Talisman 2020

 We left our anchorage at Big Bayou Canot at 6:20 AM, Big Bayou is at MM16. Heading South the Tombigbee River ends at MM 0. It turns into Mobile Bay which is MM 127. The topography instantly changed. We started to see Palm Trees on shore, a few dolphins and the water turned from dirty brown to clear. Mobile Bay was very busy. Shipyards, Container ships etc. We had to stay alert. We were suddenly in civilization after the desolate Tombigbee. These warships are huge! We worked our way through Mobile Bay and instead of taking the channel down the west side to the mouth of Mobile Bay we took a bit of a shortcut across ending up at the east side of the mouth to  enter into the Intracoastal. We watched our charts closely as Mobile Bay has some very shallow sections. Halfway through this "shortcut" we could see on our AIS system we would be joined by some looper friends. "Lady C" who we met in Alton this summer...and "Gemini Gypsy" who we met when we were held up

 We left Demopolis, in the fog, early on the morning of November 4th along with two other non-looper boats. One being a "boat jockey crew". A hired crew to move someone's boat from one location to another. These guys don't mess around. Time is money. They were moving! We all went through the Demopolis Lock ( 40'). The fog lifted in the first hour and the day was beautiful. This stretch of the trip is notorious for being in the backwoods. There are no marinas. Most people head to a marina at the mouth of Mobile Bay. After reading bad reviews, we decided to do two long days anchoring out, get up early and take the shortcut across the bay and enter the intercoastal - weather permitting. Mobile Bay is shallow and can get rough. But that required a fuel stop. The only fuel in this section is a place called Bobby's Fish Camp. Bobby's is notorious on the loop. It is a series of trailers and one dock. Bobby allows you to stay at his dock overnite - for a fee. No w

 It is amazing how relatively unknown the Tenn-Tom Waterway is to the U.S. public - including the crew of Talisman. The Tenn-Tom Waterway is the 253 mile stretch of river from Tennessee mile 450.7 to Demopolis, AL at mile 217. Note - at Demopolis, the river turns into the Black Warrior-Tombigbee all the way to Mobile. The Tenn-Tom connects the Tennessee River to the Tombigbee. Prior to this the waterways were not connected. The Tenn-Tom shortened the trips for vessels by as much as 720 miles. Vessels going from Pensacola, FL to Chattanooga, TN only have to travel 771 miles via the Tenn-Tom instead of 1541 miles via the Mississippi River. In addition, vessels could avoid the swift currents of the Mississippi when north bound. The first engineering investigation proposed for this waterway was in 1874-1875. After various proposals were rejected, finally in 1946 Congress approved the waterway. There was strong opposition causing delays, delays, and delays. Construction finally began in 197

Since we were all going to Demopolis, we all traveled at the slow speed together. Trawler Speed for 2 days.  We realized 1.95 miles per gallon - a record for us!  At that rate of fuel consumption, our range would be 650 miles ( vs. our normal range at normal cruising is approx. 280 ) .....but who wants to go that slow.  This "slow" exercise inspired further research to be discussed later. Only 1 lock today.......Howell Heflin Lock (32' ) We arrived at Kingfish Marina, Demopolis, AL. Demopolis is important because of its location. It's at the 32nd latitude. This is the magic line that you cannot cross before November 1 without hurricane insurance. Or even WITH hurricane insurance, you are wise not to go further south before this date. So Demopolis becomes the "jumping off point". Everyone else we were traveling with was anxious to keep on moving. They all left the very next morning. Since we are capable of traveling much faster, we have more options. We staye