Long Trips

[Bill J]

I, along with my wife, am considering a trip from Kentucky Lake to Mobile, ALabama (Tenn-Tom Waterway) in our Hunter 23.5.

Has anyone had experience in an extended cruise in a 23.5. I would enjoy learning from your travels.

Bill J

 

[Chuck Creel]

Ahoy Billl,
The trip down can be very pretty in the fall with the folage and scenery. Never made this trip in a sail or personel boat but many times pushing barges from Paduca or Cairo Il.

I would say plan on making abt 50 mikes in a day and NOT under anycircumstances travel at night. Be sure you have charts and stay abreast of where you are along the way. Make sure you have a 25W fixed mnt VHF radio as the hand helds are vertually no good unless you can see who you are calling. The tug traffic is on 16 and locks are on 14. Any bridges along the way are on CH 13 and be sure of your mast height.

There is a nice place to re-provison and rest at Demopolus .

Happy sailing.

Capt Charles Creel

 

[Johnb]

My wife and I several times spent up to 2 weeks at a time making trips on our 23 ft Clipper Marine sailboat. With breaks to go ashore for excursions, meals and showers from time to time we never found it confiined. Now we have a 37 ft Hunter Cutter and I must confess I sometimes miss the ease of handling of the smaller boat.

We just got back from a week in the Sacramento/San Joaquin delta. We had an unseasonal heat wave (>100 deg) and enjoyed a great time. The water temps were 72 deg and higher so swimming was the way to beat the heat. I wish I was still there. I think this is a wonderful time of year to enjoy time out on the water

 

[Franklin]

I followed a couple down the tenn-tom in a 24' sailboat. They broke their rudder when caught between a barge and a speeding powerboat, so be careful of the water turbulance you put that small rudder in as there isn't a lot of room when many boats trying to speed on by and a tug going the other way.

As for the space, well, they were very much in love so the tight space was pefect for them.

Just want to echo the "do not travel at night". There is no light out there and the tall trees make it even darker. There is a marina at the start of the tenn-tom that sells the charts...I think about $35. You really don't need them though as they don't give you any information of the floor. Only real good thing they are for is planning where to stop, but mostlikely, you will be traveling with a group as the locks tend to wait for everybody before they open up, so you can just follow them. If nobody to follow, then definately get the charts.