Green Turtle is full of large sailboats. They claim an 8 month season though the marina never closes and the water doesn't freeze over - though they have freezing weather. Everyone claims we've paid our dues and that the rest of the trip is prettier and easier.

11/1/04- We left late, washed the boat, fueled and pumped-out while waiting for a v-belt to arrive. Had a nice run up to Paris Landing State Park in 20 knot headwind and haze. The Tennessee River is Kentucky Lake here. The shore line is beautiful with hills, coves, and pines. I could easily spend a summer sailing here.

11/2/04- Rained all night and we woke up to drizzle. We'll pay particular interest to the "River Report" on NOAA (our radio weather channel) for heights. Departed Paris Landing at 8:30am and headed up-river in rain. It was a quiet trip, only met two tows and a couple of runabouts. Saw a lot of pelicans, hawks and a few bald eagles. The terrain along the lake was great - lots of islands, bluffs, sandy shores.

We arrived at dusk, 4:30pm, at Perryville Marina. A nice facility off the lake in a quiet backwater. Fueled, showered and read. No phone or web connections again. I believe that a satellite phone would be the only reliable tool on this part of the waterway.

11/3/04- We departed at 7:30 after touring an all aluminum Tucker houseboat with Mr. Turner, the owner. Very nice craft for these waters! He's running two boats south to Mobile! His other boat was a 30-something Bayliner with twin diesels.

The weather is stuck on repeat, gray, drizzle broken occasionally by rain. Our goal is to be just below the Pickwick Dam so we can lock tomorrow morning.

The landscape is beautiful as the lake narrows into a river. The stronger current has slowed our progress to about 6.5 miles per hour. Met only three tows and two pleasure boats all day. Pretty quiet this time of the year. One tow captain wanted to know where we were taking that beautiful sailboat.

11/5/04- We cleared the Grand Harbor Marina at 6:45, what a beautiful day - cool, but clear and sunny. We immediately collected a fleet of three power boats and one sailboat. We had 4 locks today. The largest was an 85' drop! The rest were 40-30' each - located 4 - 8 miles apart. The terrain changed during the day from a stone lined trench to a lake like stretch where the trees and grass grew right to the water's edge.

Ruthie's input... I've come to understand how very social this human race is.  We move into new territories and meet others that we talk with.  We want them to like us so we tell stories that bond us together.  In our case it is not sitting around a fire but standing on the docks....sharing and helping the newcomers so we can again hear about their journeys and adopt them to our small community.  We know we will meet some of them again during our travels and will embrace them like long lost friends.  it's strange and wonderful....

We passed the Holcut memorial, an outlook place at the point where a town was obliterated to make room for the waterway. It is noted that it was the only town destroyed - whoopee.

Arrived Smithville Marina 4:45 and took on diesel before tying for the night. This is a basic marina but strategically placed.

11/6/04- Foggy, 40 degree dawn - ready for another day on the water... as soon as the fog burns off. The day turned out to be beautiful!

Along the way we saw another reason to avoid the short bus, a number of large homes, many fishermen, and two tows. Wood chippers along the bank reinforce that this area depends on wood as a large part of the economy. We traversed 4 locks with a  30' drop each. We really lucked out as all the locks were open and waiting for us.

When we approached Stennis lock we thought we were out of the channel. It looked like a swamp with all the plants floating in the waterway.  Below the Bevill lock foam created the impression of ice floating on the water.

Marina Cove was our stop for the night, MM306.8 . We arrived at dusk, 4:30pm. Concertina and banjo music greeted us as we tied to the dock. A group of travelers was gathered for snacks, singing to the music and watching one juggle. We caught up with Tiramisu and agreed to travel together the next day.

The floating plants make navigation difficult as its hard to see logs and deadheads in the water. That night in Marina Cove there was lawn in front of Tiramisu.  During the night we listened to the owls as the swamp past in a light breeze.

11/7/04- Sunday dawned cold, clear, light fog over water. Bevill Lock, two tows, traveled with Tiramisu at their pace. Beautiful day, by 11 we were in shorts and tee shirts!

We traversed between Miss., Alabama, Miss, Alabama, Miss., Al in a few miles. Seemed like Mississippi didn't want to let go of us.

Arrived Demopolis 5:15pm in dusk, 65' El Presidente (sister boat to presidential yacht Susquehoya tied behind us. This was a beautiful boat!

A 90 mile day! We are now 213 miles from Mobile.

We tied off the fuel dock due to the large number of boats competing for a few deep water slips. The water was filled with logs and branches washed in from recent rains. On the other side of the dock the tows were arriving during the night to refuel. The tows take on 10,000 to 30,000 GALLONS of diesel. You give the guy $60,000 and tell him to keep the change. One radioed in that they were running on vapors. They had only 1,000 gallons left.

11/8/04- Dawn of a beautiful day. Fleet moving out, at least 10 boats. We need to contact a couple of mills today. Felt like a goose being left behind.

Left about 10:30, 1 hr delay at lock, ran hard trying to make up time and catch the group (never did). Along the way we passed the approaches to the bridge where towboat rolled under in 2002 (the pictures were all over the internet - boat and crew survived). The bridge was slated for removal before the accident and has since been removed.

Darkness came at 5pm and we were not at any safe place to overnight. We arrived at the first place at 6pm, anchoring in a narrow creek where 3 other craft had already sought refuge. In the dark it was the anchorage from hell. After the fourth attempt we were secure with a bow and stern anchor out. Normally we anchor with a single bow anchor, but the creek was so narrow and crowded we needed an anchor at each end of the boat to keep the current and tow induced reverse flow from getting us stuck crossways. A nasty end to a 71 mile day.

11/9/04- Tuesday dawned cold and clear. We made a 6am departure, clearing the creek so the other boats could leave. It warmed by 10am, becoming a balmy tee shirt 75. We're getting there. Buddy was in the cockpit all afternoon.

We had one lock to traverse, the last of the not so dirty dozen we traversed on the Tenn-tom. Had a half hour wait for traffic so we dropped anchor and read. Running a little tight on fuel, had to transfer 8 gallons from the jerry cans. the last fuel stop was closed and the next is in Mobile.

It was a quiet day, no tows until about 4pm - then 5 in a row. I'll miss talking with them when we clear the river.

92 mile day, tomorrow we'll be in Mobile

By 4:20pm, still daylight, we'd arrived at the Alabama River Cut-off, mm52.9. Quite anchorage with a strong current, no other boats tonight. We are now in tidal waters and have to leave room under the keel for both fluctuations in the river and the tide!

11/10/04- Mobile here we come! Hoisted anchor at 7am with the temperature already 54. Clear and sunny - another great day!

The lower river terrain quietly changed to swampy shoreline as we moved downstream at 12 mph over the bottom. Along the way we passed the site of the bridge that a tow hit a couple of years ago causing an Amtrak train to plunge into the water - killing 48.

By noon we were in Mobile - what a port! We met an inbound navy ship and exchanged the one whistle passing call. An armed inflatable was patrolling ahead of the ship and the ship's bridge guns were manned. The channel was narrow and I informed the captain that I would have to violate his security zone. He acknowledged it was unavoidable - but keep what distance I could. Ohhh Yesss!

Mobile Bay was choppy, testing the mast rack. By 2pm we we tied in Turner Marine where we will haul out to paint the bottom and step the mast. Another Adventure had her first taste of salt water today.

Return to Loop Route

Whitten Lock, the first one, an 85' drop!
That's a long way down!

Chargin' South

Dawn departure, Marina Cove

Another lock - 11 of them identical

11/16/04 We're on the hard in Mobile

Barry's been sanding for 3 days as all of the paint has to come off the bottom. We used a Teflon based paint in the Great Lake that will not protect in salt water. Because of the Teflon we haven't been able to find another paint that will stick to it - sooooo, off it all comes. As long at that much prep time is going into painting we'll put an epoxy barrier coat on the boat before we paint.

Ruth's working at her job, taking some time to wash the stain off the sides of the hull and clean up the boat after the river trip.

We asked each other if we'd do the trip again? The answer is yes - but earlier and more slowly without winter chasing us south.

Another Adventure partially sanded

Barry partially finished