Long Boat Trip Next Week - appreciate your help...

[searay40dad]

Kayachtic is currently on schedule to depart her winter port in Panama City, FL on Friday May 3 and begin her ~850 mile cruise north to her homeport in Western Ky. We'll be transiting the inland waterways (Tombigbee River, Tenn-Tom Waterway, Tennessee River) once we cross the Gulf to Mobile Bay. if you live or boat in Alabama, eastern Mississippi or Western Tennessee, I'd be interested in hearing what kind of rainfall you're experiencing or expecting over the next week or so.

I have the TVA mobile app and US Army Corps of Engineers site to monitor water levels, lock status and so on but I'd like to know what you're seeing firsthand in these areas wrt rainfall and/or flooding.

Unless something extraordinary is going on or happens next week, my schedule is relatively fixed due to work obligations & crew member schedules throughout the month of May.

Also, has anyone been to Dog River Marina in Mobile Bay before? any issues getting in and out? I'd like to re-fuel and transient there overnight Friday night then make the ~200 mile run upstream to Demopolis Yacht Basin on Saturday. Re-fuel and transient at Demopolis Saturday night and continue on to Columbus Marina to re-fuel and transient Sunday night. Monday we'll run the last 120 miles of the Tenn-Tom and lock thru Pickwick to our final leg on the Tennessee River and Kentucky Lake (~200 mile long dam'd up pool). We'll make about 100 miles downstream on the Tennessee and overnight/re-fuel at Pebble Isle Marina Monday. That will leave us with about 80 miles to cover on Tuesday. This is Plan A.

I have a Plan B that is less aggressive and adjusted for tougher weather/water conditions, weekend boaters, commercial traffic (locks) delays and such.

In October, we did the run to PC in 4.5 days but had bad weather on day 1 and day 4 (forced us to run the ICW from Mobile bay to PC vs. gulf's open water). We were only held up at one lock (out of 13 total) and saw very little recreational vessel traffic.

 

[searay40dad]

if you live or boat in Alabama, eastern Mississippi or Western Tennessee, I'd be interested in hearing what kind of rainfall you're experiencing or expecting over the next week or so.

***bump***

No one lives in these areas or you guys just want me to hit a bunch of logs?

 

[Alfars]

I'm on the TN river in Knoxville, we've had a ton of rain over the past few weeks (expected to see a few inches this weekend). I haven't been out this year yet but from what I can see from bridges etc, there's a TON of debris out in the river right now. Big stuff too. The lake is at full pool and they have been spilling the Loudon dam. I would be very careful and wouldn't dream of trying to travel at night.

Good luck! And bring a few spare props.

 

[Lucky's]

Bump. Sorry I have no first hand info on the areas in question to help you. Hope you get some good info and have a safe trip back!!!


Shaun
Sent from my iPhone

 

[spfortjohn]

Dog river marina is a good place to overnight. Just make sure you stay inside the marked channel.

 

[mwph]

I'm on a part of the Tennessee that you will not be using. However, for general information...

Inspite of all of the spring rains in this part of the country, made a 27 mile upstream run last weekend and didn't see a single piece of trash.

The TVA app is pretty cool. You probably already know that water levels don't change much as they do a pretty good job managing it. Wish there was more I could offer you. Have a safe trip & enjoy the ride! (Like I needed to tell you that!)

 

[northern]

I have no idea of your area but we have logs all year along the west coast. If you run fast you will probably hit one. If you run on auto pilot you will hit one after a while.
Last year going 7 knots we hit a 20 foot log 8" dia. It cost 1,100 to fix the damage to a prop. It was in 2 foot waves and the log was not seen until too late.
Sounds like a nice trip you are going on.