The way ahead looked OK to start with, just a light fog.
We had planned to travel up the Tennessee River 250 miles to Chattanooga, but realized the 500 total miles to get there and back would take too much time and would not allow us to stop and be lazy at anchor. We changed our minds and instead will just cover the 450 miles from Grand Harbor to Mobile AL, the entire length of the Tenn Tom.
Looking around a corner we could see a bridge and maybe a bit more fog.
Friday started up sunny and just a little cool, but warmed up by 10. We left Grand Harbor at 8, using the new controls to get us out of a side tie between two boats with two foot clearance at each end. They worked great.
Our eventual destination is Midway Marina in Fulton MS 56 miles and three locks away, but today we went 36 miles and anchored before the first of the locks. Our anchorage is very nice and away from everything, including any cell phone access. No phone calls, no weather checking, nothing. Fall color is just starting here, but a few selected trees have turned, with some smaller ones provide a red accent color.
Much more fog just past the bridge. After that it was socked in. Could barely see the bank at the side.
We chugged around our anchor area to check depths. It drops off quickly from shore so we floated fine within 15 feet of the trees.
Today’s trip was nearly all on a dug canal which finally spread out to a multi fingered lake just above the John Rankin dam, the first one after leaving the Tennessee River / Pickwick Lake. This 36 miles is the big cut that connects the Tennessee to the Tombigbee. Now that we’ve passed through that, we’ll drop 84 feet a few miles from here and proceed downstream on the Tombigbee, locking down through about 10 more dams all the way to Mobile AL.
A very nice anchorage with fall color starting. We drifted close to the bank.
Looking west out of our anchorage just after sunset.
Jack & Sue 