Up early to get breakfast at a local bakery in Elizabeth City called "Th Flour Girls" and then dropped lines and headed to the Elizabeth City drawbridge. We arrived at the bridge at 0750, but the bridge operator told us he could not open the bridge until 0830. We waited for the opening and then headed up the Pasquatuck River to the Great Dismal Swamp Canal.
It is a very windy river and then turns into canals that are as straight as an arrow. We entered Turner's Cut (the canal that leads to the Great Dismal) at 1015 and on to the South Mills lock. We arrived at the South Mills lock at 1100 for a 1130 opening to enter the Great Dismal Canal. While waiting we met a couple, Dan and Kim, in a 21' power boat "Two Wheels", who had motored from Virginia to Moorehead City, North Carolina for an adventure.
After the lock raised both boats 8' to the level of the canal and the gates opened, we motored the length of the Great Dismal Canal. It was a long straight run.
We arrived at the Deep Creek lock at 1415 and needed to wait for a 1530 opening. We tied up south of the draw bringe with the other boat. Across the road from where we tied up was a Hardee's Drive-Through restaurant, so we walked over to get a cold drink. Rich and JeffJ had chocolate milk shakes and I had a vanilla milk shake.
We called the lock operator at 1545 because he had not raised the bridge and he said he had been caling to see if there was any northbound traffic. Since we were off of our boats we did not hear his radio calls. He agreed to open the locks for us, but our mistake delayed us by about an hour. We entered the lock and JeffJ and Rich tended the lines for the 9' drop inside the lock.
The operator opened the gates and wished us safe passage . We headed down the river toward Norfolk.
As we approached the Gilmartin Bridge we got a call from a tug captain on the other side saying he was pushing a barge through the bridge and requesting we hold on the other side until he was through. We waited for him as he manuevered the large barge of scrap metal under the bridge and down the river.
We began our drive up the Elizabeth River past numerous ships and barges being loaded and unloaded. We then approached the Navy Yard with many ships in dry dock and under repair. It is an impressive sight to see the might of the U.S. Navy on display along the river.
We had decided to stop at a marina along the way, but when we called them they were closed for the day. It seems most marinas in the area close at 5 pm. We called six or seven marinas without success, but saw a marina on our portside that had plenty of open slips. We called them and tied up on their face dock for the night. We had electricity so we fired up the AC, took showers and then headed into the old town of Portsmouth, VA, for dinner.
The dock manager, Justin, had recommend an Italian restaurant named Mannino's about 6 blocks away and we decided to go there and had a great Italian feast. We walked back to the boat and fell asleep clean, cool and well fed.
No comments:
Post a Comment