Tonight we are tied to the dock at the Dismal Swamp Visitor Center. We have only one day of travel left on the AICW, which starts (or ends, depending on your point of view) in Norfolk.
We were happy to be secure and sheltered for the night on Saturday. The wind eased a bit over night, and we had a great sleep after two bumpy days of travel.
Sunday we went for a long walk in Elizabeth City. It was nice being back here again. This, like Oriental, was one of those cities that we fell in love with on our southbound trip in the fall. We walked for a couple miles up Ehringhaus Street, which has many shops and restaurants.
Just as we were heading out for our walk we saw two puppies on the road in front of the University where the docks we were on are hosted. We recognized these two puppies from a walk we took on Saturday night, and realized that they had escaped from the fenced in yard we had seen them in. Dar decided to herd them back home before they got lost or hurt. The owners were very happy to see us bringing their dogs back, which we found out had a habit of taking little walk-abouts like this.
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| Puppy herding |
The rains came overnight and by dawn on Monday we had already received quite a bit of rain. The winds stayed fairly calm through most of the day, but by late in the afternoon it really started to pick up. We were quite happy to be secure on the dock, even though the winds were southerly and were pushing us hard against the dock. I dropped a few extra fenders in to cushion the boat against the dock.
We ended up being pretty lucky. A bunch of severe thunderstorm warnings started popping up around the area. South of us a lot of these warnings turned into tornado watches, and then around 1530 a few tornado warnings were issued for Belhaven, which is about 80 miles south of us. Just before 1600 we heard on the news that a tornado had been spotted north of Belhaven. Luckily it was a relatively small tornado, and there were no serious injuries.
By yesterday morning the winds had eased up considerably, and by mid-afternoon the rain stopped. The skies stayed pretty dark, and there were a couple scattered showers, but for the most part the rain was done. We decided to go for a walk to the Food Lion, which is a bit more than a mile up on the main road, and pick up a few fresh groceries. It was a nice walk, and we didn't have any rain while we were out.
This morning dawned sunny but a bit cool. We headed out just past 0800 so we could make the 1100 opening of the south lock on the Dismal Swamp canal. We were only planning to go as far as the visitor center.
We ended up locking through with a sailing catamaran and another power boat, so by 1130 the three of us were through the lock and heading north in the canal. The sailboat was in the lead, followed by us, with the other boat behind us.
All was going well until about 15 minutes north of the lock when I looked up and saw branches breaking in the trees just behind the sailboat. At first I couldn't quite identify what was going on but then I realized the sailboat had caught a line with it's mast! I hadn't seen it (and apparently neither had the people in the sailboat) but there was a line strung across the canal between what looked like two power poles, one on each side of the canal. Luckily it was just a rope that had been strung across, and not a live power line. There were power company trucks on either side of the canal, but no workers, which were probably off for lunch. It looked like they were going to be running a power line across and had run the rope to pull the line across. I have no idea why it was so low.
The guy on the sailboat put it in reverse and backed up until the line slacked enough to fall to his deck. He did the only thing he could do and cut the line in half, tossing each half back toward the bank it was originating from. He called the south lock and let them know what had happened and that he had cut the line. We and the boat behind us went past the rope in the water at idle, watching carefully to make sure we didn't catch the rope in our props.
That was the end of the excitement for the day though, and by 1230 we pulled in to the visitor center dock. The sailing cat continued on northbound, but the other power boat also stopped for the night at the visitor center.
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| Dismal Swamp Visitor Center dock |
After getting the boat sorted out and getting ourselves registered we decided to go for a walk in the Dismal Swamp State Park. We spent a couple hours exploring the park, walking on the boardwalk and a mile or so of the trails.
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| A spot for the dogs to check their pee-mail... |
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| Park has a nice interpretive area, including many stuffed animals |
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| Boardwalk through the swamp |
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| There are miles of trails in the park |
We returned to the boat for supper, and then after supper we had a nice visit with the other boat that stopped here for the night. Eric and Pam aboard M/V Pier Pressure are from North Carolina, and have just started the Great Loop.
Tomorrow morning we'll continue northbound on through the canal. We'll be stopping at the Portsmouth free docks again, which is the same place we stayed in the fall. After that we'll be watching the weather, looking for good conditions to travel north up the Chesapeake Bay. So far it looks like we might have a good day to travel on Saturday, but time will tell.
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