Norfolk and the Dismal Swamp Canal

North America
November 14th 2008

Published: November 17th 2008

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Nanamo

Thimble Shoals light

Marks on side of the main channel into Norfolk - quite pretty upclose - very different style than our lights.

Monday, 11/10 - Big day! We’re in Norfolk! Very light wind again so we motored down the York River and over to Norfolk harbor. Most of the Navy fleet is out but passing their berths and all the support facilities on the way in I got some feel for the immensity of the ships. We anchored in a cove beside the Naval hospital on the Portsmouth side of the river, right outside Tidewater Yacht Marina and across from the WWII battleship Wisconsin tied up at Nauticus, the National Maritime Center and Waterside marina all right downtown Norfolk. We’ll stay here for another day to do some sightseeing then leave on the ICW for the Dismal Swamp Canal on Wednesday. .

Wednesday, 11/12 -
At every marine store we’ve visited during the trip Gene has looked for some installation parts for a new Racor fuel filter that he purchased before we left. No success until now. Full Throttle Marine Yacht Service and Repair at Tidewater Yacht Marina www.tyamarina.com said yesterday that they would have them for us on Wednesday morning by 9:30 am and they did just what they said!!
After picking up the parts we continued down the South Branch

Naval Station

of the Elizabeth River to Mile Marker 7.3, the turnoff for the ICW Dismal Swamp Canal route. It was truly lovely in there, a few mostly modest houses on the banks, fishermen in bass boats, kayakers and so on. By 2:30 we were at the Deep Creek lock, tied off to a dolphin waiting for the 3:30 opening. The lockmaster/bridge tender, Bob, described in detail what was going to happen and what we needed to do during the process of rising some 8 feet. We rigged 3 fenders amidships between Irish and the bulkhead walls and ran long docklines from the bow and stern cleats around posts at the top of the bulkhead and back down to Irish. I tended the bow line and Gene the aft. Since we were the lead boat the incoming rushing water tried its best to pull our stern away from the wall so Gene had the workout of his life countering it! Lesson #1 - don’t be the first boat in when you are locking UP!
We overnighted on a dock at the North Carolina Visitor center rafted up to several other boats. It’s a great way to meet fellow boaters. Guy and his

Naval Depot

precious little(5 lb.?) dog Lola are from Montreal on Tangaroa. Peter, on Gilligan, is from Quebec. We all left early the next morning for Elizabeth City. Locking down at South Mills was much easier. Lola had a chance to get off and play with the locktender’s dogs, Fluffy and Lucy, who were closer to her size. (I’m getting my dog fix!)
The rain began shortly after South Mills, becoming quite heavy before we reached Elizabeth City’s free docks, but the wind held off until we were safely tied off. There was a free wireless Internet connection Harbornet here, with a very strong signal, but we couldn't seem to link into it so we're going to get a Verizon air card.

Additional photos below

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