After 17 days on our side trip up the Tennessee River to Chattanooga, we got back on the Loop route by turning south at the border of Tennessee and Mississippi and onto the Tenn-Tom Waterway. Construction on the Tenn-Tom project began in 1972, and it would go on to become the largest civil works project ever undertaken by the Corps of Engineers, which spent $2 billion to make it happen. By connecting the Tennessee River in Mississippi and the Black Warrior River in Alabama, it provided a direct water route from the Tennessee River to the Intracoastal Waterway and the Gulf of Mexico at Mobile Bay, reducing travel distances from some points in the eastern U.S. by as much as 800 miles. Over the 471 mile waterway, there is a 341 foot difference is water level, which is overcome by 10 locks and dams. We have included a map of the waterway to show the extensiveness of the project. My father’s entire army career was with the Corps of Engineers, so we really enjoyed cruising through these impressive channels and professionally operated locks.
This part of our trip was not without its unique challenges, including a string of cold and windy days, large tow boats appearing around narrow hair-pin turns, logs and water hyacinth floating in our path, foggy mornings, and very long cruising days due to a minimal number of places to stop for the night. In order to ensure that we covered a certain number of miles to get to the next overnight destination, we got up and prepared the boat for departure before the sun came up and sometimes didn’t drop the anchor until the sun set. During the Tenn-Tom days, it was better to travel in a caravan of a few other boats that were moving at the same speed. We stayed in constant radio communication with others as we coordinated passage with lock masters and negotiated the passing of tows in some extremely narrow channels. There were also some situations when fellow cruisers needed mechanical help and it was very reassuring to know that there were fellow loopers near you on this very remote leg of the trip.
One of the highlights of this time on the river was meeting a Canadian couple who was canoeing and camping for 1000 days. Pierre and Jennifer started in Ottawa, Quebec and will be paddling the entire Loop two times and then back up into some northern areas of Canada. We spent a good bit of time listening to their fascinating stories about encounters with nature, their physical challenges and all the wonderful people they had met and helped them along the way. After a few late night discussions with them, Stel and I were very happy to be returning to our cozy cabin on the Estrellita as they wandered back to their tent in the 30 degree temperatures we were experiencing that week.
Continuing south through Alabama, we started to see more and more wildlife and vegetation that we are used to seeing in South Carolina. Deer swimming across the river, big gators, turtles sitting on logs, southern bird life and tall pines got us excited about getting closer to the Gulf of Mexico. We are thankful for the experiences that we have had on the inland river systems over the past 2 months, but we are really looking forward to reaching Mobile Bay, where we will finally be in the saltwater environment that looks and feels so familiar.
- Clusters of Water Hyacinth covering the water at the edges of the river….and sometimes floating mid-stream
- Typical narrow channels of the Tenn-Tom Waterway
- Signs that are not fun to see with low visibility
- Sweetie, will you please turn on the radar?
- Lockmasters quarters at all ten locks along the Tenn-Tom…..not too shabby
- It takes about 10 minutes to drop us this far….pretty impressive
- Floating bollard that you tie boat to as you are being dropped in the lock
- Stel multi-tasking as she navigates and does her daily aerobics……one
- and two……
- and a three!
- Pierre and Jennifer after a long day paddling their canoe
- Typical camp setup for Pierre and Jennifer
- Pierre, Jennifer and Jasmine come in from the cold and spend some time with us on the Estrellita
- Columbus Marina allows us to use their “courtesy vehicle” to run some errands
- Getting ready to cast off from Columbus Marina on a cold morning- yes, that is FROST on the dock!
- Pierre and Jennifer break camp and follow us into the nearby lock that morning
- Water hyacinth meets us beyond the lock door as we enter
- Never seen this in a lock before!!
- Canoes and kayaks go into the locks with the rest of the boats
- White Cliffs of Epes, Alabama
- Part of the Selma Chalk formations which were deposited at about the same time as England’s famous white cliffs of Dover
- Stel expressing her love for cold weather cruising….ha
- Water level was low in a few sections of the river…showing bases of trees and underwater stumps
- Tight, tight, tight as we pass the big tows…communication with them is critical
- Low water views
- Inflow baffle that minimizes erosion
- Smaller authentic paddleboat passes….you don’t see those very often
- Canada Geese everywhere!
- Deer are great swimmers and cross our path often
- Fawn trying to catch up with mama with gator close behind
- Gator trailing the slowest of the crossing deer
- Families of turtles drop off logs as we pass by
- One of the few dwellings on the long and lonely Tenn-Tom Waterway….nice huh??
- One of the beautiful scenes of the Tenn-Tom Waterway
- The Great Blue Heron has been seen on every section of the Loop throughout the Eastern United States
- It is time to celebrate our last lock of the Loop…we have not officially counted, but it is over 100 locks!
- Following 6 other Looper boats out of our last lock!
- Our Looper friend Bob blows a transmission and is towed 25 miles into Mobile by Ken and Terri on Roundabout…loopers stick together!!
- Arriving in Mobile as the skies darken….Estrellita tastes salt after 5 months in fresh water
- Following Roundabout and El Nido as we leave the port area of Mobile and enter the expansive Mobile Bay
- Map of Tenn-Tom Waterway descending towards Mobile Bay. Rectangles indicate locks and dams.