Man Overboard! Tree down!

Charlotte wanted to stay with us in Chattanooga
 and cried when told it was not going to happen.

Salty Paws departed Chattanooga on 10/22 with 700 miles of rivers, canals and locks to cruise before the Gulf of Mexico.  We planned some of our stops along the way but events rarely turn out as planned.  I witnessed a major tree falling and landing less than a 100 feet from our rental, Bill falling overboard, flooding and swift currents strong enough to keep most boaters at the dock and freezing early morning temperatures as far south as the Gulf.  What is a First Mate to do, other than look forward to our three weeks home for Thanksgiving and the wedding of our daughter Caroline and Noah.

This beautiful morning on the Tennessee River included
a little morning fog.

 Let me start with one of our few marina stops, in Florence, AL.  Here we rented a car to visit the nearby recording mecca of Muscle Shoals and the Shiloh National Military Park, the site of the first major battle in the South between the Union and Confederate armies on April 6 & 7, 1862.

The rainy day going through the lock just before Florence
was just the beginning of our weather challenges.

 First we visited Shiloh Visitor Center and the nearby historic Catfish Hotel.  The power then went out just as we were paying for our satisfying lunch.  Fortunately, we had cash, but now we had to brave the unexpectedly strong tropical storm Olga with horizontal rain fueled by 60 mph winds and up to 100 mph gusts.  We were at the center of the storm damage, and trees were literally falling all around us.  We hoped to visit more of the Park, and pulled over in an open field just as a large tree fell down across the road in front of us.  So much for seeing more of Shiloh.  [The Confederate forces first surprised the Union forces, and made great progress on the first day seeking to stop the Union drive into the South.  With reinforcements, however, the Union regained all their losses and more the next day, sending the South into retreat.  For the soldiers on both sides, this was their first exposure to the horror of war.  Thousands died.  Union forces buried their dead in individual graves.  They buried the Confederate dead in mass trenches.]

The winds subsided after 45 minutes or so, and we turned the car around to see if we could get to Corinth.  Soon we discovered that every road from Shiloh was blocked with multiple trees down. 

The beautiful fence at the Shiloh
entrance did not survive.

One of the many downed trees around us
at Shiloh.

 Bill then got out of the car along with a handful of men from other cars, one with a truck and chain, and they proceeded to work together removing one tree, then another and another and another.  We passed at least 30 other downed trees that had been removed by “civilian” road crews and finally made it back to Florence, but unfortunately no Corinth or Muscle Shoals.

The next morning we awoke at 4:30 am to bass fishing boats being launched.  Soon we were serenaded by a loud speaker blaring country music and individual introductions of each boat participating in a fishing tournament sponsored by Toyota with a $5,000 top prize .  The 234 fishing boats slowly paraded out of the harbor over 2 ½ hours.  Price of admission?  The fishermen all had to be owners of a Toyota truck.

The 60 foot waterfall
serenaded us all night.

The majority of our nights are spent at anchorages or free docks.  Our last night on the beautiful Tennessee River was at anchor, right in front of a 60-foot waterfall.  The next day we entered the Tenn-Tom Waterway, the largest ever project of the Army Corps of Engineers, which was completed in the 1980s and connects the Tennessee River with the Gulf of Mexico, allowing commercial ship traffic to bypass the lower Mississippi.

We began traveling again with other Looper boats to help expedite passage through the various locks.  After one long day, we anchored at dusk just above a lock that we would go through before dawn the next morning.  Bill left the bow where he had just set the anchor and was about to re-enter the cabin when he dropped before my eyes and disappeared into the murky water.  I don’t know who was more shocked, but I was certainly more frantic.  What do we do now?  He just calmly swam to the stern of the boat and put down the stern ladder to board the boat. He said that the 65 degree water felt warm compared to the 50 degree air.

Here our friends on Mon Amour are being gently pulled off
the sandbar at the entrance to Columbus Marina.

Later on the Tenn-Tom we stopped at a free dock in Aberdeen and walked the 2 miles into town to visit this old, now run-down community.  Upon our return, we were greeted by Chris and Dwight on the mast-less sailboat Mon Amour.  Over the next two weeks we became good friends and shared some wonderful experiences together, including a bad weather day touring Columbus, MS.  We visited the childhood home of Tennessee Williams, a confederate cemetery, a dramatic antebellum mansion, and a most enjoyable café with good ole’ southern cookin’.  I loved the turnip greens, Brunswick stew and cornbread.

Unidentified Confederate Civil War graves in Columbus, MS.

Waverly Mansion, the antebellum
house we toured.

Below Columbus the Tombigee River was at flood stage with a strong current and waters with numerous logs and tree branches.  We spent day after day playing dodge-a-log, and what was frightening to me were the many navigational buoys completely submerged, some of them out of position and in the middle of the channel! 

Here Looper boats are rafted up together at the famous
Bobby's Fish Camp, the only stop in 100 miles on the
Tenn-Tom Waterway.

Finally, we made it through the last lock, and our companion boats went ahead of us as we switched to our small motor, a slow, but great gas saver.  We traveled the last 100 miles over two days, meeting barge traffic, but little else, as we finally made it to the Convention Center wall in Mobile, AL.  While I loved my first smell of salt air in months, and thrilled about finally being off the rivers after nearly 2 months, I was somewhat concerned about this tie-up location as we were right next to the main shipping channel.  As it turned out, we were fine putting up with the occasional boat wake and no services, as we loved Mobile, one of our trip highlights.

The USS Alabama.  

 We showered at the YMCA, two blocks away, and ate one meal each day in the fantastic restaurants on Dauphin Street.  Tops on our Mobile sightseeing list are the USS Alabama (the ship is as it was during WW II) and the Mobile Carnival Museum to better understand Mardi Gras, which actually started in Mobile, not New Orleans.  Neither Bill nor I had any understanding of the number of social societies and their members that spend hundreds of thousands on parade floats, balls, costumes and the annual coronation of a king and queen and their court.

Bill got to play a little
basketball at the YMCA.

Across from us at the Convention Center were two Navy
multihulls being built by Austal.  We were told that these
ships can travel at over 50 knots.

Just above us on the river was
the Mobile Port Authority dock.

The elaborate robes and dress of one king and queen.

Before we left the Convention Center, Dwight and Chris tied up
to the wall to wait out the tornado warning.  We all celebrated
finishing the rivers (Over 1,200 miles from Chicago!)
 as well as the tornado staying north of Mobile.

The morning we left Mobile seemed calm, but as we got out in the Bay, the waves increased to 3 feet or so on our beam. I was terrified, but Bill assured me that we were not in danger. It definitely takes some rethinking to go from calm rivers to sea waves. We need to remember to factor weather and wave conditions into our planning and wait for a “weather window”. This is much less important on the rivers. Anyway, the trip was fairly short and we made it safely to Fairhope on the eastern shore of Mobile Bay.   Fairhope was founded by disciples of economist Henry George, who advocated that land be held in common and made available to residents who paid a single tax.  Now, Fairhope is a fancy little town with 33 restaurants and many expensive gift and clothing stores.  Nice, but not a highlight for us.

Salty Paws at the Fairhope Municipal Pier.

Sunset at our last November anchorage.

We left Maine for this?

We then left Mobile Bay and entered the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway, on our way to Florida. After a beautiful and quiet night at anchor, where we were greeted by the first of many dolphins, we went east on the GICW to Orange Beach.  Here we will have our engines serviced and boat kept while we travel back to Maine. This has been a great place to hole up as the temps dropped to the 20s Wednesday (11/13) morning and the wind whipped ferociously. Thank you, shore power and heat!

Now, let's go home for a bit!