Dismal Swamp Canal

Even though the docks at Elizabeth City were filled to capacity, the Rose Buddies weren't able to provide the wine and cheese party for the transient boaters because the city was setting up for the annual Potato Festival. We enjoyed some free french fries and looked at the booths and exhibit of classic cars.

We returned to the boat just in time for the Coast Guard demonstration. We had front row seats from the fly bridge as the helicopter hovered to drop divers into the water and retrieve them. It was very cool to watch.

Then this giant rubber ducky came along. This was the "duck race" that we had heard about. About a thousand rubber ducks were dumped into the water from the box behind the giant duck.

Two runabouts herded them together with this boom and dragged them around the harbor. It was the darndest thing, and we never did figure out what exactly was going on, but we did get a kick out of the big duck.

It was a great little town celebration in a wonderful setting, but after three nights we were ready for something new and we departed early this morning. Our destination was the Dismal Swamp Canal, the oldest operating man made waterway in the US. The canal was originally dug by hand in the late 1700's to connect the Albemarle Sound and Pasqoutank River with Chesapeake Bay. In the 1800's the canal was widened and locks were added. Although the canal is no longer used for commercial shipping, it remains part of the ICW, mainly used by sailboats and trawlers. As we entered the narrow and twisting Pasquotank River, the sky clouded over and the rain began. Pretty dismal, indeed.

The rain stopped as we entered Turners Cut, a very straight and very narrow land cut.

There are two locks, one at each end of the canal. A spring fed lake "feeds" water into the canal via a feeder cut. The locks only open at four scheduled times per day, so that the canal water doesn't get too low from running all the water out. The lockmaster told us that the last improvements to the locks were in 1930 and the canal has remained the same ever since. We locked through with 4 other boats (our first locks in many months), and then the lockmaster got into his car and drove down the road to operate this lift bridge.

The sun finally came out. The canal is very narrow and has a 6 mph speed limit, so there is no passing going on, everyone just idles along and enjoys the beautiful forest.

The Visitors Center has a free 150' long dock, so we tied up there for the night. We were joined by two sailboats, then Eschaton came and rafted off to us. We unloaded the bikes, and rode across the pedestrian bridge to the hiking trail on the other side. Here's the view of the boats rafted at the dock, taken from the bridge.

By the end of the afternoon, a total of nine boats were rafted along the dock in this beautiful setting. It's not quite as desolate as we had imagined, there's a 4 lane highway on the other side of the Visitors Center and we have good AT&T and TV coverage. Tomorrow we head for Norfolk, VA.