View Larger MapDelayed Post for Wednesday June 3, 2009 – no internet access
Location: 34 53 32.00 N, 88 01 16.00 W – Ross Branch Anchorage

We reluctantly left Zippy Creek this morning. What a beautiful location.
When we made our turn for the final mile or so of the Tenn-Tom, we saw the Grand Harbor Marina to our left. This marina together with Aqua Harbor is a testament to the interest in boating and the strength of the boating market in this area. The Sternwheeler Pickwick Belle makes her home in Grand Harbor. Later in the day we saw the Pickwick Belle steaming by our new anchorage.

We finally turned onto the Tennessee River, Ya-Hooo! The junction of the Tenn-Tom (Mile 450) and the Tennessee (mile 215) is marked by a steeply wooded shore. On the left is Tennessee, ahead is Alabama and to the right is Mississippi. Now that we are on the Tennessee River we will begin to cruise southeasterly down into Alabama again and we will not be back into Tennessee until we are approaching Chattanooga.

Our anchorage tonight is a cove off the Tennessee. The entrance to the cove is through the center of two rock piles just outside the cove. The river navigation channel was around 40 ft deep. When we were astride the two rock piles the depth was 15 ft. and then dropped quickly to 30 ft as we went over an old canal along the river. On the other side of the canal the depth returned to 15 ft. There are two white crosses (one on each side of the cove) and we anchored on the imaginary line connecting the crosses. The white crosses indicate that the cove quickly shallows beyond the imaginary line. The crosses are on the chart. The crosses have reflectors to show brilliantly when lighted at night. After sunset the weather turned nasty with thunder, lightning and heavy rain. We checked our GPS and we were holding like a rock. It is a nice anchorage and large enough to swing on one anchor.

Tomorrow we will be heading for Florence Harbor Marina, in Florence, Alabama where we will wait for our friends Carolyn & Mac McDermott (members of Tellico Cruising Club) to join us for the remainder of our cruise to Fort Loudon Marina.