Dismal Swamp, NC - 7/30/11

Our day started with all six of us enjoying breakfast on the sundeck of Quest.

Huen even gave Doc his breakfast as well.

It was just a very short run from Pelican marina around the corner past Elizabeth City to the first bridge that had to be opened for us.

Pasquatank River is still wide like the Ohio river at this point as it is still a few miles before we enter the swamp.

The water is very tannic caused by the cypress, juniper and gum trees that are on shore.

As we travel further toward the swamp the water becomes much more narrower and full of duck weed.

The actual canal was hand dug in the 1700's by slave labor and is very straight.

Ricki and Cricket played with the crab. Ricki has hand fed this critter so long that it has lost its fear of humans.

After about 25 miles we came to the first of 2 locks on the swamp, South Mills.

We were followed into the lock by this sailboat with Jack and Carolyn who have been on the boat for 13 months having traveled across the Atlantic and thru the Carribean Islands. The boat was built by Jack's boat building operation and is about 22 x 8. Can't imagine what kind of guts that would take.

This was the first time Cricket has ever gone through a lock.

The water entered the lock under the up river gates and raised us about 8 feet total. The swamp is only about 6 feet deep and due to all the trees along the edges that have fallen into it, we did bump a few times. The trick was to keep a respectable distance from the boat in front of yours because they could kick up dead heads on the bottom for you to hit.

Since the locks only open a couple times a day to save water, we opted not to take the early opening and locked thru at 3 p.m. which landed us at the free dock about 4:30 p.m. at the NC Visitor Center which is actually along route 17.

We invited our sail boat friends to a dinner cookout and enjoyed their travel tales.

Tomorrow we will move on to Norfolk and Waterside Marina where we might stay for a week. This will give us the opportunity to show our guests the Outer Banks.