Just Ducky

The Dismal Swamp and More

Pam at the Dismal Swamp

Visitor Center

Where to start? The past few weeks have been quite an adventure, both good and bad. But I guess I’ll start where I left off – The Dismal Swamp. This is the beginning of the 22 bridges and 2 locks we have to pass through on a schedule or request their opening. So we passed through the Gilmerton Bridge to coincide with the lock opening to enter the Dismal Swamp. We passed through with some boats that we had met on the Chesapeake and a sailboat called Ozymandias, name of a poem by Shelley and an Egyptian king. The first part of the swamp was narrow and shallow, we bumped bottom about 5 times (sounds like I’m going to confession!). Anyway, it was a bit tedious, but we got to the visitors center and rafted next to Ozymandias then resumed our travel the next day, timed right for the next lock. This part was wider, deeper and prettier. We headed for Elizabeth City with expectation that there would be the ever famous welcoming committee followed by free wine and appetizers for the boaters. We did get a group waiting for us to help with the tie-up, but that’s where the “Elizabeth City Experience” ended. Everyone says you have to do the Dismal Swamp. Now we can say, been there, done that forgot to buy the tee shirt.

We did make good friends with Maureen & Tom on Ozymandias (easy for you to say!). We sailed together, had dinner together from the Dismal Swamp to Beaufort, NC where they continued their travels and we sat and waited for a new depth gauge to be installed. This is the bad part I mentioned earlier. Somewhere along the way, our depth gauge started blinking, indicating that it no longer was reading the bottom. Not a good thing down here where depths are often around 5-7-ft. Our boat is 5 feet deep. Tom and Maureen acted as our seeing-eye dog as we followed them in an out of shallow anchorages, for which we are very grateful.

In Beaufort, NC we found an honest and conscientious and capable electronics tech, Fernando, who assessed the problem, took many calls from his 2 daughters assuring them he’d be home as soon as possible, got and installed the new depth gauge and set us on our way! However, it was 6 days later. It’s a good thing we are not driven by a schedule.

One of the captains on a mega yacht in Beaufort had a heart attack and died while we were there. It brought home that we have to be grateful for every day we have, even if you are stuck at the dock waiting for repairs.

We have seen an increase in the number of dolphin and have seen our first palm trees. We even saw an alligator. Guess where? Alligator Bay. The krill have attached themselves to the bottom of the boat and we can hear the snap, crackle, pop as they munch away. To me, this all means you are in the South. The weather has warmed up and the layers of clothing are diminishing too. I was beginning to wonder if I brought enough fleece with me.

We are now in Wrightsville Beach and hoped to see our friend Mark, but our delay made that not possible. We hope to see him on the return trip. We also were looking forward to seeing Larry and Mary in Little River, but our delay nixed that too. We’ll see them in Marathon, FL though.

We are off for the Cape “FEAR” River tomorrow and should be in South Carolina in a couple of day. We are contemplating going out into the ocean for a little bit if the weather is good. We don’t save time, but we do lessen the amount of gray hairs or loosing hair we get from trying to avoid shoaling waters. Oh wait, I think we have the gray hairs covered (mine by L’Oreal).

We think of you often and hope you are all well. We apologize for the spam many of you received. We were hacked, but our computer scan has come up clean. Here’s hoping it doesn’t happen again.