As I have noted, the water on the Tennessee River is currently very low, however, that is not always the case. At the Clifton Marina Bar & Grill, we saw a 2004 picture showing the waterline up to the middle of the white fuel tanks that are shown in the picture below. I think we are happy with the current conditions.
Today we encounter four towboats, one going downstream and the others going upstream. Passing a towboat on the river is not like passing a semi on the freeway, the towboats are too large and too slow to change course, so it is the pleasure vessel that must abide by the towboat captain’s needs. When calling the captain of the towboat they will either say, “See you on the one (whistle)” or “See you on the two (whistle),” (they do not always say whistle). What does this mean?
When overtaking a towboat (both vessels heading in the same way)
“See you on the one (whistle)” means overtake on his starboard (your port)
“See you on the two (whistle)” means overtake on his port (your starboard)
When passing a towboat (vessels going in opposite directions)
“See you on the one (whistle)” means pass port to port
“See you on the two (whistle)” means pass starboard to starboard
Wednesday on the river turned out to be a great bird watching day. As always, taking pictures from a moving boat was a bit problematic, but I managed to get a few.
Our anchorage Wednesday evening was behind Wolf Island, near Savannah, Tennessee. Another beautiful evening, fish were jumping, owls were calling “who, who, who”, coyotes were howling, and a Blue Huron was there to bid us a good evening.
