Traveling the Tom-Ten Waterway.

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frank arndorfer

Like many, I read the article in the Dec. '03 issue of SAIL MAGAZINE regarding a trip down the Tom-Ten Waterway. I've been intrigued with this trip for a long time and have decided to do it in the next couple of years. I'd be traveling from Lake Michigan. The article specifiaclly mentioned two publications that I'm having a difficult time locating: Ten-Tom Nitty Gritty CruiseGuide by Fred Meyers Cruising Guide to the Tennesee River by Marian, Thomas, and WJ Rumsey. Anyone know of a source for these publications.???? Alsooo...I'd appreciate any feedback from anyone who has traveled this route.
 
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Debra B

ABE for out-of-print books

Amercican Book Exchange. http://www.abe.com
 
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george s smith

bluewater books and charts

Frank, I got my Nitty-Gritty from bluewaterweb.com. They have a Tenn. River Cruise by the same author as Nitty-Gritty. Hope this helps you. George
 
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David Perkins

Traveling the Tom-Ten Waterway

I agree with George ...... The Tenn Tom Nitty Gritty Cruse Guide by Fred Myers is a great cruse guide for anyone wanting to travel down our wonderful waterway here in Alabama & Mississippi to the gulf of Mexico. It has almost mile by mile coverage of the entire waterway ..... things to see and marinas along the way, lots of useful info. David
 
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Tim Bastian

Here is something that might interest you.

Hello Frank, If your planning a cruise on the Tennessee River - Tom Bigby Waterway you might be interested in the great loop. Take a look at the links below. http://www.dblell.com/maps.htm http://www.greatloop.com/greatloop/aglca.htm http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0966998707/ref%3Dnosim/gnugk-20/104-4636542-9741569 http://www.southwindssailing.com/articles/0201/greatloop.html http://www.pdqyachts.com/ver2/pdfs/otheVoices/PMM.pdf If you happen to come up the Tennessee as far as Chattanooga let us know. We will be glad to show you the sights. Tim Bastian Zephyr’s Aura Hixson, TN
 
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tom

Part of the route

I've spent a few weeks on Kentucky Lake. It is a great place. Eagles ,beaver , deer coyotes and we caught a lot of catfish. TVA sells maps. One thing is that many of the places you might want to anchor have been filled with stakes to attract crappie. We ran into this a couple of times. The bays can be shallow. Rain can have a big effect on currents in the Tenn-tom. Usually the current is negligible but I've seen really strong currents near Aliceville. Also you can get a lot of trees etc after heavy rains. Several people at our marina in Guntersville ,Alabama had made the trip. They all enjoyed themselves and it took about a week from Guntersville. As you get close to Mobile there are alligators. The Tensaw delta has about 15,000 alligators. We have seen them while kayaking. Much of the tensaw delta has recently been protected it has a lot of wildlife including a few bears. We are now at Mobile Bay and it is a nice place but it is shallow with few protected places to anchor. Being shallow it can develope a mean chop. Several sailers have told me about them being in conditons where they started hitting bottom in the troughs. We draw 4.5' and have been out in rough conditions without hitting anything. Unless you just want to go to Mobile you might consider going up the Tennessee river. There are great lakes all the way to Knoxville Tennessee. Tellico lake is a fantastic clear water lake surrounded by mountains just outside of Knoxville. I think that the lock at Tellico/Fort Loudon is the last lock. On the other hand the sugar white beaches just east of Mobile are hard to beat.
 
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J.B. Dyer

Mast Height

Something that you need to give strong consideration to is your mast height, assuming that you have one. The first bridge that you will come to going South out of the Pickwick area is Highway 25. It's 52 feet at mean tide pool. If you can make this one with your stick up, you can make the rest of them. The best I remember, there are 5 bridges in the vicinity of 52 feet. The water level is down about 6 feet right now but is up considerably in the spring months and passage with anything in the vicinity of 52 feet is iffy. If you decide to make the trip, stop by at Aqua Yacht Marina at the mouth of the Tombigbee. It's full service and has a restaurant at the foot of the sailboat dock #C. There is also usually a party going on during the weekend. "Suspicion" slip 77C, AquaYacht.
 
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