Heading to Norfolk/Portsmouth

First Light on the Alligator River

Sunrise on the Alligator River

       May 4, 2015


We leave our dock early to get under the bridge before the restricted bridge opening hours go into effect and head down the Pasquotank River.  It is as smooth as glass with the trees, sky, and sun reflecting in the water.  Around marker 19, we discover a huge log with long branches in the river. Dave reports it to the Coast Guard who then sends out a warning to all navigators to be watchful for the log.  Our destination for today is the Dismal Swamp Canal Welcome Center.  This is the spot during the Civil War where the Confederate soldiers prevented the Yankees from blowing up the locks and were thus, able to keep the canal open.

South Mills Lock
Dismal Swamp

We arrive at the South Mills Lock at 9:30 am, but the opening isn't until 11:00 so we tie up to the dolphins in front of the lock to wait.  The lock keeper opens the lock on time and we enter with three other boats.  As soon as we are locked through, we must wait for the lock keeper to leave the lock to open the bridge for us.  We then continue on to the Welcome Center.  Along our way Dave sees a 2 1/2 ft. black snack acting very aggressively. Instead of retreating from us as we head upstream, the snake heads right for "At Last" as if he is planning to take control of the boat. Dave loses sight of him as the boat passes.

"At Last" at the Welcome Center Dock
Dismal Swamp

At the Dismal Swamp Museum

We continue to the Visitors' Center and arrive by 1:00 pm where we discover that "Almost Perfect", a 42 ft. Hatteras that had been in Elizabeth City with us, is also tied to the dock.  We spend the afternoon visiting with other boaters, exploring the museum, and talking to the park rangers.  Dave describes our experience with the snake to one of the rangers who indicates that she has never heard of a snake behaving in this manner. The Welcome Center is much less crowded than it was in the fall and only one sailboat rafts to us at about 5:00 pm since all the dock space is now taken.  In the fall there were about 18 boats tied to the dock and rafted out into the canal.  Our friends, Carole and Tom, who live in Chesapeake City, visit for a few hours and we enjoy hors-d'oeuvres and libations while catching up and reminiscing about old times. It's been another fabulous day!

May 5, 2015  
     

Traveling in the Dismal Swamp Canal

It's the Cinco de Mayo and we head along the swamp at about 7:15 am.  It is another beautiful day as we head to the Deep Creek Lock Bridge.  We arrive around 9:45 am and the opening is at 11:00 am.

We tie up to the wall to wait and "Calculation", our rafting partner from last night, rafts next to us again to wait for the lock's opening.

Deep Creek Lock
Dismal Swamp

The lock keeper, Robert, loads us into the lock at 11:00 am. Robert is very friendly and efficient and is a wealth of knowledge concerning the area. He gives us many suggestions regarding museums and places of interest that we should see as we head to the Norfolk/Portsmouth, VA. area.  Based on Robert's advice, we decide to head to the basin in Portsmouth, VA for the night.  We are planning to meet our friends, Betsy and Dave, who are at an AGLCA (American Great Loopers Cruising Association)  conference in Norfolk, but Robert has assured us we can take the ferry across the Elizabeth River to get to their hotel in Norfolk. After leaving the lock, we continue north towards Norfolk.   As we head towards the Gilmerton Bridge, we find ourselves standing off to the southeast side of the channel in order to allow "Miss Cate" an extremely large pusher tug and barge to come through the bridge opening.  It is so large it looks as if it will scrape each side of the bridge as it goes through. It does not, of course and we hear the bridge operator congratulate the captain of "Miss Cate" for his skill.  After its passage, Dave successfully navigates under the bridge, but we are stopped again at Mile 3.6 when the Western Railroad Bridge is closed (it is usually opened).  We wait until the train passes and the RR bridge to open and then we continue towards Portsmouth. Following Robert's suggestion, we dock at the wall in the High Street Landing basin in Portsmouth. The ferry to take us to Norfolk is nearby.   We organize the boat and then head to the Elizabeth River Ferry for our short ride to Norfolk.  We spend a few hours with Dave and Betsy and catch up on both our summer cruising plans.  They plan to leave from Solomon Island, MD on May 18th to begin their looping adventure.  We will be behind them by a few weeks as we are stopping at Maryland Yacht Club for about 10 days.  Hopefully, we will catch up somewhere along the route.  We take the 5:30 ferry back to our boat because we have decided to go to the Commodore Theater which was one of Robert's suggestions.  This theater is a restored movie theater.  It was built in 1945 in the Art Deco style.  It's main auditorium is a dining room and dinner is served during the movie.  When we arrive, we choose our seats.  We place our orders by calling the kitchen from the phone on our table.  It is really quite the experience.  The theater shows first-run movies and tonight we see the latest Avengers movie.  Did I mention the Dolby sound system is amazing and the screen is huge, and that the manager who opened the theater was wearing a 38 pistol on his belt?            

At the Table at the Commodore Theater

Commodore Theater's Viewing Screen