Voyage 2011-2012: Chapter 5

24 May 2012, Towards the Dismal Swamp Canal, 36 44.442 N/ 076 20.694 W

We left the Pelican at 0945 yesterday and passed through the Elizabeth City bascule bridge at 0955. Weather continues to be unstable and radar shows small thunder squalls everywhere. Our immediate destination was Goat Island which was less than two hours away. At this vantage, we would easily make the South Mills lock at the 0830 today. The trip to Goat was uneventful other than the squalls were building all around us. Hook was down at 1120. It was hot, humid and there was nothing to do around the island. So we partook in our new favorite pastime.

Today, we left Goat at 0600 and headed for the South Mills lock, the beginning of the Dismal Swamp Canal (DSC). Though the weather is still unstable, we are not seeing the squalls that we have been experiencing the last two days. The lock doors opened at 0835 which was about 5 minutes late. There was not much hovering room around the lock so it was a bit crowded with Jule III and the three other boats waiting. Once open, Frank directed all boats to the port wall where he took our lines. Frank was Frank today; quiet, thorough, and professional. He handled the 9 foot rise with little surge so the locking was quite comfortable.

We left Frank's lock at 0910 and started the transit of the canal. The canal is especially beautiful in the Spring with all of the 'new green'. We traveled around 4.5 kts to time our arrive at Deep Creek bridge for the final opening of the day. We followed the three rules of thumb for the transit: move slowly, keep distance from the boat in front of you, and watch out for tree overhangs. How embarassing would that be to get stuck in a tree?! We arrived at the bridge around 1530 just in time for the bridge opening.

We wanted to stay on this side of the bridge and visit the local shopping center and Mexican restaurant. One boat left the bulkhead where we would tie up but one boat remained. We were experiencing a bit of a following current and wind and we did not want to bang into the boat in front of us. The owner of that boat helped us tie up but he tugged a bit too hard and the bow went into the concrete wall. Ouch! Not too bad but it will need to be fixed this summer. We shopped at the Food Lion, grabbed a drink at Hardee's and waited for the restaurant to open. Now for our favorite new pastime for an hour or so then the restaurant.

25 May 2012, Now to Norfolk, 36 50.712 N/ 076 18.09 W

Today, we called Robert at the Deep Creek lock to let him know we were there. The boats entering the canal have priority so we had to wait for three boats to pass through Deep Creek. Around 0910, Robert gave us the go-ahead to enter the system; first the bridge and then the lock. Locking through Deep Creek is a pleasure and experience. Robert is professional and entertaining all at the same time. He will often play a tune on one of his many conch shells while we are slowly being lowered the 9 feet back to sea level. Sadly, his dog, U-Turn, has been exiled to home as the canal administrator no longer allows dogs on Canal property. Boo mean administrator.

The Gilmerton bridge continues to be a problem. For decades, it was an 'on-demand' bridge outside of rush hour restrictions. Now it is an hourly opening bridge. Not sure why but is a pain! We had to wait nearly an hour to pass and only made it by minutes before Norfolk Southern Railroad Bridge #7 closed for 30 minutes. We are heading for Hospital Point to anchor and wait out weather which is coming in the coming days. There are lots of interesting sights along the way.

We stayed on the anchor for 5 days waiting on weather. It has been a very stormy month and the last days have been no exception. However, we kept busy. We spent one morning watching a Carnival cruise ship dock in Norfolk and practice the life boat drills. Then we took a nap followed by a dinghy ride to Norfolk where we had lunch and explored the malls. We also went to Hooters for popcorn shrimp. Bob could not stand it any longer so he cleaned the waterline of the boat. It was really nasty. We received an invite from the Ocean Cruising Club (OCC) port officers to dinghy over and say hi. We did and had a nice time chatting.

On the last day, we dingy-ed to Norfolk and then took the paddle wheel ferry to Portsmouth; a first time for us. The Portsmouth waterfront area is quite neat. Unfortunately, we visited on Memorial Day where many stores were not open. Still we found a very nice restaurant (Roger Brown's) where we shared a big jalopeno burger (really, really bueno). Again it was so hot that walking was not comfortable so we hopped back on the ferry and returned to the boat. Bob really liked the ferry.