Great Dismal Swamp and Norfolk

As of today, Monday May 9, I am home in Ohio. Flew from Norfolk yesterday afternoon. Helped Janet in her class all day. Great to be home, but let's see the cool happenings on Breaking Away since my posting last Wednesday.

This is the Great Dismal Swamp Canal, connecting Elizabeth City with Norfolk. Isn't it gorgeous? This swampland has been a source of lumber for 400 years, and George Washington set out to drain sections for lumber early in his career. Congress approved a canal connecting the waterways of Albemarle Sound in NC with the Chesapeake Bay in 1793. It was completed in 1805, and is the oldest operating canal system in the country.

It gets the name "dismal" because that was the word the early settlers used for "swamp". The two terms were synonymous, but somehow both became the name.

There are two locks, near each end of the swamp, to raise boats from sea level to the higher level in the wetlands. We left Elizabeth City at 1:30 pm, when the drawbridge I showed in my last posting opened for us. We started so late because we were waiting for a special-order zinc anode fitting for the generator to come in. While waiting, we washed the entire boat, did laundry, and got our first pump out, all firsts since this segment began in Charleston. The salty residue on the rails had gotten pretty disgusting.

When the shipment came in (and we determined the zinc was the wrong one), we took off as quickly as we could to try to reach the lock, 20 miles north, for its last opening of the day at 3:30. They open both sets of locks only four times each day, so as to not drain the swamp. Anyway, we had to travel much faster than usual - about 10 mph - to make it to the lock, and it was actually quite a kick "weaving" the sharp turns of the beautiful Pasquotank River, lined with its tall trees. Along the way we spotted a beaver swimming near the shore.

We arrived at exactly 3:28, needing the extra two minutes to switch our fenders from starboard to port. Then the gates opened, and George got to experience his first lock. It was number 105 for me! As has so often happened on this trip in the locks, we were the only boat there.

Once through the lock, we slowed WAY down and soaked up the beauty of this old canal, with the incredible reflections in the glassy water. We saw no other boats until we reached our destination, the Great Dismal Swamp Welcome Center (which was the ONLY place to stop for the night along the entire 30-mile canal).

The canal was hand dug by slaves, in horrible conditions of hot, humid, wet, buggy misery. We did learn that since there were so many black work communities there, it became a hide-out for runaway slaves and the Underground Railroad.

When we arrived at the Welcome Center, where we knew there was free dockage space for three boats, we found five large sailboats. The extra two were tied to the ones next to the dock. We were immediately welcomed to tie to the loner, a common practice for Loopers who find scarce dockage (called "rafting"). Except that I had never done it before!

Here's what it looked like when Breaking Away was rafted to a sailboat. As you can see, you must walk across your neighbor's boat to get to the dock, which means you make friends awfully quickly. The five boats already there had become best buddies, and it was 5 o'clock, so we immediately decided it was Happy Hour. Which boat was best suited for a big party?

Breaking Away was the obvious choice! They took their happy hours seriously, as we salivated as the dips and nuts and crackers made their way across the sailboat and onto our flybridge. I loved the whole thing, getting to have fun on my floating home, learning about others' cuising adventures and plans.

Just as Happy Hour was beginning, a 53-ft luxury trawler arrived from the other direction (he had made through the 3:30 lock opening 17 miles north). He also HAD to tie up to one of us, and it was easiest for a flat-sided trawler to tie to another flat-sided trawler, so I was suddenly getting sandwiched in. I was a rafter AND a raftee! Our new friends soon joined the party, and we had 12 up top my boat.

The next morning, all five sailboats left early, so we trawlers each got out own dock space. George and I toured the museum, then went on a 20-mile ride. On the way back, we stopped at a pick-your-own strawberry patch, and George selected us a bag full. YUM!

We headed north as three other boats passed the dock, and we gently cruised the 17 miles toward the next lock. Along the way, we passed a sign saying "Welcome to Virginia." Once through the lock, we soon entered the Elizabeth River, which flows north a few miles to Norfolk. We settled in to a marina where the canal meets the river, got fuel, had a fabulous dinner at the fancy restaurant there, and retired. What was cool about this restaurant was that the marina gave us $1 off the charge for every $2 spent. In other words, everything at the restaurant was half price! Well, we ordered all kinds of good stuff, including decadent chocolate desserts, and we got the bill up to where the marina was completely free!!!!

The next morning, Saturday, we followed this tug and barge into industrial, ship-building, Naval-base Norfolk/Portsmouth/Hampton Roads. We passed numerous huge naval ships, including the aircraft carrier Dwight Eisenhower. It was such a contrast a few miles back from the quiet idyllic Dismal Swamp Canal.

Here's a picture of a ship building yard. There were so many in this area. Most naval ships are built in the yards of Hampton Roads.

We docked in a small marina next to the waterfront section of Norfolk, for six hours to be tourists. This odd sculpture was nearby, and it was titled "The Tourists". You can see Breaking Away in the background.

George and I decided to visit the Naval Museum, which had the USS Wisconsin battleship. It was a fabulous tour, and just amazing to see how massive it is. The guide told so many interesting stories and facts. It's three football fields long (887 ft), and 108 ft wide. It carried 2700 sailors during WWII. It was most recently used in the Gulf War (Desert Storm).

Look at those six imposing 16-inch cannons! They shot 1900-lb bombs up to 26 miles.

After seeing the museum and battleship, we walked to Douglas MacArthur's memorial and burial site. They didn't make any bones about his firing by President Truman during the Korean War, except they slanted it in his favor as wanting to win the war at all costs instead of letting the peace talks take any precedent.

When our 6-hour marina stay ended at 4 pm, we had to cruise 16 miles to our marina where the boat will be stored until Janet and I return on June 6. After only one mile, we reached the end of the Intracoastal Waterway...or the beginning. It was Mile 0, with Mile 1065 in Miami Beach.

We continued out the Elizabeth River to where the James River empties into the base of the Chesapeake Bay, and then east almost to the ocean. Along the way, we passed many more Naval bases, including this one where the new aircraft carrier, the George H. W. Bush, is docked. It's pretty darn large too, isn't it?

Yesterday morning, another Naval base next to our marina played the National Anthem at 8 am, and we snapped to and cleaned up the boat. Breaking Away had made it back to the Chesapeake Bay, having traveled 6500 miles in one year and three days! Kent Narrows, where I began, is 200 miles farther north. Looking forward to finishing the Great Loop with Janet, seeing the wonders of the Chesapeake along the way, including Washington, D.C.

One Year Anniversary on the Great Loop!

One year ago today Bruce Perry and I departed from Kent Narrows in the Chesapeake Bay. What a year it's been! So many adventures on the waterways, so many lasting memories, yet one agonizing tragedy with the loss of Rich Hess. Still, I am thankful for the blessings of so many wonderful changes in my life.

George and I left Beaufort last Monday morning, and cruised straight north for 60 miles to an anchorage by ourselves. It was a beautiful day, but uneventful.

EXCEPT for when we were boarded by the Coast Guard. YIKES! I remembered us passing a Coast Guard base along the narrow waterway and seeing no activity at all. They must have decided it was time to launch their inflatable and inspect the only boat that passed them in hours. They zoomed up behind me with their lights flashing. I put it in idle while they came alongside and three of them boarded me, leaving three others in their boat (they needed six for this?). They said George could keep driving while they did their inspection. I was so worried that they'd find some infraction or two, but NO! I complied with every request! I had everything the "book" called for, other than a sticker saying that we could not throw trash into the water. They gave me one, and now it's all stickered up! The fire extinguishers were charged, the holding tank discharge valve was closed, I had the throwable life preserver ready to throw, etc. Whew!

Our route took us inland from the ocean, and across wide rivers that seemed like lakes. As we had a relaxing happy hour, we viewed this "redneck compound" off to the east of us. Confederate flag flying proudly, junk everywhere. I imagined he was watching us thinking we were tree huggers since we took off in the kayaks.

See? We enjoyed paddling into a natural creek. See how far behind us the Breaking Away is? (That other boat joined our anchorage while we were kayaking.)

That was the night that was so frustrating because we were remote from civilization (redneck country??) such that cell phones didn't work, and neither did the computer. If I knew the cell phones would not work, it wouldn't be so bad; I could just do something else. But my texts to Janet went through the first few times after I arrived, and therefore I kept hoping they would continue to do so. Therefore, I kept hitting "resend" for hours, and eventually one would send, which only gave me hope that one more would send. I'd receive one from Janet, and try to respond and keep hitting resend for an hour. But then another would come in from Janet, so I'd have to change my response I'd been trying to send. Which spawned another hour of hitting resend and watching the screen endlessly. The evils of technology, much as I depend on it!! What would I have done this year if I couldn't communicate with loved ones?

The next morning I continued to have the texting issues, but after departing the anchorage and moving about two miles, I could call Janet and feel right again. What a relief that was to explain what had been going on at my end. She knew, of course.

We stopped briefly at the town of Belhaven to mail postcards and see the charm of the North Carolinians. Attractive homes, friendly neighbors.

The day continued again uneventfully. We headed northeast through a 22-mile cut canal connecting the Pungo River with the Alligator River. We had planned to stay the night in the Alligator River just before crossing the "dreaded" Albemarle Sound, but the weather forecast caused us to want to cross the Sound before thunderstorms hit the next day. So, it became a 12-hour day, 95 miles total and 90 nonstop, our second longest of the entire trip.

As we were nearing the end of the endurance cruise, after we crossed the Sound (potentially treacherous due to its shallow depth and wide expanses for nasty wind waves to develop), we passed this blimp-making factory. During the war the Navy built blimps to help protect our Atlantic shipping, and they have continued to build peacetime blimps here to this day. Notice the huge hanger on the left.

It was a relief to finally dock here in Elizabeth City. It's a free wharf...and famous. I suggest you read this website about the Rose Buddies -- http://www.elizcity.com/rose/
After reading about the Rose Buddies in my Great Loop books, I had been looking forward to being here. Sure enough, people ran over to help us tie up, and started welcoming us and telling us about all the things to do.

Here's the sign they have right here at the wharf.

Here it is in the daylight, with the rose bushes transplanted here from the original Rose Buddy's home after he passed away.

George and I went out looking for a greasy spoon to have a good ole Southern breakfast. We found it here, where the locals meet. We both had eggs and grits and a sausage gravy biscuit. On the menu was "scrambled eggs with pork brains." Ugh!

After breakfast we tried to rent a car to drive out to Kitty Hawk, but the only rental agency had no cars. So we went to the Albemarle Museum, did shopping, computer work, boat maintenance, reading, and hanging around talking to other boaters. The predicted thunderstorm came with a vengeance...for 5 minutes.

The shoe is on the other foot!!! I needed to walk across the draw bridge to buy a part for my boat engine, and I had to wait for a damn boat to cross under. Who do those boaters think they are anyway, to make everyone wait for them?

To celebrate the 1-year anniversary of the trip, we had a happy Happy Hour and then went to a local wine tasting event down the street. All California wines. Pretty tipsy by the time we walked back (at least I was). Couldn't spell a dang word chatting with Janet. She understood!

Wild horses of Shackleford Bank!

We were so excited to see these, four of about 140 wild horses on this barrier island, the smallest and most southern of the Outer Banks of North Carolina. Many years ago I'd heard or read about these wild herds that roam some of the islands, descendents of horses left by Spanish explorers (from 1526) or who swam to shore when Spanish Galleons sank. They don't know exactly their origins, but it's still cool to know they've been wild and have survived for centuries.

George and I took the dinghy early this morning out to this 9-mile-long island about 6 miles south of Beaufort, NC (not to be confused with Beaufort, SC). We walked to and fro, here and there, hoping for a sighting. Janet told me I should just whistle and they'd come. hahaha Well, pretty soon, there they were!! Four of them, not moving. We got closer and closer and still they didn't move. We took lots of pictures, and finally decided we'd had our luck and we'd walk back to the dinghy. Once there, we decided to return for photos of us with the horses in the background. Lucky we did, because we were in for a treat!! Read about it further on when you see the other horse pictures.

Sunsets are always a highlight of this boat trip. Tonight (Sunday, May 1) we have left the marina and anchored out where those sailboats are. We are at this very moment watching another similar sunset. I'll never tire of them.

This photo takes us back to the evening of my last blog posting. We had arrived in North Myrtle Beach and were docked directly across from the patrons at a fancy restaurant, a few feet away. George and I had our happy hour up there on the back of the flybridge, within sniffing distance of their dinners. They were looking right at us, and us at them. Was just sorta funny.

I took this picture the next morning after our ride into Myrtle Beach. The area reminded me of Naples, FL, with resort high rise one after the other along a sandy wide beach. The commercial part reminded me of Branson, MO, with all the pizzazz and show theaters. It happened that our marina was right at an entertainment/restaurant/shopping complex with 115 vendors, so there were lots of people around there and it was the Happenin Place.

After our bike ride we departed and shortly crossed into NC. The waterway down here is very close to the ocean, just inside the barrier islands. We often crossed inlets from the sea and could see the breakers out there. In some areas it was solid waterfront homes with their long 1000-ft piers stretching out to deep water. In other areas it was plain marshland. The day was cooler, but the winds were still strong.

We traveled 45 miles to an anchorage near Southport, which is close to Cape Fear. 16 other boaters must have also read that it was a good anchorage in wind, and we had lots of company. We had been used to being all by ourselves in anchorages, but not that night.

The next day we went 47 miles to Surf City, where it's two girls for every boy! After anchoring all by ourselves in an open marshy area, this wake boarder sped by and gave us a show. It was the first skier I'd seen since the Trent-Severn Canal in Canada last July. While there, we got to see LOTS of boaters going by since it was the channel out to sea.

We took a dinghy ride over to the barrier island and then walked across it to see the ocean. There were a few people out sunning themselves. The peninsula was lined with homes, but they were more "affordable" than many areas we've seen from the waterway. The fellow sunbathing on the dock next to where we beached the dinghy had his "two girls" with him to live up to Surf City's motto.

Early the next morning, yesterday (Saturday), we left early and within 3 miles came to a low bridge. I had to idle for about 11 minutes until its scheduled opening at 8 am. Then we were off on another long, 64-mi day of cruising until we reached Beaufort, where we are right now. Along the way we had to go through a Marine base, where they routinely conduct firing practice and shut down the entire Intracoastal Waterway for hours. We were lucky they did not have war games scheduled yesterday, but there were several junk tanks and other old military stuff that looked like their targets. Like the one in this picture.

Another sighting yesterday was this - kids in the water with their doggie paddling after them. The waterway continued to be lined with homes with long docks stretching to deep water (although at low tide the docks were in mud). Other sections were just empty barrier islands with frequent openings to the sea.

Once we arrived at our marina in Beaufort and did a load of laundry, we ate dinner at the marina's Tiki Bar (with $1 beer!!!). Then we walked into the downtown where they just so happened were having their annual Wine and Food Weekend. The biggest event of the evening was a huge beer and wine BBQ ($60/person). With loud live music to enjoy while we toured the visitor center next door. We learned that Beaufort has retained its unique charm because the ocean was its only link to the outside world, until a train service made it here in 1907, and the first roads from the interior of the state didn't arrive until 1926! Isn't that something?

We also learned that the two biggest stories for Beaufort are the wild horses and Blackbeard the pirate, who hung out here. So, as I said before, we went to look for the horses early this morning. This is where we landed the dinghy, on a wide sandy beach of Shackleford Banks. We headed inland in our search...

...and we found some! As I mentioned earlier, we saw four of them. Took pictures (they never moved), and left. Then we decided to go back to get this picture, with me in the foreground. To our great delight, when we returned.......

...we saw a foal nursing! Where was it when we were here a few minutes earlier?? We didn't know, but we loved watching the baby with its mommy.

The foal eventually stopped nursing and then it lay down, after posing for the picture I put on Facebook this morning.

We finally departed Shackleford Banks and puttered around the harbor area, and then back to Breaking Away. Soon we walked back into town for some lunch and more touring of the historic district.

One of the first homes we saw was this one dated 1786. A woman walking up the street said it was her house, and would we like to come in and see some of the antiquities. Yes we would! So in we went and she pointed out the mantle, the floor, and the stairway, all from 1786. She and her daughter and husband were soon intrigued by MY story of the Great Loop adventure.

We had a great time talking, and here are the mom and daughter in front of the old mantle. These chance meetings and visits are one of the highlights of this kind of trip, and also when I rode my bike across the country.

We saw some more old homes on our way to the Royal James Cafe, where they claimed to have the best burgers in Beaufort. It didn't really live up to its claim. It was an old bar, really, with pool tables on top of floors worn to the floorboard from 60 yrs of play. Its highlights for me were these bar stools, and its name; Royal James was the name of Blackbeard's ship that plundered the coasts in the early 1700s. Apparently Blackbeard was welcomed here to hang out and sell his booty, because the citizens were eager for a good deal on his stolen wares. Because of all the various waterways along the Georgia, SC and NC coasts, this entire coastline was where pirates could hide out.

This is an American flag from just after the Revolution. Notice the way the stars are arranged...in rows instead of the circle we normally see for the original 13 states. The sign said that in those early days of our republic, there was no national guideline for how to arrange the stars, and whoever in Beaufort made this flag, did it his or her own way. In rows!

Here's just one more of many many historic homes in town, each with a sign noting the original family and the year it was built. This one is on Front Street, which is the waterfront. We noticed several boats with the Great Loop flag flying, so we went down and had a nice visit. One of the boats was exacly like my Mainship, so that added to the conversation. All five of these Looper boats were traveling together, which is pretty common. I traveled with other Loopers only for a few days on the Illinois River.

This is a wild story! We heard yesterday at the Tiki Bar here at the marina that this afternoon they'd be having a big pig roast. We decided to go. (First we departed our slip and anchored out here a few yards away, and dinghied in for the feast.) Well, here is George getting his meat and fixins -- collards, corn, string bean casserole, fried chicken, and fish. (We didn't take the fish, and I didn't take the chicken either. The pork looked too good.) Anyway, it was all you can eat, it was fabulous, and they even had the $1 beers. A real May Day feast and a half.

So then I went to the bar to pay the bill. I had no idea what it would cost since we never asked. She punched in stuf on the computer screen for about 20 seconds, and then said it would be $5. What? I knew the beers were $1, and that was $5, so I reminded her I wanted to pay for the meals too. SHE SAID THEY WERE FREE!!

Turns out they wanted us to be "guinea pigs" (har har - "pigs") for their new big roaster, in preparation for a huge wedding here next weekend. So they decided to do up this whole meal for free to test out their equipment!! I was dumbfounded. First thing I did was go back to the table and tell George it was $30, and that he owed me $15. But when I told him (and Janet), we couldn't believe what we'd run into. And it was so yummy. Another highlight of this great adventure.