A Dismal Day for the Dismal Swamp

Dinghies all in a row at Elizabeth City

Running the Patasquotank

Locking through the South Mills Lock

We had spent our 48 hours maximum at the Elizabeth City free dock. The weather was threatening and we were sure there would be no boats moving on for dockage and the visitor's center wouldn't raise hell with us for extending our stay, but Capt. Larry felt it was time to move on. Jane didn't exercise her veto, even though a fellow boater helping us cast off was showing her the radar on his Blackberry. We got positioned for a scheduled opening of the Elizabeth City bridge, and then it was up the Patasquotank River to the Dismal Swamp. We took our time, since we only had about 22 miles to the Dismal Swamp Visitor's center and had 3 hours to travel 18 miles to the 11 a.m. locking of the South Mills Lock. The sky started to cloud up and Jane started to fret, but Capt. Larry's Blackberry radar showed that the brunt of the squall line was passing ahead of us. The Patasquotank reminded us so much of the Tickfaw with its tannin stained dark brown water and numerous cypress trees. We were about 4 miles from the lock when it started to rain, but only relatively lightly. We made it to the lock and got in line behind the other boats to lock through. Once again we were the last boat to enter the lock.

Bavarian Cream at the visitor's center

Capt. Larry & friends

Jane & Gene from Dream Catcher

We locked through and proceeded for 4 more miles to the visitor's center where we were the first boat in. We were hoping to meet up with some friends that we met at Elizabeth City and had decided to cook a jambalaya that evening for whatever boats showed up. We were mildly disappointed when we registered at the visitor's center to find that our friends had been there and left. We walked over to the Dismal Swamp exhibit center and watched a movie, viewed the exhibits, and toured the gift shop before returning to the boat. Another sailboat, Roane, had arrived and we invited the solo skipper to happy hour. Shortly later, the sailboat, Dream Catcher, arrived with skipper Gene and son Trace. They were also invited to join us. We got together and had drinks and jambalaya with everyone having a good time.