I am considering buying a boat in the New Orleans area. Any input to the Tom Bigby vs. the Mississippi getting her back to Chicago? Time, Safety……..comments??
Tom Bigby vs. Mississippi to New Orleans to Chicago
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Tenn-Tom vs Lower Ms Rvr
Lots of things come into play here such as time constraints, crew expertise, Fuel, ETC. The MS river has some pretty strong currents now bel,ow Baton Rouge. River stage was above 28 ft in BR when i got off in New orleans on Feb 29th, 12.5 FT in New Orleans. This means you will be fighting against at least a 4 MPH head current ALL the way to Memphis,Tn. The Tom Bigbee will have less current but many locks and dams to clear as well as checking bridge height, which means lowering the mast untill you get her home. Also the Commercial barge traffic on either can get pretty busy at times. Once you leave New orleans , the next fuel stop will be Baton Rouge,La abt mile 228 which means abt 120 miles going upstream. I VERY STRONGLY recommend haveing a GOOD VHF monitored 24/7 and I don't mean a hand held. When traveling Down Bound in the MS we sometimes run abt 12-15 MPH and take ALL the bends so stay beneath the points and outta the bends. Kast thing you want to do is meet a 40 barge tow coming down in the bend with you NB. Also you will get an upstream eddie on the points allowing you to gain speed on the points. Get a RECENT chart book and keep track of where you are in Mile Boards so that you can tell us where you are,. these are the Navigation channels we use on either end as follows New Orleans to BAton Rouge VHF ch 67 Above BR, La. VHF ch 13 and 16 with most locks on VHF ch 14 and Bridges on CH 13 East of New Orleans on ICW into Mobile bay VHF ch 16 Mobile ship channel to Mile 5 Mobile River " Cocharn bridge and 12 mile island VHF ch 13. From 12 mile island North ,VHF ch 16 with bridges on ch 13 and locks on ch 14. The Tenn-Tom will be a much more scenic trip but more locks and dams to clear. Hope this helps; Didnt mean to ramble on. Best of luck; Captain Charles Creel charlesc@gulftel.com
Lots of things come into play here such as time constraints, crew expertise, Fuel, ETC. The MS river has some pretty strong currents now bel,ow Baton Rouge. River stage was above 28 ft in BR when i got off in New orleans on Feb 29th, 12.5 FT in New Orleans. This means you will be fighting against at least a 4 MPH head current ALL the way to Memphis,Tn. The Tom Bigbee will have less current but many locks and dams to clear as well as checking bridge height, which means lowering the mast untill you get her home. Also the Commercial barge traffic on either can get pretty busy at times. Once you leave New orleans , the next fuel stop will be Baton Rouge,La abt mile 228 which means abt 120 miles going upstream. I VERY STRONGLY recommend haveing a GOOD VHF monitored 24/7 and I don't mean a hand held. When traveling Down Bound in the MS we sometimes run abt 12-15 MPH and take ALL the bends so stay beneath the points and outta the bends. Kast thing you want to do is meet a 40 barge tow coming down in the bend with you NB. Also you will get an upstream eddie on the points allowing you to gain speed on the points. Get a RECENT chart book and keep track of where you are in Mile Boards so that you can tell us where you are,. these are the Navigation channels we use on either end as follows New Orleans to BAton Rouge VHF ch 67 Above BR, La. VHF ch 13 and 16 with most locks on VHF ch 14 and Bridges on CH 13 East of New Orleans on ICW into Mobile bay VHF ch 16 Mobile ship channel to Mile 5 Mobile River " Cocharn bridge and 12 mile island VHF ch 13. From 12 mile island North ,VHF ch 16 with bridges on ch 13 and locks on ch 14. The Tenn-Tom will be a much more scenic trip but more locks and dams to clear. Hope this helps; Didnt mean to ramble on. Best of luck; Captain Charles Creel charlesc@gulftel.com
Tenn-Tom the way to go
We brought our boat up the Tenn-Tom and after you get past the lower section to the first lockat Coffeevillee there is very little current. I think that a mast up to 50' is OK ours is 45' . Locking takes some time but so does bucking a strong current. Once you get on the Tennessee river any current will be going towards Chicago until you get to the Ohio river. I don't know anything about the Illinois river. As in many things in life(all things??) timing is important. After heavy rains even the Tenn-Tom has a lot of current. I've seen water going over the dam so high that they were not using th elocks as they were under water!!! The corp of engineers has a wb page with lake and river levels. Going upstream you want lower water levels. When we were going up the water levels were low. That poses a problem for some anchorages. But whatever is goingon is probably better than the Mississippi river. My boat's hull speed is 7 knots. That is with a lot of engine power. I usually cruise closer to 6 knots. If I was giving away 4 knots to the current it wold take two days to go 50 miles. You can go through a lot of locks in a day. The lockmasters are pretty good and tend to lock a group of smaller boats through all at once. Worst case we had to wait several hours at one lock but several times they were closing the gate behind us before we had even tied up!!!
We brought our boat up the Tenn-Tom and after you get past the lower section to the first lockat Coffeevillee there is very little current. I think that a mast up to 50' is OK ours is 45' . Locking takes some time but so does bucking a strong current. Once you get on the Tennessee river any current will be going towards Chicago until you get to the Ohio river. I don't know anything about the Illinois river. As in many things in life(all things??) timing is important. After heavy rains even the Tenn-Tom has a lot of current. I've seen water going over the dam so high that they were not using th elocks as they were under water!!! The corp of engineers has a wb page with lake and river levels. Going upstream you want lower water levels. When we were going up the water levels were low. That poses a problem for some anchorages. But whatever is goingon is probably better than the Mississippi river. My boat's hull speed is 7 knots. That is with a lot of engine power. I usually cruise closer to 6 knots. If I was giving away 4 knots to the current it wold take two days to go 50 miles. You can go through a lot of locks in a day. The lockmasters are pretty good and tend to lock a group of smaller boats through all at once. Worst case we had to wait several hours at one lock but several times they were closing the gate behind us before we had even tied up!!!
Enjoy Bay Springs Lake
if you decide to take the Tenn-Tom route (strong recommendation)with a couple of rest days. There is an excellent marina on the lake and lots of good deep anchorages with excellent wind protection in the many bays and coves on the lake. Say hello when you come through.
if you decide to take the Tenn-Tom route (strong recommendation)with a couple of rest days. There is an excellent marina on the lake and lots of good deep anchorages with excellent wind protection in the many bays and coves on the lake. Say hello when you come through.
Tenn-Tom best way
We took a 38 Cabo Rico from Kentucky Lake at Lighthouse Landing - TN River Mile 24 to Punta Gorda last fall down the TN to the TENN-TOM and Mobile. The Cabo Rico 38 cruised at about 6.5 knots. The minimum bridge clearance is 52 feet at the normal pool for each of the pools. Information is available on pool heights and you must adjust for both depth and bridge clearance in each pool. During our trip, most of the pools were pretty close to normal so a lot of adjustment was not necessary. Most of the 52 foot bridges were arch bridges with the lowest area near the support columns, so several feet more was available mid span. You need the charts and a good cruise guide (Nitty-Gritty Cruise Guide) and know them well as anchorages are few and far between that have sufficient depth so you must plan your day's itinerary. We only anchored out 3 times on the way down with marina stops at Cuba Landing, Aqua Yacht Harbor, Midway Marina, Aberdeen Marina, and Demopolis Yacht Basin. Just above Coffeeville, we elected to anchor rather than stop at Bobby's Fish Camp. By the time we got there, Bobby's was rafted 3 deep with other boats along the dock and we preferred a private anchorage over rafting at the dock. The locks are very easy to negotiate and usually took less than 30 minutes to get through - several took only 20 minutes from tie-up to out the gate. You need to plan on daylight travel only unless you have radar. If you like to go early you will likely encounter fog as well. We kept the mast up on the Cabo Rico and had radar and needed it just about every day as we started early. We were all experienced sailors (and had an extremely early riser) and some days traveled in fog and at night to reach a predetermined anchorage or marina. We only had one day when we made little progress (37 miles) due to lock maintenance at Armory and Aberdeen locks. We ended up staying at Aberdeen Marina and were glad we had a short day. We made the trip in 8.5 days and had planned 11. The only current noticeable was after Coffeeville and it was not very much. I have a lot of friends that have made the trip from Kentucky Lake to Mobile and we have many transients both Spring and Fall stopping in - many from the Chicago area. I have no experience with the Mississippi, but have been told that the current is very bad and there are not many facilities to stop and refuel. Good luck on your trip!
We took a 38 Cabo Rico from Kentucky Lake at Lighthouse Landing - TN River Mile 24 to Punta Gorda last fall down the TN to the TENN-TOM and Mobile. The Cabo Rico 38 cruised at about 6.5 knots. The minimum bridge clearance is 52 feet at the normal pool for each of the pools. Information is available on pool heights and you must adjust for both depth and bridge clearance in each pool. During our trip, most of the pools were pretty close to normal so a lot of adjustment was not necessary. Most of the 52 foot bridges were arch bridges with the lowest area near the support columns, so several feet more was available mid span. You need the charts and a good cruise guide (Nitty-Gritty Cruise Guide) and know them well as anchorages are few and far between that have sufficient depth so you must plan your day's itinerary. We only anchored out 3 times on the way down with marina stops at Cuba Landing, Aqua Yacht Harbor, Midway Marina, Aberdeen Marina, and Demopolis Yacht Basin. Just above Coffeeville, we elected to anchor rather than stop at Bobby's Fish Camp. By the time we got there, Bobby's was rafted 3 deep with other boats along the dock and we preferred a private anchorage over rafting at the dock. The locks are very easy to negotiate and usually took less than 30 minutes to get through - several took only 20 minutes from tie-up to out the gate. You need to plan on daylight travel only unless you have radar. If you like to go early you will likely encounter fog as well. We kept the mast up on the Cabo Rico and had radar and needed it just about every day as we started early. We were all experienced sailors (and had an extremely early riser) and some days traveled in fog and at night to reach a predetermined anchorage or marina. We only had one day when we made little progress (37 miles) due to lock maintenance at Armory and Aberdeen locks. We ended up staying at Aberdeen Marina and were glad we had a short day. We made the trip in 8.5 days and had planned 11. The only current noticeable was after Coffeeville and it was not very much. I have a lot of friends that have made the trip from Kentucky Lake to Mobile and we have many transients both Spring and Fall stopping in - many from the Chicago area. I have no experience with the Mississippi, but have been told that the current is very bad and there are not many facilities to stop and refuel. Good luck on your trip!
I would not
If I were contemplating this trip, I would not even consider the Mississippi River route. Too much current, too much shipping. Too much chance of getting run over by a tow coming downstream around a curve. The Tenn-Tom I have absolutely no knowledge of, but the locks, which mean no current, would be enough for me.
If I were contemplating this trip, I would not even consider the Mississippi River route. Too much current, too much shipping. Too much chance of getting run over by a tow coming downstream around a curve. The Tenn-Tom I have absolutely no knowledge of, but the locks, which mean no current, would be enough for me.
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