Tennessee River

 Over the past week we have worked our way up the Tombigbee to the Tennessee River, so finally we are in new territory. The trip up the Tombigbee was pretty uneventful. We had some nice anchorages, stopped a couple of days in Columbus Mississippi at a small marina there. Ate a great meal of shrimp and grits in Columbus, and did the best we can to solve our internet connectivity. We had been connecting flawlessly with an outfit called "Finally WiFi" which had a contract with AT&T for truly unlimited, unthrottled internet via AT&T towers. Last Thursday, AT&T arbitrarily and without warning, shut down the access, leaving all the subscribers in the dark.  This was bad because at the time we were watching Hurricane Sally pretty closely, and needed weather information. We stopped at Columbus to see what I could re-establish. We both have Verizon cell phones and in the past used them as hot spots, so I went to the Verizon outlet there and met two women who absolutely had no clue as to how to help. I spent 15 minutes talking to them and they just didn't get it. So I went to the AT&T outlet where a delightful girl busted her butt to try and help. Turns out we needed a business tax ID from Minnesota to qualify, then they would send a modem/router and give us what we needed. That would involve waiting a week to get it, and our business tax ID is expired anyway. So I called Verizon. I spoke to a guy who helped right away. We are now back online, but only have 60 gigs of data per month so it's a little limited, but will do for now. Verizon coverage in this part of the country is crappy, so we are still a little limited. We spent 2 nights anchored in Bay Spring Lake at the top of the Tombigbee, and it's unique because it is clear water, a rarity. We anchored off a beautiful campground, got a hike and a paddle in and Cindy got a good run in. Today we are now ascending the lower Tennessee River and will pull over at a marina for a couple of nightsnear lorence and Muscle Shoals. There is a rock and roll museum I want to go to and it's time to eat out and get some southern barbecue. They have a courtesy car I think, so will grocery up and re-provision on gin. Weather has been nice, even a little cool, 70's during the day and 50's at night, so sleeping has been good. 

Cruising up the Tennessee this morning. It's a big river.

Hiked this 4 wheeler trail this morning. We paddled over from our anchorage at the junction of the Tombigbee and Tennessee near Counce, TN

Looking south towards the Whitten Lock from our anchorage at the campground

Morning at anchor, Bay Springs Lake

Whitten Lock, up 85 feet

Huge chamber to drive the boat into at Whitten

Another moth that looks like a leaf

A camouflaged moth on the teak aft deck

Columbus

Columbus Marina

Escaping the storm

 Hurricane Sally is the big issue for everyone in the area now. After looking at the forcasts Sunday and Monday, getting all the boat chores done, we decided to pull out of Demopolis and head north. I was tired of being in one spot for that long anyway and cleaning up spider shit was getting pretty old. We left Demopolis yesterday morning and put on 65 miles or so, putting distance between us and the hurricane. Did the Heflin Lock mid afternoon and anchored last night in a delightful swampy oxbow at mile 278 on the Tombigbee. Today will go another 60-70 miles, a couple of locks to Columbus, MS where we might get a slip and explore the town and see what they have for thrift stores. Cindy got some pretty good treasures in Demopolis. It's cloudy, flat and forecast is for occasional showers today but nothing ominous and we are safe.

Leaving Demopolis

Bluffs going up river

Heron at work at our anchorage

Looking at the oxbow we anchored at last night

Demopolis

 We are finally back on the boat. Left Ely at 2 am on Wednesday morning, Sept 9, drove to Duluth and cabbed to the airport from Hermantown Storage where the car is parked for the fall. The flights and connections all went well, even had time for a good burger and beer at the Atlanta Airport. We rented an Enterprise car in Birmingham to get us the last 100 miles and Demopolis, where we arrived at 4 pm, so a 14 hour trip door to door. The boat was a mess. Dirty and covered with spiders and spider shit on every horizontal surface. Felt like a horror movie at times, but the inside was nice and clean. We cranked up the air conditioning. It was in the 90's with high humidity, and cleaned up the back deck so we could at least get on and off the boat without tracking in debris. Then made a quick run to Walmart for enough groceries to get us through the next morning. Then crashed. We were both toasted. Thursday we spent the day cleaning the boat and mad another run to Walmart for definitive provisioning. I had read online about spiders, spider shit and how to get things cleaned up. Other boaters use a cleaner called Spray 9. It works pretty well, melting the stains and scrubbing with a long handled boat brush. It took most of the day to get things presentable, but all is cleaned now and any residual stain is going to get bleached out by the sun. The next chore was to deal with the rental car. The initial reservation was to pick up at the Birmingham airport and drop off at the Demopolis Enterprise. Birmingham confirmed that Demopolis was closed due to the virus and we would have to drop the car off somewhere else. The nearest location was Meridian, Mississippi, 60 miles away. The marina dockmaster suggested we contact Western Alabama Public Transport. They run a bus to various towns in rural Alabama including Meridian, so Friday morning we drove to Meridian, dropped off the car and met the bus at the Meridian train depot for a ride back to Demopolis. They were right on time and it all worked out. We ate out at Kora's Place in Demopolis, run by a very religious black family and had a great burger, generic fries and no beer, sadly. Yesterday Cindy hiked to downtown Demopolis and worked the thrift stores picking up a bunch of treasures, so she's happy. I worked on more boat maintenance. All is done except for the vacuflush toilet repair I have to complete. It needs a new pump housing which I ordered and is here, but before I disassemble the system, we need a pump out, which they can't do until tomorrow morning, Monday. It's not a huge job, just a little unpleasant. Once that is done, we are ready to move on Tuesday morning if tropical storm Sally allows us. Right now it looks like a big rain event and some wind. We'll see.

Mud Daubers built condos under the dinghy cover and elsewhere. Had to clean up a couple of dozen nests.

Mud dauber nest

Spider shit staining the flybridge deck. I knew this was going to happen when we left the boat in early June.

More staining on the life raft container

The stains cleaned up nicely with Spray 9

Flybridge deck all cleaned up

Home in Ely

We left our anchorage at Briar Creek and wandered down the last 20 miles or so to Mobile and then Dog River Marina on the west side of Mobile Bay. There had beena cold front with north winds for the past 3 days and the wind blew the water out of Mobile Bay. It is shallow on good days, but when we got to the marina, we couldn't get into the slip, not enough water so they put us on a face dock for 2 days until the water came up and then moved to a more permnent location where the boat will sit until the end of January. Dog River Marina is  boat yard as well with lots of maintenance stuff going on. Huge buildings for housing boats while they are worked on. We arrived on Saturday and then did chores and got the boat ready to leave. We got an Uber and flew home on Wednesday morning early, flights went well and got to Duluth around 5:30 with Barry picking us up. We'll return the end of January after skiing, hockey and getting our grandkid titer up.

Resting at Dog River for a couple of months

View down the fairway at Dog River

Add captionMobile is a huge port. Lots of shipping

Mobile skyline at the harbor

Last campsite for a while at Briar Creek

Lower Alabama

We pulled over in Demopolis for a couple of nights, took their courtesy car and replenished the larder and bar and did some recon for the rest of the river trip south. Demopolis has a great briefing for the lower river that we attended, then left the following morning with 2 other boats, one of them a Krogen 58 that was at the rendezvoux in the Chesapeake with us last fall a year ago. They kept their boat in Demopolis through hurricane season and knew the riveer well. We left Demopolis in the dark nd locked through the Demopolis Lock just as it was getting light. Our timing was good, no delays and we put on a long day to get to Bobby's Fish Camp to tie up for the night. This is really the only place to stop on the river in this section. There aren't many creeks deep enough to pull up into and you have to get off the river to avoid the tows and barges. Bobby's is a cross between the Winton Liquor Store and dueling banjoes. We left the following morning again at dawn to get through the Coffeeville lock, the last one. Glad to have the locks done. When we left, it was pouring, 74 degrees and a dewpoint of 73. The cold front  came through within an hour, the temp dropped 25 degrees and we travelled in the mist the rest of the day. Came down river 45 miles or so and camped at a place called the Alabama River cut off. It was narrow, but plenty deep and well off the river, and were all alone which is the best. When we got up in the morning, there was ice on the anchor bowsprit and the temp was 34 at the closest reporting station. Yesterday proceeded on a short day to Big Briar Creek anchorage, again a mile or so off the river and it is really beautiful here. Quiet except for the occasional bass boat that flies by at 70 mph. Another trawler pulled in late afternoon. We spent the fternoon beginning to clean the boat up to leave nest week. The locks have taken a toll on the fenders and when they are mudded up, they get the boat dirty as well. Today we have a short 25-30 mile run to the Dog River Marina where we will leave the boat and fly hom on Wednesday.

Mist on the river in the early morning

Water over the Demopolis dam

Cliffs along the river

Coal being unloaded a a big power plant

Big Briar Creek last night

and this morning. 

Tombigbee into Alabama

We're continuing to progress and this phase is bgining to wind down. Today we will reach the half way point on the Tombigbee River, and pull over at Demopolis, Alabama for two nights in a marina. I ordered some parts, and need to go to the store there and get a few supplies for the last 10 days of the trip. Had some interesting weather day before yesterday. A cold fromt came through and just about blew us off the river. Winds hit 45 mph. We ducked into an absolutely beautiful, protected creek for the afternoon and stayed the night. The temp dropped and by sundown, it was flat. Yesterday made about 80 miles including 3 locks. It went well and parked in a slough on the backside of an island with 3 other boats last night. The rivers have not been what I had hoped. It has been difficult to access the history and towns. The past 3 weeks we have descended the Illinois, Mississippi, up the Ohio and Tennessee and now down the Tombigbee, and what is striking is the remotenes. There just isn't much habitation, and the towns are far enough off the river to make them inaccessable from the river. And the nations wireless infrastructure is certainly lacking. Our cell phone coverage and therefore internet access has been really limited. Still about 280 river miles from Mobile where we will leave the boat, but will chip 70 off of that today, and we don't need to be there until a week from Tuesday, so lots of time.

Muddy river but lots of southern pines on the banks

Looking down river

We've seen some strange things, but a phone booth on the shore of the river takes the cake. I think it is an indication of the marginal cell service

84 foot drop and the lock is opening at at Whitten 

Wood chips being loaded on barges

Mississippi - the State not the river

The past several days we have had some pretty amzing weather and great anchorages working our way up the Tennessee River,  through Kentucky Lake and Pickwick Lake. Yesterday at the end of the day, we turned the corner into the upper reaches of the Tombigbee system and anchored at a place called Zippy Cove. Quiet and serene. We've pretty much lost the other boats we were traveling with and are on our own, except last night another boat in our anchorage was a loop boat, from St. Ignace in the UP. Weather has moved in with rain for the next 36 hours, but it is flt, and traveling in the rain for us is not an issue. The sailboat guys don't like it though. Came through Pickwick Lock mid afternoon yesterday and past Counce, Tennessee where my brother used to live and keep his boat. Today we are in a series of canals, reservoirs and will hopefully transit sveral locks working our way through northern Mississippi.

Layered limestone banks

Lots of relief and bluffs

Quiet anchorage at Beach Creek Island, Tennessee

traveling in the ealry morning mist

Lots of beautiful homes above the flood levels

Other homes on stilts, built in the flood plain

Pickwick Lock up 55 feet

Pickwick Lake

A barge loaded with wood chips on Pickwick Lake

Pickwick Lake at the corner to the Tombigbee. The Bouy marked the corner

Grand Harbor Marina. Looks pretty fancy. We anchored in a quiet bay around the corner

This morning in the rain

Guys fishing in the mist yesterday