Voyages of Annie - The Great American Whistle Hunt, November 10

Greeting from Second Creek Tennessee River.

I have had no cellular access for the last five days but am close to civilization again. I believe that I am not too far from Athens, Alabama and have been able to make cell phone calls today.

I lost my crew three days ago in Columbus Mississippi on the Tenn-Tom Waterway. John Moss had to return home and rented a car for the trip to Houston. My wife decided to go with him as it would be easier than trying to get to a bus station and take a bus from some remote spot further up the Waterway. So I have been forging along by myself. I could sit in a marina and wait for someone to come and join me and be bored to death or I could keep on going by myself.

I have only spent one night in a marina in the last three weeks and that was mostly because I needed to get some charts of the Tennessee River. There is generally no lack of creeks and cuts off the waterways and rivers that make suitable anchorages out of the way of traffic. The weather had been splendid and the cool nights make sleeping great.Daytime temps climb to the mid 70’s and at night it dips to the 40’s and 50’s giving rise to morning fog on the water. I have been running the generator in the daytime to keep everything up and running including the refrigerator. At night time I shut the generator off and enjoy the peace and quiet of the waterway, with the sounds of birds and frogs and water slapping against the hull etc. broken only by the chime of the ships clock on the half hour. If I don’t go into the refrigerator it stays cold and seems like that not running for six hours at night has no adverse affect in that everything stays cold.

Running the boat by myself is not too much of a problem except when it comes to getting through locks. Then it become a Chinese fire-drill to get all the lines on and secure.Two of the locks today were absolutely massive. One had an 84 foot lift. When you enter the lock you motor the boat into this massive dark cavity with doors that are a hundred feet tall, It’s pretty impressive…and then they close the doors. It’s like being at the bottom of a well ….and then they let the water in..which has a vague resemblance of what I would think it would be like to be in a blender. I have taken a sailboat through the Panama Canal before and the locks on the Tennessee make those look small. The boat in the is 46 feet long to get an idea on size.

The scenery is absolutely stunning. I was afraid that by the time I got here that the foliage would have already turned and the trees would be losing their leaves.. Not so. The trees along the River are just beginning to turn yellow and red. At this point on the Tennessee the banks vary from high rocks bluffs to low hills but the terrain is constantly changing. There are areas of the river where there are lots of islands and shoals and creeks run into the river every mile or so. One of the first creeks that I passed after the Tenn-Tom joined the Tennessee had a waterfall at it head. What a neat place to anchor. There is very little traffic on the River. Passed three or four tows today and about as many pleasure boats. There was a lot of pleasure boat traffic of the Tennessee/Tombigbee Waterway as all of the snowbirds from the north are moving their boats south for the winter. It was not unusual to pass groups of 5-10 boats traveling south together. One anchorage we spent the night in had seven or eight boats already anchored when we got there. All of the boats had their dinghies in the water and they were all rafted together having a floating cocktail party. After we got anchored the whole raft of 8 dinghies paddled over to Annie and we got the ususal line of questions about what kind of boat it was and we give them the long saga of what it like to build a boat. And then we have to play the calliope for them.to everyone’s delight. There have been very few if any north bound boats. As we would pass the south bound caravans of boats, quite a few times we got call on the radio telling us we were going the wrong direction. We explain that we must have taken a wrong turn on the Mississippi. or that out compass has been “acting up” recently.

Whistle hunting has been somewhat slim but have seen a lot of old rusting factories in the distance and a few old smoke stacks. Makes you wonder what is just over the tree line.Most of the time it had been where there was no place to anchor and put the dinghy in the water to go ashore so it was necessary to keep on motoring. Before long I will have some wheels so I will be able to do some real hunting. My wifes parents lived in northern Alabama until two years ago and when we went to visit I spent many days out whistle hunting in the hills of Alabama. I know where there are still 10 or 12 whistles still on top of old mills and factories in the northeastern quadrant of Alabama. May have go see if they are still there. .

Ron Beberniss aboard Annie on the Tennessee River