I have printed up pages from a couple of blogs that we were following last winter and today I read through parts describing this portion of their trip. Because one of the boats had a deep keel, they decided to take the Virginia Cut rather than the Dismal Swamp Canal. One blogger said nothing at all about the Cut, the second complained of dull and dismal scenery. We feel lucky to have been able to take the Dismal Swamp Canal route. With the small leafed trees along the way just beginning to take on fall colours and the vines wrapped around many of the trees, the foliage had a lacy delicate look. It was quite beautiful and is one of the highlights of the trip so far.
The Visitors' Centre that I mentioned in my last post was a surprise as well. It is in the middle of a lovely park that runs along the canal and situated between the canal and a busy highway. The Centre provides travel info, a computer for anyone's use and very clean washroom facilities to boaters as well people coming in off of the highway. It was so unexpected to find facilities like that half way along the canal.
Elizabeth City with it's Rosebud men was another nice experience. In truth, it's more town than city but it is working hard to be a place worth visiting. Since we arrived there yesterday at midday - we did have time to walk around a little but it was all kind of rushed. I would love to have spent anther day taking advantage of the special offerings which the host of the wine and cheese listed for us - a farmer's market this morning where we could buy fresh baked bread and home made cakes sold by the half and so good that a huge pile of them disappears early in the day, the dinner and a movie theatre within walking distance where you can sit at a table, order your dinner by a phone there, and then turn your seat around to see a first run movie, and the enticing offer of the Food Fresh grocery store to pick you up and bring you back. One of the women docked near us had phoned for a ride and said that it was a great store with "everything there". Given my new found mania for stocking up while the stocking up is good, I would have loved to shop where there is "everything".
Farmer's market and grocery store or not, we decided to forgo another day at Elizabeth City. We were facing a crossing of the Albermarle Sound and wanted to make sure to do it in the best of weather. Talk around the picnic table at the Visitor's Centre had especially scared us off crossing the sound in iffy conditions. Like the Delaware Bay that we crossed after leaving Cape May, the Albermarle is shallow and even in moderate winds, waves build quickly. Today promised light winds, tomorrow less so and then Monday conditions would begin to get difficult. We decided to make the most comfortable crossing today - which it was - a little sailing in 10-12 knot winds and then some motoring over flat waters.
I remember dropping our anchor in the Delaware River just before the sun went down at 7:30. Now that it is much later in the year, we have a much shorter day and it's best to be settled by 5:30 or 6 - so early in the afternoon after crossing the Albermarle Sound and going a ways up the Alligator River, we decided to go into an anchorage listed in Skipper Bob's book. To do so, we had to move off the ICW magenta line on our GPS chart and go toward a way point for Catfish Creek. Skipper Bob says that once you are over a "bar" near the mouth of the creek, you'll be in deep water. He also says as you go into the creek, to "ignore stakes, bushes and shoals to starboard". Long before we could see the opening of the creek, we were moving slowly through water with pieces of dead trees. logs and limbs jutting out through the water everywhere. I suggested chickening out, getting back on the main channel and trying the next anchorage but Bob had faith in Skipper Bob, faith that the mouth of the Catfish would eventually appear and that the ever more shallow water would get deep again. For me, there were a few heart stopping minutes (Bob says not for him) - but we finally saw the creek opening peeping out between grassy and stump lined shores and we rounded the corner into a quiet little bay . There's been a fire here some time ago - something has killed many of the trees but there's plenty of new growth and it's rather appealing.
Opening of Catfish Creek peeking beyond the tall grass
We motored by this spit of land as we went into the creek.
The mist this morning on the creek.
The sun rise as we are leaving.
1 comment:
pictures look fabulous, trips sounds fabulous too!!, wish I was there with you two!
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