Chesapeake City, Virginia

Chesapeake City
36 44.373W
76 17.770W

It's now 4PM on Friday and I have had enough time to recover and update the blog. Today was a good one, but long, hot and challenging at times. Turns out the day's max temperature was an all time record for the date, and we were in a swamp.

Wednesday night we had anchored "behind" Goat Island on the Pasquotank River, a few miles upstream from Elizabeth City. We felt like we were in the Amazon, dark brown water, trees and growth choking the waters edge, lots of water birds and millions of bloody frogs at night. But when you look at the satellite photo, there was plenty of "civilization" close enough. But it did not feel that way Wednesday night. I did not want the boat to sink.

We had the AC on while we had dinner and cleaned up, but I hate the sound of the generator so shut it all down when we went to bed. It cooled off a bit after dark (which is about 8:30PM - today is the longest day of the year up here) and we both had a decent night's sleep. We had to be up a bit earlier next day because we wanted to get to the first lock for the 11.00 AM service. (Next one at 1:30 PM)

Recovering the anchor was a real treat. The chain was 100% coated with black, sticky mud. By the time we had the chain in the locker the fore deck looked like a mud wrestling pitch, and I did not look much better. But we are getting expert at recovering the anchor and we were on our way on schedule.

Having entered the lock

The first lock was fun. The Dismal Swamp canal was dug by slaves, starting in 1793, taking 12 years, and is about 22 miles long. God only knows how many must have died as the canal bisects a swamp.

The locks have been rebuilt 5 times, the current locks were built in the 1930s. The lock tender explained the mooring system he wanted us to follow over the radio as we approached. There was only one other boat in the lock with us (They passed us as we were recovering the anchor earlier that morning.) Tide Hiker and crew passed with flying colors - and with no scratches. The lock lifted us about 8 feet and we were on our way into the old canal.

Into the canal

The water in the canal was like glass and it reflected the trees and scrub that overflowed from the waters edge. At times it was hard for me to see where the surface was. It felt like the boat was suspended in air in a forest. It was quite weird. After we left the lock the channel became quite narrow, maybe as little as 50'. We typically had 2 or 3 feet of water under the keel, but the floor of the channel was choked with waterlogged trees, and every now and again we heard and felt "thump, thump, scrape" as the keel slid over a tree trunk (or worse?).


It was quite interesting for a while. But it was also getting hotter and more humid. Plus there was a speed limit of 5 MPH. Plus the biting bugs were out in force. Deidre stuck it out on the bridge for a while, but then started feeling faint retreated below into the AC. I stuck it out at the helm, cold drink in one hand, fly swatter in the other. We could only travel at 4 or 5 miles per hour because of the speed limit, the obstacles and depth. The hours dragged on. We saw a snake swim across. Enough of the Dismal Swamp! We crossed into Virginia at Mile 17.

We were 30 minutes early for the second lock, so tied up to a bulkhead - no scratches. The lock tender called us when he was ready at about 3:30 PM, and we repeated the process. No scratches. And we were out.

All of a sudden we were transferred from primordial swamp to industrial America. We were alongside a freeway, needed to give way to a barge, concrete plant on one shore, oil refinery on the other....but no bugs... hallelujah! We decided that we needed (and deserved) a marina for the night and found the right deal! At the Top Rack Marina you can work off your dockage ($65, very reasonable) in the restaurant! But as we approached the heavens opened with one of those thunderstorms you experience after a really hot day - it was raining cats and dogs and blowing like a hurricane, just as we arrived. I missed the approach 3 times and had to back off, but the "4th time was a charm", no scratches.

I think she enjoyed getting wet.

Deidre had been directing from the deck and was drenched. This photo does not do here justice. She told me that her nickers were even wet (But maybe from the excitement of my 3 missed approaches?)  I think she was happy because it was the first time she was cool all day.

We enjoyed a great nosh up in the restaurant that night and have decide to stay another day and do the same Friday. (It's great, we did not bring the bathroom scales with us!)

Friday June 22

The marina seems to be in an industrial area. There is a cement plant across the river and a lot of barge traffic. The nearest super market was a few miles away so we called them and they agreed to pick us up. The larder was down peanut butter on crackers. (And we both needed something for the bites on our feet!) We spent $250 at the market, but got a newspaper!

Our marina was primarily a dry storage marina, and we were moored right next to where they launched and recovered the boats. It was fun to watch. The lift trucks were enormous and lifted quite large boats in and out of the water with ease.

It rained cats and dogs again on Friday night, and this time the wet weather lasted several hours. Most of that time we were back in the restaurant spending our $75.00 on lobster bisque, crab cakes, a nice dry Italian Pino and fresh bread. All right!