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Navigating New Orleans to Louisville, KY

  • Thread starter Thread starter frotsmud
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frotsmud

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Greetings! I'm interested in bringing a 54' going against the flow. New Orleans to Louisville. Would appreciate any thoughts (est. time, cost, etc). Looks to be about 1200 miles in total. Heard the Tennessee - Tombigbee is a beautiful trip. Thanks in advance!
Chad
 
Contact Randy (freeebird) for assistance. He did it in one engine. Its a run home for him.
 
frotsmud said:
Greetings! I'm interested in bringing a 54' going against the flow. New Orleans to Louisville. Would appreciate any thoughts (est. time, cost, etc). Looks to be about 1200 miles in total. Heard the Tennessee - Tombigbee is a beautiful trip. Thanks in advance!
Chad
Click to expand...
Anything in particular you want to know? The distance thing is easy enough to figure, but time is a whole other subject with all the locks. That boils down to a matter of pure luck as you can hit them all right, or you can hit them all wrong. Don't plan on running above displacement speeds on most of the Tenn-Tom unless you have a very good attorney and bulletproof underwear.

As for going against the flow, you'll be going downhill again when you hit the Tennessee (even though you're running north), then you're uphill again on the Ohio to Louisville. It would be a pretty trip this time of year, that's for sure... at least the Tennessee and Ohio part. The Tenn-Tom doesn't offer that much in terms of scenery.
 
We left New Orleans Friday Morning via the Industrial Canal to the Intercoastal along the edge of the gulf over to Mobile Bay. Left Mobile Bay Sat. Morning, hit all 12 locks, the Dirty Dozen I'm told, with pretty good timing. We made Pebble Isle Marina which is near mile 96 on the TN River about 6:30p.m. Tues. Evening. We actually began the journey from Leage City, TX on The previous Mon. Morning. The entire trip was wonderful with the exception of an oil leak in Homa, La and a near crushing boat experience in a lock in New Orleans. Our home port is Pebble Isle. I have not navigated beyond Ky Dam yet. I'm sure there are some good experiences to be had on the Ohio River in our future. We made the trip in June if memory serves correctly. The fall season would be more corlorful but the daylight is shorter. With the marina spacing on the Tn-Tom that shouldn't be a problem except Mobile to Bobby's Fish Camp. I did not run at night. We felt the barge traffic made it too risky. Keep us posted.
 
This is fantastic information! I'm so glad to have been eye balling this forum over the last few years. Its such a wealth of information and it wouldn't happen without such nice folks.

Fast intro: Been tossing the idea of liveaboard in my home port of Louisville, KY. My old man was a boat mechanic so I was raised since before i could pronounce "ship" (always said "sip) on and around old hatts (big, little, convertable, MY) so would not even would consider anything but older Hatteras. I've been slowly preparing financially and job wise for such a transition (pretty much there). So long story short, this forum has really been wonderful in answering so many of my questions by just going through the older posts. Thank you!

I don't own a set of bullet proof underwear so I appreciate the displacement speed thought and reminder of toilet bowels running counter clockwise on the Tenn-Tom "freebird", lol.

Thanks "Sunset Grill"! I was thinking in general about two weeks? Is that a close ball park figure?

Look forward to hearing one engine Randy's story! I'll contact him shortly. Really appreciate it.

Any good literature on such a trip?

Best,
Chad
 
Man, what a blast from the past! I just read that thread again myself for the first time in years. Even I forgot who posted the followup to that thread or what it was called. I've done two more crossings since then, but no doubt that one will be something I'll never forget... for a number of reasons.
 
Just finished the thread.

Had to stop working, grab a beer, and continue reading. The post was filled with action, adventure, drama... Then ended with everyone making it out alive.

Ha, you'd have thunk I was a 50 year old woman reading "50 Shades"! :D What a post! Never did figure out how long the trip took though :)
Cheers
Chad
 
frotsmud said:
Just finished the thread.

Had to stop working, grab a beer, and continue reading. The post was filled with action, adventure, drama... Then ended with everyone making it out alive.

Ha, you'd have thunk I was a 50 year old woman reading "50 Shades"! :D What a post! Never did figure out how long the trip took though :)
Cheers
Chad
Click to expand...

How long it took implies its over. You don't know randy do you
 
frotsmud said:
Just finished the thread.

Had to stop working, grab a beer, and continue reading. The post was filled with action, adventure, drama... Then ended with everyone making it out alive.

Ha, you'd have thunk I was a 50 year old woman reading "50 Shades"! :D What a post! Never did figure out how long the trip took though :)
Cheers
Chad
Click to expand...
I'm kinda worried about the 50 Shades reference, but other than that... :)

Like I said earlier, you can't really put this trip into a specific number of days and expect to be accurate within a few days. You can easily lose six hours at a lock... EVERY lock. Like somebody else pointed out, your days are getting shorter. I averaged about 100 miles per day but ran from sunrise to sunset (and beyond... once) but that was during the summer, and the lock gods were on my side.
 
One other thing, I'm assuming you're going to run into a number of loopers headed the opposite direction this time of year. Yet another thing to slow you down where your wake and locks are concerned.
 
I've only done the Tenn-Tom I think 7 times, When people talk about making the trip my comment is figure out how long it will take you, the add half that time to your estimated time. If you get there early so what, just don't get in a hurry. Been there done that, I don't think I will ever move a boat again with the owner on board. At least not a drunk owner that won't listen.

Good luck Chad, and welcome aboard.
 
Boatnut said:
Been there done that, I don't think I will ever move a boat again with the owner on board. At least not a drunk owner that won't listen.

Good luck Chad, and welcome aboard.
Click to expand...

Sounds like there might be a good story ???


Chad welcome aboard.
 
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