Bobthebuilder
Charter Member
Day 1
Some 10 days after Part 1 of our trip in September, 1998 that saw us travel from Cincinnati to Cuba Landing, TN, I returned to the boat with my wife Pat and friends Jeff and Cindy. That first day we flew to Nashville from Toronto, had a taxi take us the 60 miles to our waiting boat at Cuba Landing and resume our trip. We travelled 102 miles on the water that same afternoon, with only the lock at Pickwick to contend with. A few miles below the dam, the Tenn – Tom intersects with the Tennessee River. It is in this area that the States of Tennessee , Mississippi and Alabama all converge. That first night we secured the boat at the Aqua Yacht Harbor which had full services and we stayed at a nearby Hampton Inn.
Day 2
The next day we were up bright and early and anxious to get on our way. We travelled just 90 miles that day, passing through 6 locks, all within the State of Mississippi. We passed through a maze of islands, swamp land and dead trees and had to watch closely for the channel markers. ( see pic 2 ) Something that we had become curious about, was that as many of the locks would come into view almost all of them would be open and waiting for us. I recall asking one of the lock masters how they seemed to know about our pending arrival. He said that the lock masters talk to each other via VHF radio and would pass the word down the line that we were coming, after we would clear each lock. Many were curious about “No Fear” as they do not get a lot of “go fasts” on the river system. The locks throughout the system were all equipped with a floating bollard or “pin” that we would secure the boat to, which made locking through rather easy. That late afternoon we reached our planned destination, secured the boat in the Aberdeen Marina and stayed in a nearby Best Western.
Day 3
This day would see us travel 142 miles down river to Demopolis and pass through another 4 locks. The system here was much wider and had more of the feel of a river. By early afternoon we would pass from Mississippi into Alabama. In this stretch, the river has lots of twists and turns and was very scenic as we passed by the white cliffs of Epes. ( see pic 8 ) This point is approximately half way down the Tenn – Tom Waterway, with most but not all of the locks behind us. By late afternoon we had again reach our target destination arriving at the Demopolis Yacht Basin, just above the lock. ( see pic 9, I think ? ) That night we stayed at the Riverview Inn which was a part of the Marina complex. We tried to be off the water each day in time to go out for dinner and be able to relax some in the evening.
Day 4
Our day 4 did not end up looking anything like we had planned and brought a few surprises. The stretch of waterway from Demopolis down to Mobile is more correctly known as the Black Warrior – Tombigbee Waterway. Our plans called for continuing down the river 133 miles and passing through the systems last two locks and spending the night at Lady's Landing. This would leave us with just 80 miles and no locks to cover the final day in which we would fly home. All was well until arrival at Lady's Landing. ( see pics 10 & 11) It was just an hour before dark and the first order of business was to fuel the boat. While Jeff did that, I climbed the embankment to scout things out. I did not like at all what I saw and had a very creepy feeling about this place. I returned to the boat and after talking it over we decided to make a run for Mobile even though we knew it would be dark before arrival. I ran the Formula lickity split down the river until darkness forced us to back off as we got close to Mobile. ( see last pic ) I recall idling through busy Mobile harbor with the seaport lit up like a Christmas tree. It was an impressive sight with tugs going here and there and ships being worked on in the illuminated dry docks. We still had 12 miles to go to the Dog river Marina and we made our way along in the darkness through the shipping channel. Making sure we stayed between the red and green illuminated markers we noticed that one pair of lights seemed to be getting higher and closer than the others. All of a sudden a couple of us screamed at the same time “IT'S A SHIP!!” We could finally make out the outline of this massive hull that was bearing down on us. We did manage to get out of it's way and with frayed nerves eventually came to the channel that would take us into the Dog River Marina. It was now almost 10 PM by the time we tied up the boat and got our rooms at a nearby hotel. It had been a long day and we were happy to have complete that phase of our trip. We had travelled 550 miles and passed through 12 locks over the previous 3 ½ days.
Day 5
The next morning we arrived at the Dog River Marina office to make arrangements to have “No Fear” pulled out of the water and placed in a rack or on a cradle until my planned return in 10 days time for the final phase of the trip. It was intended that along with a fresh crew, I would continue another 600 miles down the “Gulf” coast to Marco Island. At the marina, I was immediately informed that hurricane “Georges” was headed in the direction of Mobile, AL and that they could not accept my boat. The expectation was that in a few days the marina would probably be several feet under water. I was told I had two options. I could turn around and backtrack 116 miles on the Tenn – Tom and go above the Coffeeville lock and dam where I would likely escape the brunt of the storm or alternatively have the boat hauled out of there. With their help, we found a hauler out of Pensacola, FL that would pick up the boat the next day. Once those arrangements were complete, the four of us headed for the airport and made our way back to Canada. No Fear, was safely on the trailer made an end run around the hurricane arriving on Marco Island the next day. A couple of days later in the Toronto Star there was an article about hurricane Georges and a picture of some guy in downtown Mobile standing in water up to his knees. The hurricane was very damaging with over 13” of rain and severe flooding. It seems the good people at the Dog River Marina knew what they were talking about and gave us some good advise that day!
So that is the story of my 1,120 mile journey down one of America's great inland river systems over a couple of long weekends. I hope you enjoyed following along.
The end,
Bob
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Another good one, keep them coming.
