Saturday-Sunday May 28-29: Great Dismal Swamp

     Saturday morning, just as we were about to get underway, a crab fisherman (crabber? cabman?) made straight for us in his little open boat.  He held up a cigarette.  Did we have a light???  Dan grinned and said we could probably accommodate him.  He went below and returned with some wooden matches we keep handy.  The man couldn’t wait to light his cigarette, he took one of the matches and struck it several times on our teak cap rail and finally got his light.  After one long, deep drag, he looked up at us.  “You want some crabs?”  

     Bucket of crabs on board, we set off for the Albemarle Sound.  Dan made an apologetic face to me and said since we didn’t have ice or a fridge, we should probably deal with the crabs sooner rather than later.  Since he was at the helm, he meant I should deal with them.  (Or he would, if I took the helm.)  I set a pot on to boil to steam them, and then sat down in the cockpit to pick them when they were cooked.  I have a HUGE appreciation for people who have done this for a living.  What a mess!  Fortunately, cockpits are easily cleaned, and Dan set up the shower bag for me to wash up with.  For seven matches we got eight or nine blue crabs, and out of them, we had plenty for a nice crabmeat salad for lunch.  It doesn’t get much fresher than that.

     Another beautiful day as we moved up the Pasquotank River to Elizabeth City, which marks this end of the Great Dismal Swamp route.  We debated stopping at the free docks there, but decided to press on.  As we approached the area, Artemis came up behind and Laura conferred on the radio with Dan about our plans.  She was considering stopping at the docks for a night or two.  We let her know we planned to move as far as we could.  The first lock of the Dismal Swamp Canal has specific opening times, and we didn’t know if we could make the last one at 3:30, but there was a place to anchor just before it, and that was our goal if the timing didn’t work out for us.  Laura took one look at the Elizabeth City free docks and decided the SE exposure didn’t seem like a good idea.  “I’m going to follow you.”  She said.  

Artemis

     We made the 3:30 lock opening with fifteen minutes to spare.  The Dismal Swamp Canal is beautiful in the fall, and is gorgeous in the spring.  Oak, maple, and magnolia trees are in full bloom, as well as what other trees line this still, tea-colored water.  There is a speed limit here, and because of the locks on either end, there are no joy riders in their pontoon boats or jet skis.  We could hear birds singing and see turtles sunning on the banks.  Now our goal was the Welcome Center some five miles away, where cruisers tie up and raft up at the free docks there.  We’d been there in the fall and met some great people as we all lounged in the building on the couches there, taking advantage of the free wifi.

Line handling in the lock.

See how still the water is in the canal!

     Well, as we approached the Center we could see there were already boats rafted three deep in two spots. We could have filled in the third spot but construction on the septic system at the Welcome Center itself was making the air quite odiferous.  Dan got on the radio to Laura “We’re moving on.”  She decided to stay with us.

     Ten miles further along the canal we came to a very small dock just adjacent to the feeder canal that led to Lake Drummond.  We had just passed over the border into Virginia and were nearly at the end of the Dismal Swamp canal, as well as twenty miles from the end of the Atlantic ICW.  We had traveled over 61 miles today.

     It was after five and we were all tired.  We tied to the dock and Laura rafted Artemis against us.  We invited her over to share our shrimp dinner and she gladly came over, supplying the hors d’oeuvres of hummus, crackers, and fresh cherries.  It’s always fun to have company for dinner and to hear of other people’s lives and adventures.  We spent a great evening sharing food and stories, until dusk fell and the mosquitoes drove us back to our own cabins.  

     Laura left early the next morning, needing to get on to Norfolk.  Dan and I decided to launch the dinghy and explore the feeder canal to Lake Drummond.  At the end of the two mile canal is a small park with a self-operating motorized trolley that portages your dinghy from canal to lake.  The lake itself is huge.  It’s part of the Dismal Swamp and seems pretty remote, although there are access roads, but we were the only boat on the lake as far as we could see.  We didn’t stay long, as the skies were clouding over and the forecast was for rain and thunderstorms most of the day.  It did begin raining when we were about halfway back to the Willie, but it was a light rain and warm and we weren’t too bothered by it.

Lake Drummond

     Back on board, we hauled the dinghy and set up the water collection apparatus and continued the last ten miles to the end of the canal.  We decided not to leave the canal today, but to take advantage of the last two free docks.  The first one is right in the town of Deep Creek, just across the street from a large grocery store.  We stocked up on produce and bought a steak to put on the grill, and some frozen crab cakes for tomorrow night.  Then, as a handful of others were taking advantage of the last lock through at the end of the canal, we went to the little dock in the park just before the lock and tied up for the night.  Grilled rib eye and more corn on the cob for supper, a nice ending for a fairly quiet, rainy day.