Monday, October 24 - First day on the TENN-TOM

Danny decided to wait until we were at a marina with a repair facility to have someone look at the muffler, so we headed down the TENN-TOM Waterway.  The TENN-TOM connects the Tennessee River with the Black Warrior River so boats can cut off 535 miles on their trip to the Gulf of Mexico.  It is an interesting mix of engineering feats.   Today we went through a creek, a canal, and a long cut with rip rap on both sides.  It was like riding in a 25 mile ditch!  Then into Bay Springs Lake (3 water words) which was shallow and required constant vigilence to stay between the buoys and out of trouble. We shared our cove anchorage with lots and lots of coots and ducks.  They were an appreciative audience as we cleaned most of the Eisenglass (vinyl-like covering).  I had been dreading this job since we bought the boat, but it really wasn't that bad, thanks to a youTube video, baby diapers, and Danny's long arms.

When the Army Corps of Engineers constructed the TENN-TOM they cut down trees and left the stumps.  Thank goodness we used a trip line with our anchor because it got caught under a limb.  When Danny pulled on the trip line to freee the anchor, it pulled up a whole branch!