View Larger MapDelayed Posting for June 7, 2009
Location: 34 34 39.00 N, 86 33 33.00 W – Ditto Landing Marina – Huntsville, Alabama

We got an early start for our first day cruise with our new cruising buddies. We called the Wilson Lock at 7:00 AM for their availability for a lock-thru. The lockmaster said to make the run now so we were off the dock at 7:15 AM and in the lock around 7:30 AM. If we were impressed with the 82 ft lift on the Tenn-Tom we were awestruck with this 93 ft lift. This is the highest lift on the Tennessee and was once the highest single lift in the world but now ranks sixth in the US. Construction of the Wilson dam began in 1918 and was completed in 1925. At the time it was the world’s largest dam.

We then had a 20 mile run to the Wheeler lock for a 72 ft lift to bring us to nearly 600 ft elevation. Rather than anchor tonight we decided to run about 80 miles to Huntsville to stay a couple of days to tour the Space and Rocket Center, the world’s largest space museum. We hope to bring you some details and photos tomorrow.

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The river is very wide and does not wander as did the ten-Tom so we felt like we were making progress. The shore line is also more developed than on the Tenn-Tom and we saw a variety of sights along the river. It was Sunday so there was more boat traffic than we have seen since we left Florida Along the way we saw the Browns Ferry nuclear plant with its unique spire. The spire is not a cooling tower. It is designed to provide lightening protection for the plant.
We saw another lift span railroad bridge that had a 10 ft clearance in the down position and lifted for us upon request. As we approached the bridge we had to chuckle. We were talking on the radio to the bridge operator and we actually were able to understand what he was saying.
He spoke in a very heavy Alabama twang. So while he was “fixing” to lift the bridge we were fortunate that we had lots of practice listening to our dear Florida friend Nancy. We also saw the Meow Mix plant in Decatur. Most folks have seen their ads on TV.

Mac enjoys driving so he gave Tom an opportunity to relax and do some other tasks on today’s trip. Mac’s had plenty of help to get him through the day. This photo of Tom and Mary was taken at Tennessee mile marker 326 which is the mid-point of the Tennessee River between Peducah, KY where the river joins the Ohio and Cumberland Rivers and just east of Knoxville where the Tennessee River begins.

Location: Still at Florence Harbor Marina – playing tourists
Today we had the opportunity to visit the birthplace of Helen Keller. Helen Adams Keller was born a healthy child on June 27, 1880, to Captain Arthur H. and Kate Adams Keller of Tuscumbia. At the tender age of 19 months, she was stricken with a severe illness which left her blind and deaf. Anne Sullivan, called the miracle worker, was Helen Keller’s teacher and what she did was truly a miracle.

Anne Sullivan was standing at the totally blind and deaf Helen Keller's side and was steadily pumping cool water into one of the girl's hands while repeatedly tapping out an alphabet code of five letters in the other—first slowly, then rapidly. The scene was repeated again and again as young Helen painstakingly struggled to break her world of silence.

Suddenly the signals crossed Helen's consciousness with a meaning. She knew that "w-a-t-e-r" meant the cool something flowing over her hand. Darkness began to melt from her mind like so much ice left out on the sunny March day. By nightfall, Helen had learned 30 words
We have all seen the movie “The Miracle Worker” with Patty Duke and Anne Bancroft. Today we saw where it all started. Go to http://www.helenkellerbirthplace.org/ to learn more.

Location: Still at Florence Harbor Marina

The first half of the day was dedicated to boat maintenance, cleanup and reorganizing our provisions. Carolyn and Mac McDermott arrive around mid-day after driving for 5 hours from Tellico Village in Tennessee. They will finish the remainder of our Cruise to Fort Loudon Marina.

We borrowed the courtesy car again and escorted Carolyn and Mac with their rental car to drop it off at the local regional airport. We stopped at the WalMart SuperCenter to restock the boat with groceries and headed back to the boat for a quiet evening.

Location: 34 47 19.00 N, 87 40 30.00 W – Florence Harbor Marina – Florence, Alabama

The usual Satellite photo has been omitted because the Google photo obscured the Marina with clouds. They should snap another image on a clear day. So in its place is this stock photo of the marina. Today it was just a 25 mile run from our anchorage to the marina. We are expecting Carolyn and Mac to arrive tomorrow so we’ll take advantage of our time here to clean up a bit after a month of cruising. We should have brought our Little Green Machine carpet cleaner after all the generator work we had done. We tried to protect the salon carpet from all the work that was done but it’s impossible so the carpet needs a good cleaning. It will have to wait until we reach our new home port.

We were greeted at the dock by Eva and Tom and they helped with the lines. Eva was running the marina today and Tom is a live-aboard who arrived a year ago after doing the loop and decided to stay awhile. We topped off with fuel and they helped us move into our slip. Overnight tie-up is $1.00 ft. and diesel was $2.63 per gal. The marina is very well protected with virtually no exposure to traffic on the Tennessee. There is a restaurant at the marina with catfish as their specialty. This marina is very convenient to downtown Florence so we’ll borrow the courtesy car and check the area out tomorrow.

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.

View Larger MapLocation: 34 58 59.00 N, 88 13 10.00 W – Zippy Creek anchorage, Pickwick Lake, Mississippi/Tennessee Line

After completing the installation of the new muffler for the generator we left Aqua Harbor Marina yesterday afternoon and traveled about a mile to our Zippy Creek anchorage. The marina service department arranged for us to be charged for only one overnight tie-up charge. We had stayed for 3 nights through the weekend waiting for the installation on Monday.

When we arrived at the marina we wanted to find a couple who we did not know but were referred to by a mutual acquaintance in Michigan, They keep their 50 ft Carver in the marina full time. The boat name was Paula Faye. We asked at the fuel dock when we arrived and they didn’t know. We had mail forwarded that we picked up in the office and we asked Bonnie there as well without luck. On Sunday as we were walking through the parking lot Sanford and Faye Flack saw our Punta Gorda T-shirts and introduced themselves. We finally met but they were heading home with a 9 hour drive to Ohio. It was a shame that we did not connect earlier in the weekend.

Our Zippy Creek anchorage provides great protection from all directions with the exception of NNW. Water depth is 20 ft + through two-thirds of the embayment. We are anchored where the boat is located in the Google photo. There is a very slight current flow from the creek out to the north so the boat does not swing much if the wind is light. The anchorage is exceptionally quiet except for bird song in the forest. We are going to enjoy this spot and stay for another night before moving onto the Tennessee River and closer to Florence, Alabama.

Delayed Post for Sunday May 31, 2009 – Still at Aqua harbor Marina
We took advantage of a quiet day to visit the Civil War Shilow Battlefield and National Cemetery. The National Cemetery has 3584 graves with all but three for Union Soldiers. There are 1227 Known and 2357 unknown soldiers. Confederate soldiers are buried in multiple mass graves outside of the cemetery proper and are therefore all unknown soldiers. Below are a few photos. Click on the images to enlarge: