Leaving The Carolinas for Lovely Virginia

Leaving The Carolinas for Lovely Virginia

Sadly we have to leave the rich cruising waters of the Carolinas where many unexplored areas tempt us to stay longer, but we are continuing  north or we’ll miss our weather window in Canada.  We did manage to navigate the Alligator Canal and river, the Albemarle Sound, Pasquotank River and the Dismal Swamp canal on our way to Norfolk, VA. Fortunately all the wild and severe weather moved off shore as we approached the open waters of the sound which provided a much calmer and more pleasant crossing than we experienced last year. The flat picture says it all. 

 bug invasion

We were greeted in Elizabeth City again by the helpful Rose Buddies who grabbed out lines and tied us to the bulkhead – the same place that used to host the “Opry Barge” which inspired Edna Ferber’s Show Boat. We were even entertained by the musicians who were playing for the Farmer’s Market underway in the park next to our boat.  What more could we ask than fresh veggies, homemade treats and beautiful weather.  We also walked over to the Museum of the Albemarle to learn useful facts about this region. For example, the largest Coast Guard Station in the US is located here – we passed the blimp hangar and factory on our way up river. The early 1940’s era flight simulator was in striking contrast to the high-tech and spacious computerized version we experienced in Columbus MS. This cozy and compact cutie trained hundreds of aviators before and after the WWII. From a museum display we learned about the “Opry Barge” and also saw a vintage prohibition still.  Additionally we discovered that the Wright brothers transited Elizabeth City regularly on their way to Kitty Hawk as they worked to develop and test their first airplane. One display even included a cannon reputed to have come from Blackbeard’s ship, Queen Anne’s Revenge. This free museum was hosting a special tribute to all things Latin in honor of Cinco de Mayo with dancing and Zumba demonstrations as well as games and activities for families among other events. All this fun was less than two blocks from our free docks in this most hospitable city. The evening/night ended with free live music on the adjacent outdoor deck – if it hadn’t been so late we were going in search of the performer’s CD.

From E City we locked through with 14 boats into the Great Dismal Swamp and left most of them at the Visitor Center while we went on to the municipal docks between the bridge and Deer Creek Lock where we spent a quiet night as the only boat in sight. Before the scheduled locking at 8:30 AM we walked over to meet the famous lock keeper at the Deep Creek Lock.  Robert has been banned from the Key West conch blowing competition since they consider him a professional.  He entertained us with the true history of the canal and coffee before the three sailing vessels, who spent the night below the bridge, joined us to lock on north for the last few miles into Norfolk. We also heard Robert on the conch as we exited the lock.  

Last year we spent almost an hour waiting for a railway bridge – one of three in this short stretch, so this year we were grateful that our wait was only about 30 minutes.  Still the transition from pristine wooded swamp to massive industrial complex is striking and abrupt. We look forward to a couple days to explore all that Norfolk has to offer.