deliver water and do pump outs for boats in the Navy.  I've had them visit my boat twice, but now it was time to top off the fuel tanks and get ready to start the trip downstream.  My fraternity brother, Allen, came to ride up with me.  After we got fueled up, I decided it was time to go to the source or headwaters of the Tennessee River.  From the marina to the convergence of the Holston and French Broad Rivers is only about 4 miles.  I've wanted to go up there for a while so we did it!  After that little trip, we got back to the Vol Navy docks where I turned the boat around and got a spot where I can easily get out.

Holston River to the left and French Broad to the right.

It's one week until the Homecoming Game.  That will be my last one this year so I've got to make the best of my last few days.  Yesterday, I went to the men's basketball game at Thompson-Boling.  I haven't been to a game there in several years so I was pleasantly surprised by the latest modifications that have been made.  That really is a great arena to watch a game, but if you get a seat near the top, you better take an oxygen bottle!  I spent the first half up high and then joined some friends down closer to court side for the second half.  Vols won handily over Northern Kentucky.  Looks like we just might have a really good team this year.

There's actually a lot more rows past here!

A little closer to the action!

Sunday, November 16 will be departure day.  My great friend from Maryland, who taught me how to be a boat captain, is going to be here for that trip back to Chattanooga.  Hopefully there are airplanes still flying with this government shutdown going on so he won't end up driving down here.  Contingency plans have been made so however it works out we will go down the river.  I've been wanting to show him our Navy and the beautiful scenery on the upper end of the Tennessee River ever since making my first trip up in 2013.

The last week of my time in Knoxville has gotten a bit challenging.  Mother Nature decided to send us an artic blast!  Two nights of temperatures in the low 20's..............that's enough to make you shiver.  Generator run times increased to keep the heat on and I even sat my alarm to get up at 2 AM to start it and warm things up. Now to finish out the week, I'm going to the Wednesday night basketball game, then to another frat brother's home to do laundry one last time on Thursday, final (no such thing) boat repair on Friday morning (totally unplanned), annual dinner with friends at Ye Old Steakhouse on Friday night and Homecoming game on Saturday.  The forecast says sunny and almost 70 degrees so the last sailgate should be just about perfect for a November day.

Looks like it should be St Patrick's Day!!

The crew at the boat for pregame.

Pipes & Drums perform with The Pride.

The next update will come from somewhere downstream.  I'll be in Chattanooga for a couple of days to do oil and filter changes.  Then it's about 1,600 miles to North Palm Beach for an extended stay.  Hoping for good weather and fair winds - don't have to worry about tides until I get close to Mobile Bay.