Travels of the Confetti

4/26/14 - 5/6/14    We had a few minor mechanical issues (as always) so we planned on stopping in Mobile Bay at Dog River Marina which is a full service marina with it's own West Marine.    Unfortunately our weather window was about to close and once closed it would have been days before Mobile Bay was fit to travel on again.   We skipped Dog River and ran the length of the bay in one day to the relative safety of the Mobile River.   We knew when we started this trek that going up the rivers against the current might be a slow proposition and that proved to be the case right away since recent rains upstream resulted in the Mobile River flowing in some places at 2-1/2 miles per hour.   That made our speed over ground as low as 4-1/2.   We came on an extremely good anchor spot just off the river about the same time as a three day stretch of intermittent heavy rain and lightening so we stayed put and waited for it to pass.    There is some strategy for going up a river.   The river flows fastest in the center so the idea is to stay as close to the bank as possible.   That is also where logs, branches and other river debris accumulates (we saw a whole dead hog floating) and also where the shallow water is.   Also there are eddy currents which make the boat want to turn in the wrong direction.   So to pick up 1 mile per hour or so requires constant steering and checking the depth sounder.   The river is very pleasant.   It is transitioning from the cypress tree of the swamps to the pine trees of the southern forest.   Also we are just brushing the southernmost extent of the Appalachian Mountains so we are seeing rolling hills with occasional rock outcrops.   As we reached Demopolis, AL we had been 9 days without spending a night in a marina or having internet or reliable phone service so we spent a couple of nights to recharge.   Since we left Mobile we had traveled 214 river miles but only 126 miles as the egret flies.