The Dismal Swamp

We have officially left North Carolina and are now in Virginia. We left Elizabeth city's harbour of hospitality on Saturday, finally. We went up the Pasquotank River to the lock at South Mills, the beginning of the Dismal Swamp. The Dismal is a canal linking Virginia and North Carolina. It has a great history, for those interested read on. For those who aren't up for a history lesson, please skip to the next paragraph. The canal was started about the mid 1750s It was all dug by hand. As you go up you can still see the hand carved mile markers. It also served as a refuge for slaves as part of the underground railroad. What no one realized was that the canal is not level and they had a hard time keep the water at a constant height. Now there are 2 locks at either side to keep the canal at 8ft. It has been closed for a while now due to droughts, it only re-opened in October. So we really felt we should do it before it closed permanently.

The canal was beautiful, so lush and green all around. The best part of it was the smell. The honeysuckle was in bloom and the sweet smell surrounded you. We saw turtles and herons and all sorts of cool stuff. The other thing we really needed to look out for were deadheads (partially submerged logs) and over hanging trees. The deadheads can cause some real damage to your boat if you're not careful. We had our second casualty of the trip, the windex (wind instrument) got caught in the trees during a particularly difficult evasive maneuver. (the first was the dinghy seat during "white squall")

It was a wonderful trip, that is until we had to wait for the bridge master to open the bridge.We arrived at 3:20pm, it's supposed to open at 3:30pm. Well our 2 friends were in the trawlers ahead of us and noticed 2 large logs in the middle of the canal. (we really need to stay in the middle because the sides get really shallow, it's important to know for later) While they waited for the bridge to open they tried to move the logs out of the way for others. But that involved some moving around.

In the meantime Josh and I had to stay out of their way. But it's very difficult to get a boat to stand still, especially now cuz the wind picked up. (for those who don't know boats, they don't reverse straight, they pull you to one side and there's nothing you can do about it) Oh did I mention that there were about 10 boats behind us. So we really needed to stay put. Even with all his best efforts out bow started to swing around, the wind pushed it the rest of the way. We are now perpendicular to the canal, not good. (the canal is only about 50-60ft wide, we're 41ft long...see the problem) Somehow Josh discovered some hidden talent for steering in tight places and turned the boat the other 270 degrees so we were back the right way. Another challenge well done!

WARNING for Sonya, read on at our own risk. Yesterday we decided that once again the weather did not sound good, so we were going to stay at the docks in Deep Creek. (We really don't want to test mother nature) And it was a good thing we did. They we calling for gale force winds and a small crafts advisory on the Chesapeake, which is where we were going. Later in the day, we heard a tornado watch. Our fourth since we've arrived in NC. Well last night we got it good. It was poring rain, the winds were up and the lightning was right overhead. Thank goodness we weren't at an anchorage. It's not good to be the only metal stick around. Once the worst of it was over, we heard on the radio, that a tornado had struck Elizabeth City (the marina we'd just left) and had passed just beside us. So that explained the crazy storm we'd had.

Everyone is all right, it was just a little stressful. We all discovered where are boats have leaks (must look at the positive side!). We are keeping a close eye on the weather. So we might only be home in June. We miss you all lots.

Josh and Roxanne