"ICW Trip 2001 Leg 4 - Norfolk S. to Dismal Swamp" Top 5 Page for this destination Norfolk Travelogue by grandmaR

Oct 29 Today we motored down to Norfolk. There were all kinds of restrictions about being within 100 yards of any Navy ship (which Norfolk is full of) but there was no particular problem with getting past the Norfolk Navy yards - heard people being chastised for their wakes - a lot of barge traffic and little boats patrolling around the navy ships. We went to Waterside again. Bob forgot to pack more than one pair long pants, so when we went to dinner in Norfolk, instead of eating right at Waterside, we walked to the mall. He didn't think the pants there were good enough quality or cheap enough. We ate there at Max and Ermas and walked back - went past the McArthur Memorial which I remember from when Bob was stationed in Norfolk in1963 - I didn't realize that was so far downtown. Downloaded email in the dockmaster's office and talked to folks on the dock. Much quieter than the last time we were there. We found out from talking to folks that the Dismal Swamp Canal WAS still open, but only for the first and last locking of the day - 9 and 3:30. Lucette made a bunch of phone calls, but everyone had gone home for the day.

Boats in the ICW going south

Oct 30: We cast off from Waterside at 6:49 - we wanted to get to the Jordan Lift Bridge as soon as the hours were unrestricted at 7:30. By the time we got to the bridge there were 12 other monohull sailboats, a catamaran, 2 tugs and a number of power boats waiting. He opened the bridge at 7:25. We went on down and through the second lift bridge which was a railroad bridge. This bridge is open most of the time.Then we went on down to the Gilmerton Bridge, which was restricted until 8:00. Oops - there's a train going across the railroad bridge just behind the Gilmerton Bridge so there is no point in his opening yet. He finally opened the bridge at 8:05, and we were through by 8:11 For pictures of the bridges - see Bridge travelogue

Deep Creek

We turned into Deep Creek at 8:26. Most of the boats went on to the VA cut. It was very peaceful and still in the creek.

Approaching Lock

We arrived at the lock before 9, and there were 8 boats waiting. to lock through. We had a very chatty lock tender, not the lady we had before.

Deep Creek Lock - starboard side

We were the 6th boat, and the first one on the port side with a trawler named WHIPLASH and a little sailboat named FIREFLY behind us.

Lock tender and apprentice on lock gate

.We locked through (photo has water coming into the lock), and got down to the bridge at about 10:30. There was a sailboat and three trawlers at the free dock on the other side of the lock, and they went through the bridge first. There was a big floating island of debris in the middle of the bridge - grass growing on it which made people a little skittish.

Stump in canal

We motored down the canal to the Visitor's Center - beautiful although there were a large number of logs (or maybe dead bodies - we couldn't see them), which raised up from the bottom to hit the hull. Many of the old cedar pilings have ferns, grass and other plants growing out of them. Got to the Visitor's Center by 1:30. There were two sailboats and two power boats there already - all but one sailboat had been at the free dock (called Elizabeth's dock) at the Deep Creek Lock. The one who wasn't with us was VAGABOND a Canadian boat and when he went to leave the dock this morning, he completely lost his transmission so he couldn't go anywhere.We rafted on a Gozzard 46 named TROUBADOUR. Ahead of us were two trawlers and JOLIE DAME. Later, FIREFLY came in and rafted on JOLIE DAME. When we started to raft up, Max tried to jump from our boat to the Gozzard, and missed his footing and almost fell in. He landed very heavily on his rib cage - now both of our guests have been injured.

Rafting at Visitor's center

Some of the folks went down to the South Mills lock and went through at the 3:30 locking. Since Elizabeth City was 19 miles past the South Mills lock, we saw no point in pushing it because we didn't want to run the upper Pasquotank River after 5 when it gets dark. After dark, we saw a spotlight up the canal, and some folks that came in on the 3:30 locking had come down in the dark. We heard someone call "Hey RosalieAnn from Leonardtown, can we raft on you? We're from Leonardtown too." It was a trawler named DUNFLYN. The next morning, Bob offered to tow VAGABOND to the lock, since he couldn't seem to get anyone to come help him with his transmission. They are closing the canal completely on Friday.

Next leaving The Dismal Swamp