Sunday May 9, 2021.
Temp: 80/45, Humidity: 41/100%, Top Wind: E15mph, Precip? no, Miles Traveled: 65
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I think it’s our last day in North Carolina. Do you think Virginia might be less windy? LET’S HOPE SO!
We got up at 6:00 and were off the dock before 6:30. It seemed nice and calm in the marina, so we were happy that we had waited until today to leave. We had cloud cover, and the sun was just coming up.
And then…. we got out through the markers and into the Albemarle Sound, and found out that it was chopped nuts out there! DANG! The wind was blowing from the east and there were swells also coming from the east. It was only in the 50’s so it was chilly willy and rough. At least the waves were coming at the bow and not at the side. If we had waves this big hitting us in the side, we would’ve turned around and gone back. But with them on the bow, it was just a front to back rough ride in probably 2-3’ waves. Big enough to splash up through the flybridge windshield once in awhile and get our glasses wet. The one blessing was that it was overcast, so driving straight east, we did not have the sun glaring off the water and burning our pupils as we watched for crab pot buoys in the waves.
We dealt with this mess for nearly three hours. It was too rough to go fast, so we just slogged through it. We got a call on the radio from Panacea. They wondered how our ride was and where we were coming from. We could see them on Nebo, so we knew they were Loopers coming north from Alligator River. UGH! They were getting these waves on their starboard side all the way across the Sound.
We would eventually need to turn north to head up the Pasquotank River. (And I though the Pacific Northwest had weird names!). We put off turning as long as we could, and angled for as long as we could. Then we had to start dodging crab pots. But surprisingly, once we got into the ‘river’ bay, the water settled a bit, and the waves came up behind us as we traveled north. YAY! We actually had a very smooth ride finally!
Our goal today was to get to the South Lock on the Dismal Swamp for the 1:30 opening. To do that, we had to time our travel, because once in the Dismal Swamp, speed is limited to 6mph. We needed to make up some time because we weren’t sure where our speed would be limited. So we went fast for 30 minutes. WEEEEE!
We saw a Coast Guard aircraft doing what looked like some touch and go landings nearby.
Here is the Elizabeth City USCG Air Station where he was working.
And here is Elizabeth City. We stopped here in 2018, and it’s a nice little town that offers several free docks as part of the Albemarle Loop promotion. They’ve been having some unrest lately due to a shooting and peaceful (thankfully) protests, so we didn’t feel compelled to stop here this trip.
We arrived at the Elizabeth City bridge at about 10:25, so we could request it to open for us. It’s one of those confusing bridges, like the one in New Bern. It doesn’t open between 7-9am except at 7:30 and 8:30. At least we didn’t have to time our arrival for a timed bridge opening. After 9:00 it opens upon request.
We called on the radio and requested the opening, and cracked up outloud when we got the response. It was just a nasal sounding “Okaaay”. But it sounded completely and totally like Roz on Monsters, Inc.
“Roz” opened the bridge for us and we tootled on our way.
We started our way up the Pasquotank (Pas-ka-tank) river. It looked more like a river now than the bay where we went fast. There was an old railroad bridge that is generally open, but it was around a corner, and we had to come around and get almost lined up perpendicular to it to see if it was even open. It was. 👍
We knew that several boaters were going to Lamb’s marina in lieu of staying in Elizabeth City. We were surprised when we came upon the entrance and we really wondered about it. Is it one of those places where you make a reservation and then when you see this entrance, marked with pvc posts, you quickly decide….🤔 uhhh nope. Or Kenny says nope when he starts hearing banjo 🪕music in his head. 😏
This was a big boardwalk along the river at a college that really looked pretty.
We were twisting and turning through the forest.
The water in these pictures looks deceivingly blue. It is not. It is very, very dark roasted coffee.
It was just such a beautiful day, and SOOO nice and calm in here, away from Albemarle Sound!!
We saw dozens and dozens of turtles, but couldn’t get zoomed up on them very good.
We had to start watching the sides of the waterway a little closer as it started creeping closer to us.
I have not figured out what these trees are. They have what look like long soft wide needles, and their trunks did not look like they were cypress.
We arrived at the corner right before the lock at 1:20, and found a sailboat waiting for the lock as well. So we just danced around for about 10 minutes before the lock doors opened for us.
We idled our way in (we’ve been idling at about 750 rpm for hours) and once the sail boat got their lines up on the bollards, the lockmaster came to our boat. He didn’t say a word, just held a dock pole down for me to loop a line onto. He hoisted it up, looped it around a bollard, (a big short round metal post), then walked back for me to do that again at the stern. There we go! He went and closed the gates, walked by, said “Lift eight feet” and kept walking. Man of few words. 🤷♀️. So we manned our lines as we went up, and adjusted our fenders as the side of our boat rose up and eventually the bollards were below us.
The water comes into the lock when the lockmaster cracks open the forward doors, and the water swirls around on east side of the lock, so we were tied up on the west side.
Once the water levels are equal, the doors were opened for us to proceed. But we couldn’t go too soon or too fast, because there was a bridge ahead that needed to be lifted, which is done by…. the lockmaster! He has to open the gates here, then jump in his car and drive to the bridge to open it for us. At least the lock only opens four times a day, so he isn’t driving back and forth too many times!
Right at the road for the South Mills lift bridge there was this cute old church. The Google says that it is the Ebenezer Baptist Church.
This was our look for this afternoon. It warmed up and we got to take off our coats! There was a time this morning when Kenny was really freezing in the wind – before we closed his window. His hands were even going numb. 🥺. This was way better. We’re really glad we chose this route and not the outside Virginia Cut route!
The forest kept closing in on us. The sailboat in front of us was really nice. We ran with the VHF radio on Ch.17, and Monarch would call back whenever he bumped something. He has a five foot steel keel under him. He had several bumps. We stayed a ways behind him so that anything he stirred up would have a chance to settle before we got there. We only felt one or two small bumps, which were probably partially sunk logs hitting the hull. It didn’t sound like prop talk, thank goodness.
The canal did get a little narrow. The reflection on the water is interesting, because it looks like a narrow light path to follow.
We made it to our destination – the Dismal Swamp Visitors Center, just before 3:00. I had been texting through Nebo with a looper boat named Seeker that was there, and he said he was the only boat there. Well, Monarch was in front of us, so they’d get a spot on the wall. Then we saw a catamaran sailboat coming south, and they scooted right in about 2.35 seconds before Monarch. DANG! But OK, we have a new friend Jim, on Seeker, and he said we could raft up to him. Seeker is a little 32’ Eagle Tug boat, and we made it work. Monarch offered, too, but they are a big round belly hull sailboat, so it’s hard to raft up to that. So here we are! Island Girl makes Seeker look so tiny.
Jim was so nice and helpful, and we talked with him for quite awhile. He is looping alone, and started in Tennessee. We took a little walk-about to see what is here. It’s kind of funny, but this is actually a highway rest area, so there are lots of cars and trucks coming through the parking lot all the time.
It’s actually kind of surprising that the canal is maintained, because it is strickly a pleasure boat route with no commercial traffic. It is on the National Register of Historic Places, and maintained by the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers.
We walked over across a bridge to the Dismal Swamp State Park. There was a very informative visitors center there with all kinds of history about how the canal was built, and info about the flora and fauna. Dumb me, I didn’t scope out what kind of tree to answer my fuzzy needle tree question.
We knew from being here before that George Washington had a timber company that owned 40,000 acres of the swamp, and was instrumental in establishing the canal.
This is looking back at the boats tied up at the wall. And this pedestrian bridge is opened to let boats through during locking hours only (even though we’re about 6 miles/one hour north of the lock).
Here is my strange portrait flower picture for today. I don’t know what happened to this poor flower’s stem! It’s a floating suspended flower! 🤷♀️. Pretty sweet photography, huh?
There is no power here at the dock, and it actually got pretty warm this afternoon. We opened some windows and put up the screen door to try to let it cool a bit. Fortunately, it didn’t seem like there were very many bugs. 😃. I found some things that I could cook in the microwave so that we didn’t need to start our loud generator to use the stove. Our gennie is loud, and we didn’t want to subject our nice rafting host to that.
We deliberated once again on what to do tomorrow. Deliberating the weather is an ongoing theme, isn’t it? The forecast keeps calling for thunderstorms mid day. We still have about three hours of swamp canal travel, then we need to stop and get fuel in Chesapeake, then another hour to Norfolk. I kept texting with our friends on Hallelujah!. They were a ways behind us today, and decided to anchor in a nice little spot south of the lock. They said they finally decided to just deal with the wind and rain and go on to Norfolk tomorrow. It looked like it might shape up with a narrow window to go in the early afternoon, so I called and made a reservation at the Waterside Marina in Norfolk. We still aren’t completely sure if we’ll go, or what time we’ll try to go. We need to time our travel for the lock openings at 11:00 or 1:30. I decided I’d get up early and check the weather again in the morning to see if anything changes. We’re really sheltered in here in the Swamp, but once we get out of the canal, we’ll be in bigger water with A LOT of traffic, congestion, commercial ships and freighters. That’s OK, but we don’t want to be trying to dock and fuel in a thunderstorm! Besides the lightening potential, thunderstorms always bring huge blasts of wind.