Thursday November 5, 2015

Yesterday we we went through the Dismal Swamp. It was cloudy and misty on/off showers until magically when we left the Swamp the sun came out. I called the trawler behind us on the VHF radio and said "Now I know why they called this the Dismal Swamp". Dave and Karen, a couple on a neighboring boat both laughed and agreed.  The Dismal Swamp is some 26 miles long and looks exactly the same through the entire route except on a rare occasion the woods cleared somewhat to show a highway beside us.    We started our day with breakfast with Robert the lock master serving Parfait and fruit.  He was a interesting character and knew all the details of the swamp as well as water management of the locks.   Robert told me to be ready as 3 sailboats were waiting to enter the lock at 8:30.  When he locked them through all of the boats would go in a line to the next obstacle a bridge. He informed us that Off Duty would be the lead boat so I needed to be ready.  I finished my Parfait and went to the boat, started her up and got ready.  Robert gave me the signal and off we went about a 1/4 mile trip to the bridge.  We arrived and found Robert waving at us as we passed under the bridge...yes Robert is also the bridge tender. The Lockmaster locks the boats through, then jumps in to his truck and drives up the road to open the bridge. I thought that was interesting. Then it was a long 4 hour trip to the next bridge and then lock though again.  We arrived at the bridge to see another bridge tender open it for us and then he locked us through. After that we had to be at the Elizabeth City bridge by 5:30 or we would have to dock on the northern side.  The trouble with that is you cannot leave until they start opening the bridge at 8:30 so if you want to get an early start you had to get through the bridge which we were able to do thanks to the instructions given to us by Robert.  Planning arrival to the various bridges and locks are key to moving through the canal.  ?We arrived in Elizabeth City around 5pm.   The Swamp  experience was  very peaceful.

South Mills Bridge and Lock Entrance

Dismal Swamp View

Not so Dismal Swamp

Today we decided to  take today off and enjoy the town and plan for the next leg of the trip.
Started with a beautiful sunrise and a great breakfast on the boat.

Sunrise in Elizabeth City

Breakfas on Boat

Travel days are long and we will sometimes have trouble loading pictures and posting based on Internet access and other technology challenges.   So far it has been very busy and not much time for blogging and downloading pictures.  We have even skipped dinner twice!