Dashing South

We made it through the Chesapeake, stopping twice quickly to see old friends that Tom used to work with back when he was designing nuclear submarines. After the visits and taking on more than 700 gallons of diesel fuel, we went through the Dismal Swamp route that brought us to North Carolina.

There are two routes south on the ICW from Norfolk, Virginia and we chose the Dismal Swamp route since it is frequently too shallow and current conditions allowed us to pass through with our 5 foot draft requirement. Even so, we heard about a dozen submerged logs get whacked by our 30 inch propeller along the 51 mile route. The Dismal Swamp land was owned and surveyed by George Washington and the entire canal was dug by hand by slaves. Edgar Allen Poe also wrote “The Raven” while staying in a hotel along this canal. Despite the few bottom bumps, the trip was enjoyable and we successfully made it through our first two locks of the trip. The first lock brought us up about 8 feet to fresh water and the second lock lowered us back to sea level just before Elizabeth City, NC. The only thing dismal about this part of the trip was the cold outside temperatures which required several additional hours of running the generator to keep the boat toasty.

We met two cruising boats with kids in the Dismal Swamp and we stayed with them at Elizabeth City during a period of high winds and unusually cold temperatures. It was nice to be plugged in and have unlimited heat for 3 days,

Since then, we have been moving quickly south making about 55 miles per day. We are now anchored in Cape Lookout (near Beaufort, NC) watching dolphins play and wild horses feed on the dunes on Shackleford Banks. Tomorrow, we awake well before the sun to depart here for an ocean passage at 4:00 AM. We will need to leave in the dark to make the passage and comfortably arrive at Wrightsville beach, NC in daylight. The captain plans to reward the crew with 2 nights “shore leave” at a nice marina there to stretch our legs.

All the boat systems are working well and our plan is to keep moving steadily south towards Florida and hopefully, we will find warmer weather.

Tom