Monday, 10/26/15
– we got up early and went over for breakfast with Robert, the lock keeper. Too
early! The gate was not open yet.
So we explored the lovely little playground and park behind the lock. Chuck found what we thought were pecans, and we tried them. Delicious! Yup, pecans!
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| Locked gate! |
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| Playground |
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| Chuck got in a little fitness while waiting for breakfast |
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| Pecans! |
Breakfast is always a chance to chat with Robert about the
locks and the canal, and to meet our fellow cruisers. All of us on the dock are
invited and expected to come. And since we can’t leave until Robert opens the
bridge, it’s the nicest way to spend our early morning.
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| Robert, making breakfast for the cruisers |
After breakfast, we were off, through the bridge and heading
down the Dismal Swamp canal.
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| Leaving Elizabeth's Dock at Deep Creek |
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| Deep Creek Bridge |
We love the Dismal Swamp and didn’t want to rush
through it. We decided to stop mid-day at Arbuckle’s Landing, just as we did
last year. This is a small dock, barely big enough for one boat. We spent the
day doing minor boat projects. We fixed the lines attached to our fenders
(where they had gotten stuck inside), cleaned the dodger isinglass, and did
some “junk drawer”-type cleaning inside the boat, (while looking for a part). Adjacent
to the dock is a stairway up to a park road, where we went for a long walk
before dinner. A sign warned us that we might meet bears in the area. Along
the road we spotted berries (not sure what they were so we didn’t try them),
grapes, a few more pecans, and what we think were soybeans growing in a nearby
field. We tasted the beans raw, and they were actually pretty good.
Fortunately, no bears.
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| Field along the park road |
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| Soybeans? |
The next morning,
Tuesday,
10/27/2015, we were up and on our way before light, 6:19 AM. There was
light rain, and probably clouds (it was still dark!), so it didn’t get light
until about 7:15, after we crossed from VA to NC, still in the Dismal Swamp
canal. We hit a few (3) deadheads along the way, but nothing serious. A
deadhead is a submerged log which bumps the bottom of the boat and startles the
occupants. Deadheads can cause serious
damage, but fortunately these did not. Why were we up and out so early? Chuck
was hoping to see wildlife, as the first boat to go through in the morning.
Unfortunately, we didn’t see anything, since it was a dark and drizzly day.
(Drizzly is better than grizzly?)
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| Boats rafted up at the visitors center dock |
We went through the (first) South Mills locking with some of the boats that had been rafted 3 deep at the visitors center, and reached Elizabeth City by noon. We tied up to the wall. The weather was rough and the wall was NOT comfortable, but it was easy to get on and off the boat. It was a rainy day, so there was no “Rose Buddies” presentation, but we did have snacks and get a rose at the visitor’s center. We roamed the city, went for coffee at Muddy Waters, and later went to the library for fast wifi. While we were at Muddy Waters, a kind young woman overheard Chuck talking about wanting to get something at the hardware store, and offered him a ride there, and back. People in this town really go out of their way to make cruisers feel welcome and comfortable here.
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| In the lock, with s/v Smitty |
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| and s/v Disco Sandcastle |
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| Cruising down the Dismal Swamp in the fall |
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| Elizabeth City |
We again celebrated being in a new state by taking showers.
It turned out other boaters were doing the same thing! New state, shower and
put on clean clothes. I may have mentioned in previous posts, on the boats we
usually don’t have ANY extra water, and when we do it’s probably not hot. At
lot of our routines center around conserving water, so we don’t shower multiple
times a day like our land based former selves. Now we don’t usually even shower
daily, which really doesn’t matter while we are alone, moving the boats each
day. We try to cook and wash dishes using as little water as possible. I check
our water and fuel tanks each night before going to bed, and record the amounts
left in each. Dishwashing and cooking, as well as drinking (filtered) are our
main uses of water. We take sponge baths, and have only occasional showers.
We met some fascinating boaters on the wall. Among them were
Heather and Kent, on M/Y Miss Adventure, who went through the first lock
with us. They have a canal boat in France, and wrote an ebook about chartering canal
boats in Europe, (“A Practical Guide for European Canal Boat Charters” by
Heather Thomas). We bought it from Amazon, downloaded it and both read it
immediately. We are fascinated with the idea of cruising the European canals
and would love to do it. Chuck is already shopping for boats, but I insist we
have to charter one first, and make sure we like it before taking on a big
commitment like another boat.
Wednesday, 10/28/15 – Heather and Kent figured out how to
fill their water tanks by linking a large number of long hoses together to
reach the spigot in the park at Mariners Wharf in Elizabeth City. They invited
the rest of us to add our own hose to the end and fill our tanks as well. We
were happy to have full tanks again after our showering extravagance the night
before.
Thursday, 10/29/15 – We are only allowed to spend 48 hours
on the Elizabeth City free docks, so we were up early and on our way by 7 AM.
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| Leaving Elizabeth City in the early morning |
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| Early morning sky |
It was a warm, damp morning and we were in shorts and tshirts, with light
winds, with one boat ahead of us, and 5 behind us. Dark clouds in the sky had
either lifted or were behind us. The full moon was still up. Dodging pots, we
passed the blimp factory going down the Pasquotank River. As we got to the end
of the Pasquotank, the wind picked up to 15 kts for our 15.8 mile crossing of
the Albemarle Sound. There were a lot of crab pots and the water was fairly
shallow. We sailed with our main, since the jib was still inside, in the dining
room rehab, waiting to be fixed in Oriental. We approached the Alligator River
with 1 power boat and 2 sailboats (from the VA cut, where the hard core sailors
go, instead of the Dismal Swamp) ahead of us, and 7 sailboats behind. It was a
beautiful day, sunny, with the dark clouds all gone now.
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| Alligator River Swing Bridge |
After we went through
the Alligator River Swing Bridge, we saw a familiar sailboat far behind, with
something large and dark up on the mast. Turned out it was the captain, who is
NOT a small person, going up the mast to remove anything he could, so they
would fit under the 65 ft bridges with the water still a little higher than
usual from the recent flooding with Hurricane Joachin. We watched them go
through the first and then the second of the 65 ft bridges with no apparent
room to spare. Each time they made it! We cheered them on, over the radio.
At 6:06 PM we anchored at the Pungo River anchorage north, a
quiet and very scenic spot, where we enjoyed a beautiful sunset. Our friend
John Miller, on s/v Dulcinea told us last year this was one of his favorite
anchorages. Now we see why.
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| Sunset at the Pungo River anchorage |
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| Sunset at the Pungo River anchorage, about 20 minutes later |
Friday, 10/30/15
– a lay day at the Pungo River anchorage north, we were waiting for our boat
insurance company to confirm that we’d be able to proceed south (past “Cape
Hatteras”, which is about the same latitude as Belhaven) before November 15.
We called our friends George and Shelby in Belhaven to let
them know we’d be there the next day. Unfortunately, they were occupied with
weekend guests, so we wouldn’t get a chance to see them. Maybe in the spring.
We spent the day doing paperwork, baking bread, cleaning,
killing flies and watching a DVD. Lucky for us, it was beautiful weather, with another
beautiful sunset.
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| One more sunset at Pungo River Anchorage |
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| I love that this cloud looks like a bird in flight |
Just before the end of the work day/work week, we received insurance permission to proceed. Yay!!
P.S. Did you know that you can double click on any picture to see a larger view of it?
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