We left the Pelican Marina in Elizabeth City at 6:30 am in order to get through the Highway 158 bridge before their limited, rush hour schedule began at 7:00am. We were in a "no wake zone" for the whole trip today, which meant that we were going to average no more than 5 mph. Our planned trip for today was only 24.1 miles, which we would normally cover in about 3 hours, but as you will see, we took about 6 hours to cover that distance.
A few miles later we were treated to a very nice sunrise over the eastern shore of the Pasquotank River. This was the first of many great sights for today.
I will warn you now that today's post will be kind of like a comic book with lots of pictures and little text....
We saw several bald eagles today, including this one that we sort of herded or followed for several miles. We would get close, and then he would fly up river several hundred yards, and on and on... Majestic! That word is truly fitting for these wonderful birds.
We passed a number of osprey nests and thought that we could see several with chicks with just the top of their head sticking up. This osprey (left) was carrying a fairly large stick. Just a little nest repair on the fly, so to speak.
After going about 15 miles up the Pasquotank River, we entered a mile long cut that would take us to the start of the Dismal Swamp. For the remainder of today's cruise it was a game of follow the leader with some passing in this narrow channel. There were 4 sailboats that left Elizabeth City after we did, and three of them ended up passing us. How embarrassing! Not really because we were going extra slow so that we would not be too early for an 11:00 am lock and related bridge opening.
The Admiral took this picture just for the record, but we had done our homework before this part of the trip. The Dismal Swamp Canal is the western branch of the Atlantic Intra Coastal Waterway in northern North Carolina and southern Virginia. The canal was started in the 1780s, and even George Washington was a stock holder. There were actually two separate companies with one working northward in North Carolina and one working southward in Virginia. The canal was completed in the early part of the 19th century after a number of starts/stops, and it was dug using slave labor. The original swamp was over 2 million acres, but the present swamp is only about a tenth that size.
Just the original canal itself was enough to drain some of the swamp and lower water tables, but local land owners also began to dig other canals and drainage ditches to expand their farms.
After 5 miles, we passed though the South Mills Lock and the Sough Mills bascule bridge. It is a tight fit since as you exit the lock there is barely enough room (i.e. width) to pass traffic headed the opposite direction before you have to pass through this bridge. There were 4 other boats in the lock, and we tried to look like experienced veterans since for two of the boats it was their first ever lock. The whole lock-bridge passage
took almost one hour partly since there was only one person to help each boat tie up, open/close gates of the lock and raise/lower the water level. The eastern branch of the Intra Coastal is know known as the Albemarle-Chesapeake Canal. It opened in 1857 and has been continually updated to modern standards with a 12 foot minimum depth. Since it opened, it has taken all of the commercial and most of the pleasure boat traffic away from the Great Dismal Swamp Canal. With its much shallower depth, the Dismal is now primarily used by pleasure craft to view the natural beauty.
While we were waiting to enter the lock, The Admiral took this picture of a curious Canada Goose (above) and of a turtle sunning itself on a tree branch in the water (right).
Five miles after the lock/bridge we came to the Dismal Swamp Visitor's Center and Nature Center. The Visitor's Center bills itself as unique in that it serves both highway traffic and boat traffic on the Great Dismal Swamp Canal. The photo on the left is of Lucky Us at the dock at the Visitor's Center, which is just out of view on the right. I was standing on the pedestrian swing bridge that allows visitors to cross the canal to get to the Nature Center that has nice interpretive displays and 20+ miles of trails.
The Visitor's Center sells these neat t-shits, but I do not think that the lady was too impressed when I asked if they offered a guarantee...
After all, we have still have 20 more miles to go before we exit this canal.
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