Day 49, Thursday, October 22th

Norfolk, VA to the Dismal Swamp, NC

Track on ViewRanger

I hadn't planned to go here today already, I wanted to go to a marina in Norfolk or Portsmouth for a day and explore the town. But I found myself not so enthusiastic about being in the big city again, and Alex had texted that Elizabeth City was really nice. So on the spur of the moment I decided to take the Dismal Swamp Canal to Elizabeth City, instead of the somewhat more common route East that goes via the Currituck Bay.

I moved south on the river and encountered even more Navy yards and another two carriers. Some ships were being serviced in absolutely humongous floating dry docks.

I'm posting so many photos of the Navy ships for my friend Danny who just loves things that are used to blow other things up.

I reached the infamous Railroad bridge that is being repaired just now when most of the cruisers are moving south, and had to wait over an hour for it to open. While I was waiting I made myself sandwiches for the trip and admired this huge crane with another little crane on top of it.

Many other boats were in the river waiting with me, and once the bridge opened the race was on.

More Navy ships, this is the (decommissioned) submarine tender Simon Lake (S-33). 

And then, further south, after a brief wait for another opening bridge, the river splits and most of the racing boats took the left turn. I took the right to the Dismal Swamp Canal, together with three other sailboats. One of them split to anchor in a little secluded bay, and the other two reached the lock with me. This was my first 'locking-through' single handed, all the other locks in the Erie Canal we passed with my Admiral. But with the help of the lockmaster, all went smooth. Not having the mast sticking out front and back sure helps, too.

It's not a huge lift, maybe 10 feet. Compared with the Erie, a piece of cake.

And then, we entered a different world. The Dismal Swamp Canal is a very old, hand dug shallow canal that goes through some gorgeous wilderness. Some of it however has a major road going only a few dozen meters parallel, so the sense of seclusion is sometimes shattered when an 18 wheeler barrels past. The two sailboats decided to stop right after the first bridge to buy provisions, and the motorboat that had shared the lock with us forged ahead, so after a few minutes I was totally by myself.

I was initially going very slow, mindful of the shallowness and the stories of debris hitting the boat and the propeller. I eventually sped up a little because I didn't want to arrive at my destination after dark.

The further I got the prettier the scenery became, and the only boat I encountered along the way was a kayak.

As the evening arrived I myself arrived at my intended destination - the visitor center. Imagine my shock of finding all these boats here:

There's not much dock space, so what these guys did is 'raft' up to one another. I couldn't join into that circus, and anchored just behind them. I went to shore by dinghy to finally dispose of three bags of garbage, and got some fresh water in my gallon jugs. The visitor center was already closed, I'll check it tomorrow maybe before I leave here.