Chicago to Tampa by way of Mobile Bay

[John Bailey]

Starting out on November 30, will be helping a friend move his boat from Chicago to Tampa.  We'll be using the Tenn-Tom route.

I've never done any river cruising and would appreciate any advice/information.

Thanks,

John

[Frank]

I'm not familiar with that system at al....but...if your leaving Chicago on Nov. 30th....my advice is to pack LONG JOHNS   :o
All joking aside, I'm sure you will have a great trip! That far out of season, you will enjoy the system almost to yourselves. Post pictures!!!  Have fun!

[John Bailey]

Thanks Frank,

Yea, it's going to be cold for awhile till we get South aways!  I live in Northern Michigan, so we're used to dealing with the cold.

This will be the maiden voyage for my friend's boat.  It's not exactly a "Sailfar" type.  It's a 40' wooden trawler that he just finished and put in the water a few weeks ago.

John

[skylark]

I have not done the Tenn-Tom route, but I have done trip planning for it.

Active Captain has most of the information you will find in other sources.

https://activecaptain.com

This site is good for background info on what to expect:

http://www.captainjohn.org/GL-3-Scoop.html

All the charts you need are available in electronic format for free from NOAA and the US Army Corps.

Some more discussion on this board:

http://sailfar.net/forum/index.php/topic,4030.0.html

I was most concerned about going through Chicago, and then upstream on the Ohio River.  After doing some research, I found that you can get through the highly industrialized part of Chicago in one day.  Try to make it to Joliet free docks.  There are other places to stop if necessary.  Once past Joliet there are many good anchorages and docks along the way.  Just plan your day so you end up at a good anchorage and don't run at night.

The Ohio River current in the fall is about 2mph if there has been no heavy rain.  So it should not be a problem, even for an underpowered sailboat, as long as weather conditions are good.  The Ohio River has a lot of boat traffic.  

Some comments that I read were that the trip is easy, as long as you keep to the channel.

The Skipper Bob Chicago to Mobile book is worth having with you.  

[John Bailey]

Thanks Paul,

Skipper Bob's book is on order and Captain John's site has been read beginning to end.

Good information.

John

[okawbow]

At this time of year, you need to check all the fuel stops, to be sure they are open. Hopefully, your boat has a large fuel tank.

[John Bailey]

At this time of year, you need to check all the fuel stops, to be sure they are open. Hopefully, your boat has a large fuel tank.

Good point,

Although this is a 40' trawler with, I'm sure, a large fuel tank, (not exactly a SailFar type, I know) it'll also be using a lot of fuel.  So, we'll have to plan accordingly.

John

[marujo_sortudo]

Also, expect it to be colder on the water than on land.  Being on a trawler will mitigate this, though, if you can steer/navigate from inside (oh, the luxury :) )

[CharlieJ]

Also, expect it to be colder on the water than on land.  Being on a trawler will mitigate this, though, if you can steer/navigate from inside (oh, the luxury :) )

;D ;D

If you only knew how many times I've coveted that enclosed steering!!!

Had folks come past, slide the door open salute me with a cup of coffee, and slide the door closed. While I shivered :D

Ah but the days under full sail, on a reach, make up for that :D

[John Bailey]

Basically, I'm going to be wearing snowmobile clothing for the first part of the trip.  I'll just start wearing fewer clothes as we make our way south.

John

[DavidCrosby]

I have done this system from just north of St. Louis to Chicago on a Tartan 30. We did it in the middle of summer though. Carry plenty of fuel is a definite. We brought enough diesel with us that we only needed to make one stop. We had our diesel in red gasoline containers (because that is what we could readily get). We had several 5 gallon containers strapped to the lifelines on deck.  I was absolutely amazed at the number or request we received for gasoline. Even encountered a motorboat that was much larger than us that was out of gas and begging for either gas or a tow to the dock several miles back in the direction we just came from. We took him under tow, but in the direction we were going and fortunately were able to quickly pass him off to a boat headed in the opposite direction.

We ran 18 hours a day for six days, bucking a current.  We did run at night. We had one person at the helm. Two on deck. One with a river chart in hand, the other with a big spot light. We could easily light up the channel markers and motored from marker to marker.

We anchored every single night. We would typically tuck in behind an island and out of the channel. There is no shortage of places to anchor.

The locks are easy to manage. I would suggest looking up the phone numbers for the locks.  We had much better luck reaching them on cell phone than we did on VHF. (Honestly, though, I think our VHF was probably not transmitting properly.)

The Mississippi, south of Alton, Illinois runs significantly faster than it does to the north. We had to deal with a 2 knot current on the Illinois River for most of our trip north.

I have never traveled the Mississippi south of the locks and dams, so can not offer much advice on that part of the river. I can only say, that while there are a fair number of towns along the river, they are almost all behind the levies and a bit of a hike to get to.

[John Bailey]

Thanks for all the advice.

Fuel should not be a problem.  We'll carry 350 gallons.

John

[John Bailey]

Bad news -- the trip has ended.  Three days in we had a weld shear on the rudder shaft that left us without steering while being pushed by the current towards a couple of bridge abutments in the middle of the barge infested channel of the Illinois River.  The rudder was destroyed and the prop was damaged.

Probably was a good thing because the next 5 days of cold weather may have left us ice bound anyway.

John

[skylark]

Yikes, sorry to hear that!

Sounds like a little too much adventure.

[John Bailey]

I'll tell you what though, it was great three days and I learned a lot.  I had never been on a big river, never seen the big barges, and never been on a troller type boat.  Another thing, I developed a huge appreciation and respect for the tow captains.  Word went out that we were stranded on shore and the barge captains made sure to steer clear.  When we were being towed at night, they kept one of their spot lights on the markers on our side of the river so we knew where to steer.  At one point one tow used his spot light like a giant finger bouncing up and down on the marker on our side so we wouldn't miss it.  I chuckled for a half hour over that one.

All in all, I believe now, the decision should have been made to not make the trip at this time of year.  Even without the rudder failure, I think our chances were pretty slim on making it to warmer climes before somthing else bad was going to happen.  We were relying to much on wishful thinking and luck. 

I think we were fortunate that all ended as well as it did.

John

[Sea Rover]

It's a shame your trip ended the way it did. That is a great route, and I would love to do it on a private vessel sometime. I work on one of the tow boats that runs from St. Louis to Mobile and Tuscaloosa. I've made the trip up and down dozens of times. I am still seeing the odd ball boat head down the Ten Tom and even the Upper Mississippi this late in the season, but it's increasingly rare and I don't expect to see any more. So I know people do it very late in the season.

I've actually considered bringing my boat UP the river to Demopilis, AL because it would be closer to work. But then I'd have to leave the Tampa area.

Anyways, sounds like a not so fun adventure, hopefully next time will be a bit smoother sailing.

[John Bailey]

Thanks Sea Rover,

It turned out just as well.  The ended up being in the teens and lower for the next 10 days, or so.  The channel would have stayed open, but we all agreed we probably would have gotten iced in while at anchor at night.

As it turned out, we just started too late in the season and would have been lucky to make.  Never have been one to trust luck on the waterways -- lesson learned.

John