Down the Tenn-Tom and Tombigbee Rivers

Wow, it has been a long time since we updated this blog. The main reason it has been so long is that from Huntsville, AL, all the way to Mobile Bay we had no internet service. The trip down the river was 450 miles, and it was, for the most part, a beautiful wilderness area. I hope the pictures we have included show the beauty.

After our last post we moved down the river to the intersection of the Tennessee River and the Tenn-Tom, at Mile 215 of the Tennessee River. It is about 420 miles on the river from that intersection of the river to Knoxville. And, as I said, it is 450 miles down river from there to Mobile Bay, AL.

When we turned onto the Tenn-Tom, we pulled into the Grand Harbor Marina, which was a great place to stop. Very friendly people who couldn't do enough for us to make our stay a pleasure. Nice, clean, and beautiful. It was also here that we discovered that the water line break we had at Goose Pond Marina caused a bigger problem than we realized. When the waterline broke it sent high pressure water into the area where our aft electronic controls are located, and water got into the control box. If you know anything at all about water and electronics, then you know they don't play well together. In short, I had to take the controls off the boat and Overnight them to Glendinning (the manufacturer), for repair. The Glendinning Company is a great company that makes excellent electronic things for boats, and their service is as good as their product. The new control box was waiting for us when we got to Demopolis, AL two days later. It is now working fine again.

We departed Counce, TN, which is where Grand Harbor Marina is located, and headed south. We had heard so much about the Tenn-Tom, much of it negative, that we were a little concerned. Stories of tow boat captains who are surley and unfriendly, bass boaters who shoot at big boats that make a wake they don't like, tight turns where meeting a tow boat can be hazardous, and just a stretch of the trip that is to be endured rather than enjoyed. We found none of that to be true. The tow boat captains were professional, courteous, and very helpful. We saw very few fishermen, and those we saw were friendly. The waterway itself was breathtaking. Stunning beauty everywhere we looked.

We stopped the first night at a small marina, Marina Cove Marina, that was a challenge to get into because of the narrow channel leading in. The marina itself has been somewhat neglected, but Mr. Fred, the owner's father, was as nice a man as we ever met. He gave us the keys to his car and told us where the restaurant (the only one in the small town, but the ribs were great), and the grocery store was located. We stayed there two days because the weather was snotty the next day. We met some wonderful people there, fellow boaters, who we travelled with for about the next week. Jeffrey and Sylvia aboard the Sylvia J, and Keith and Becky aboard Morgan's Dream, are friends that we hope to see again along the way.

From Marina Cove we made our way to Demopolis, AL, which is about half way down the river on the way to Mobile. They have a great little restaurant and we had a blast with the crews of the boats we were travelling with.


The next stop was the infamous Bobby's Fish Camp. Bobby's is the ONLY place to stop from Demopolis all the way to Mobile Bay. It is a throwback in time with very few amenities. Their dock is small and just off the main channel. There is a restaurant that has a great fish fry every night, and the six boat crews were were now travelling with all got together for dinner and adult
beverages. All we can say is there isn't much there at Bobby's, but thank goodness it is there.

The only negative about travelling the Tenn-Tom was what we believe was a scam perpetrated by the Alabama Department of Natural Resources officer who covers that area. One of the boats travelling with us was met at Bobby's Fish Camp by the DNR officer and a couple of Bubbas who claimed that the boat had caused a big wake near a home with a dock. On that dock, allegedly, was a 9 year old boy, whose life was endangered by the boat's wake. It was very clear that this was a set up, with the DNR officer and the Bubbas working together to get something from the boat owner. Fortunately, the driver of that boat is a profssional delivery captain, who knows of the problems in that area, and had his charts marked about the docks, to remind him to slow down. He also had witnesses from the boat right behind him. It was clear that the DNR officer really wanted to "get" the boater, but there was too much evidence to the contrary, so they had to cease the scam and wait for another day.

The next day, October 29th, we made our way toward Mobile. We found a great anchorage about half way down river, and dropped the hook for the night. The current was running pretty strong, but the anchors held, and we had a good nights sleep. The next morining we woke up to pretty heavy fog, which delayed our departure about an hour, but once the sun burned through the fog, we had a beautiful run the final leg to Mobile Bay. (Boats: Cheers and Morgan's Dream) More later.