T&T: How far on the Tennessee River?

[Ken Bloomfield]

Hi Rich,
I live on Tellico Lake (Little TN river) and have boated on these rivers 
for 18 years.  You will not hit a "no freeze" zone even down to and on 
the Florida panhandle.  However, the freezes that we get here are short 
lived (generally just during the night) and not very deep.  Normally, 
with a few cautions, you can make your boat sufficiently freeze proof by 
just using the electrical heaters that look like old fashioned hot water 
radiators.  If you have dual shorpower cords (i.e. dual 30amp cords or a 
50 amp 125/250 cord) you should be able to arrange to have one heater on 
each of the two circuits for some safety of redundancy.  If your 
icemaker is on the sundeck, then drain the water back out of it to a 
lower station sink (with the potable water pump off) and you should be 
good to go.  If you are leaving the boat for an extended period, if 
there is someone on the dock who is a liveaboard (pretty common on the 
TN river) they could check once in a while to ensure that your boat is 
drawing power (look at your meter).  Otherwise, you pretty much need to 
get down to about Tampa Bay before your are reasonably freeze-proof.
Ken Bloomfield
MT-50, Tellico Lady

Rich wrote:
> Hi All,
> We are at Pebbel Isle Marina (for the past month) on the Tennessee River,
> and
> looking for a marina to leave the boat for a month or so
> that would not need winterized on are way south. How far do we need
> to go that freezing is not a problem? It be nice to be within a short drive
> to a rental car also.
> Thanks,
> Rich