Starting Down the Tenn-Tom

Thursday and Friday, October 29 and 30 - We anchored out both nights.  Our anchoring skills have improved.  We even anchored out with both a bow and stern anchor one of the nights.  The advantage of anchoring out is that we see both awesome sunrises and sunsets!

                                    Sunrise at Anchorage at Joe Wheeler State Park

                                               Sunset at Anchorage at Racoon Creek

                     Nancy on Bow of LeeLoo at J.P. Coleman Park Anchorage - It Was Chilly!

Saturday and Sunday, October 31 and November 1 - On Saturday we had a short trip of only 5 miles from an anchorage in J.P. Coleman State Park to Aqua Yacht Harbor where we met up with the Loopers we had been previously been traveling with.   

The transient dock at Aqua is a long face dock (wall) where the boats are essentially parallel parked.  Unfortunately, boats on the wall are prone to being waked by passing boats and, as we were to learn later that day, they are subject to large waves caused by passing storms.  The waves were so strong and the boat was rocking so severely that we stood on the dock and gathered as many fenders as we could to protect the boat.  The weather front passed quickly and it was calm by nightfall.

              LeeLoo With All Her Fenders Out - It Felt Like We Were Back On Lake Michigan!

Aqua Yacht Harbor is at the start of the Tennessee-Tom Bigby Waterway (Tenn-Tom).  The Tenn-Tom is a canal and river system that connects the Tennessee River to the Gulf of Mexico at Mobile, Alabama.  The canal system is 216 miles long and it connects to the Black Warrior River which empties into the Gulf. 

The first part of the Tenn-Tom is called the divide cut.  Instead of building locks and dams, the designers decided to build a channel that was deep enough to match the water level on both sides.  It's said that more earth was moved to build the Tenn-Tom canal system than was moved to build the Panama Canal.  Tomorrow we plan to travel through the first 3 locks and reach Midway Marina - a trip of about 54 miles.