GL: Tenn-Tom river report to Demopolis headed north

[Rich Gano]

Dog River channel:
Marker 10 and 6 knocked down.
On 1 October 2006, dredge Lilly was working channel landward of marker 6
location.  Call 16 to pass over anchor wire.  Beware setting sun blindness.

Dog River Marina to Tenn-Tom mile 64:
Some debris in the Mobile River, some of which could be hazardous but all
easily avoided.
Almost no debris in northern section and none to speak of in the Tom Bigbee
River.
Encountered only four tows from Dog River to mile 64.
Entering Three Rivers Lake excellently described in Rumsey guide 1999
edition and not mentioned in Meyers Nitty Gritty Guide 2003 edition.
Entered Three Rivers Lake via the narrow channel between the trees and found
excellent and totally isolated anchorage in 12-14 feet of water.  No need to
tie to tree.  Single plow did fine.  Channel depth just before breaking out
into broader water of the lake was 5-7 feet.

Mile 64 to Demopolis:
Upper and lower Demopolis dam gauges were 17.5 and 13 respectively.
Used the dent in the east river bank at 168.6, Barron's Landing to .anchor
fore and aft well clear of the channel.  No problems with passing tows.
River gets a bit shallow (9-10 feet under us) in the upper reaches toward
Demopolis Lock - mind the buoys carefully.
Demopolis Yacht Basin adequate marine facilities.  Owner very helpful in
getting boat quickly hauled for a few hours to look at port shaft.  His
mechanic took our dripless packing apart and found nothing to cause the
intermittent squealing we'd been having except a clogged cooling/lubrication
water line.  Hopefully, that's all fixed.  They will replace a generator for
you here, but do not have any talent for getting into the innards - luckily,
our generator issue turned out to be an easily repaired (by me) burned wire
due to inadvertent overloading.

Turned on cabin heater this morning, but high today is to be 79.  Headed
north about 1100 today.

Rich Gano
CALYPSO (GB 42-295)
Southport, FL