Florida bound

[searay40dad]

Boats washed, fueled and ready to go. My crew will be here at 0830 in the morning and we'll be on our way by 0930. All 3 crew mates are great friends and very experienced boaters. They captain a 381 Meridian, 40 Silverton convertible and a 58 Sea Ray Sedan Bridge so I'm in good hands. It'll be nice to share the helm once and awhile. We'll run almost 200 miles on the Tennessee River tomorrow with one lock getting us thru Kentucky, Tennessee and touching Alabama and mississippi. That will leave us with 450 miles to Mobile Bay and the gulf. 11 locks if memory serves me on that leg. Hope to make mobile bay by noon Wednesday. That will leave us with 150 miles to Panama City and our destination, Treasure Island Marina. Wish us luck, clean diesel and good weather, will try to do some pics and updates, coverage permitting of course.

 

[BOXERDOGTY]

Good luck on the trip. Let us know when you get to TI. I'm around the corner at Maximo. I'll buy you a couple beverages at Willy's!! :grin: Would love to check out your boat. Never mind, I think I got the wrong TI!!

 

[Pyrojodge]

Good luck and keep us updated!

 

[AMFM3]

Fair seas and light winds...here's to a safe journey.

Mark

 

[Quint4]

Looking forward to updates and pics.

 

[spfortjohn]

I am sure you know fuel stops are few if any between demopalos and mobile. If you stop in mobile. The river shack on dog river is good eats. Be very careful in mobile bay very shallow must stay in channel. Also watch bear point "stay in the marked intercostal waterway'" large sand bar at bear point

 

[villain style]

Sounds exciting! I hope to do something like that one day. Take pics for us poor souls back here!

 

[wish2fish]

JEALOUS! Have fun, be safe.

 

[almostenuff]

We'll run almost 200 miles on the Tennessee River tomorrow with one lock getting us thru Kentucky, Tennessee and touching Alabama and mississippi. That will leave us with 450 miles to Mobile Bay and the gulf. 11 locks if memory serves me on that leg. Hope to make mobile bay by noon Wednesday. That will leave us with 150 miles to Panama City and our destination, Treasure Island Marina. Wish us luck, clean diesel and good weather, will try to do some pics and updates, coverage permitting of course.

I'm making the permanent move next year. What's the distance from KY Lake to your final destination? What speed are you planning?

 

[DaFish]

As some of us have put our boats away for the season, our boating season will be continued through your trip and CSR. Wish you a great trip and please share your travel log (and pictures) with those of us in the barn/on the hard.

 

[searay40dad]

Well, we made our first stop. Started out pretty hairy as we had a 70 mile run in wide open water (for a river that is) that should have taken us less than 3 hours but ended up nearly 5 today. Had some really nasty winds, some gusting up to 35mph according to the weather advisories, causing quite a rough ride. Backed off to 14-15k, and had the tabs all the way down and just plowed thru it. The last 130 miles we were able to cruise at a pretty good clip. By the time we made it thru the only lock of the day it was dark. Fortunately my wife and I tripped here over July 4th so I knew the area. Will have to fuel up tomorrow morning which will put us a tad behind schedule starting off. We hope to cover about 140 miles and get thru 8 maybe 9 locks tomorrow which is pretty optimistic. Took a few pics but not sure how to get them up via iPad. Will do that tomorrow when I get my laptop up. My crew are all from the st. Louis area so we ate a couple racks of baby back ribs and settled in to watch the game with captain Morgan. Here in about 2 minutes I'm heading toward the rack.

I'm making the permanent move next year. What's the distance from KY Lake to your final destination? What speed are you planning?

800 miles from our marina to panama city. ~24-25 knots.

 

[MonacoMike]

. Took a few pics but not sure how to get them up via iPad. Will do that tomorrow when I get my laptop up.

Thanks for sharing! Sounds like a great adventure.

To put pics up from Ipad...

First get free Photobucket app.

Open and go to my albums. Click on the up arrow, then "Photo Library", and then your Ipad photo directory. (likely called "camera roll") Click on the photo you want to upload. To get on CSR click pic, it will open, click chain link looking icon, click IMG code and the link to the pic is put on your clipboard ready to past into your post. It seem like a task when I spell out all the steps but at Homecoming I got to the point I could take a pic and have it on CSR in 30 seconds. Once you do this twice you will want to post this way all the time as it is easier than my laptop set up.

Calm seas until we hear from you again, hopefully with the pics,

MM

 

[mwph]

Very cool. Hope you can keep us posted. The scenery will be really nice & surely the winds will calm & the water will smooth out for you. Can you list your scheduled stops?

Best wishes from MM357 on the Tennessee.

 

[themikehyde]

Great posts, hope you have better weather and seas for the rest of the trip. One day, I hope to be able to write about my trip down the ICW!

 

[fwebster]

Looks like the front passed us last night and we are well east of you. You should be able to let her eat today..............until you get hung up waiting for a lock thru.

 

[Russ Calasant]

Ha!! It works, thanks MM! (Sorry for the post)

 

[searay40dad]

One of my crew filling Kayachtic up this morning. wish he would have paid the bill too. We took on about 350 gallons of diesel at Aqua Yacht Harbor. Aqua Harbor is very nice and located and the junction of Tenn-Tom Waterway and Tennessee River.





I know the pictures suck, sorry. These folks are from New Zealand. They flew over to the states, bought a sea ray 480 motoryacht and are doing the Great Loop. They will then sell the boat and fly back home. Now thats an adventure.


Almost ready for the days trip.





We made 6 locks today and about ~120 mles. All sunshine and mid-70's today...absolutely a great day for boating.





The tenn-tom waterway is a man-made canal. quite a feat.



We ran with a 460DA for the entire trip today. he's made this trip several times and is heading to ft. lauderdale.



i have a great crew. They cleaned the boat first thing, polished ALL the stainless today, cleaned most of the eisenglass and grilled a great dinner. we'll try to get the topsides waxed before she sees salt. After a long day but a good day and 3 captain morgans I once again am ready to hit the rack. We have 4 more locks to go and about 330 miles to reach mobile bay and the gulf.

 

[DF470DA]

Safe travel to you and the crew...if you need some good reading, check out mvislandhopper blog spot, the Captain (also my attorney) is back here in Cinti after three months running half the Great Loop (wintering in Brewerton NY presently) and will do the other half beggining again in early summer 2013, back to his home port at Longboat Key late summer. He also has made the Tenn-Tom trip several times so look for that in the blog archives. Have a "Captain" for me....df

 

[Woody]

No updates since the 15th? Hope he's not having problems.

 

[fwebster]

He's in LA......lower Alabama. Internet or cell connections are by carrier pidgeon.

I've got a system in my house in Florida where I can remotely turn on the A/C and water heater from a laptop with a WF-FI connection or with an iphone, but I have to get it done before we leave Montgomery or I'm out of luck.