At 1720, we arrived at the north side of the Deep Creek
lock of the Dismal Swamp Canal.
This part of the voyage is important to us as the canal may soon be
closed because of Federal budget foolishness.
We arrived here with SY Moony (Wolfgang and Denise). The trip here was
quite enjoyable. We left Jackson Creek this
morning and had a great sail (with all sails flying) for a good part of
the day. Of course, the Norfolk area was exciting with
the dirt carrying barge that intersected our course three times (each
time, we chickened out). For a while, we actually out sailed
SY Moony (doesn't happen often) going at 7.8 kt (8.4 SOG). Kinda Kewl.
A little history. Two days ago, we left Smith Creek
and headed for Jackson Creek. Yep, we sailed for most of the day. We
haven't sailed this much in quite a a while.
It was quite lumpy leaving the Potomac (isn't it always) but we
endured. Of course, SY Moony was ahead of us the
entire trip. We discovered that coffee and a laptop do not work well
together. We took a 35 degree roll from a large
swell and the coffee spilled into the laptop. Now we are down to two
laptops. Not good. We arrived at Jackson Creek at 1655 where
we took a great anchorage saved by SY Moony.
We are not brave. The wind was predicted to be out of the
South (gentlemen do not go to windward) so we chilled and
went ashore to a very expensive dinghy dock at Deltaville Boatyard. We
got a ride into town, where we had breakfast at Taylors.
Wolfgang and Denise enjoyed their American breakfast. We headed for
Boat US, then back to the boat. SY Moony had a special
treat for us that night ...a great home cooked meal!
Yesterday, we entered Deep Creek Lock at 0630 with 5
other boats. The locking was uneventful due to the friendly and competent
dockmaster. We rose 9 feet to meet the Dismal Swamp Canal. We then
went under the
draw bridge and headed our way to the Visitor's Center in the wind and
rain. SY Moony
followed us through the lock and the bridge. They were somewhat nervous
as their boat
has a 6 foot draft.
All went well for Jule III but we later heard that Moony
'bumped' a couple of
times and hit some submerged tree branches. We arrived at the Visitor's
Center at 1200 and
were greeted by 5 boats that had been there since Saturday. MV
Sandpiper waved us down
so that we could raft with them. SY Moony rafted on the row of boats
behind us. Crusiers are
such a friendly bunch! At the end of the day we had a total of 12 boats.
The Visitor's Center staff were kind enough to drive the cruisers to
the local market (Ann and Denise included) so that they could
re-provision. Ann invited
Wolfgang and Denise over for a typical American dinner; hot dogs and
baked beans. They
seemed to like it as they cleaned their plates. They left after a
couple of glasses of wine to
wash down the gourmet food.
Today, the cruisers mingled to discuss the plans for the
next days departure.
The weather is moderating and Elizabeth City should empty out of
cruisers. We all combined
our hoses to fill the boat's water tanks. Later today, the cruising
community was invited to
celebrate the Visitor's Center Director's (Penny Leary-Smith) birthday.
We had cake and soda
in celebration. She was quite impressed with the outcome but saddened
by the fact that the Canal
may close due to political bickering and funding issues. We share her
sadness and promised to
do what we could to get our Congressional representatives active on this
matter.
;
