Elizabeth City to Camp LeJeune- October 24 – 29, 2009

At the end of the Dismal Swamp route is the wonderful community of Elizabeth City where boaters are given a warm welcome by Sam the volunteer dock master at the Visitor Center. There is no charge for boaters to stay at the public docks in Elizabeth City. Sam will also arrange for rides to the grocery store or other places you might need to go shopping. Other volunteers organize a wine and cheese welcome party and provide information about their community. They have a supply of fresh roses for all of the ladies, following a tradition that was started over 20 years ago by some local gentlemen who became known as the Rose Buddies.

My “Rose Buddy” rose in an improvised vase.

There is a lot to do within walking distance of the docks and we had a sunny 83^o F day to go with it. We spent some time in the Museum of the Albemarle (free with very nice displays), had dinner and a movie at the Carolina Theatre and Grill with three other boating couples (saw Where the Wild Things Are – not really a children’s show) with excellent table service, bought fresh vegetables and pepper jelly at the farmers’ market next to the dock, listened to live music in the park, went for a long walk and still had time for happy hour on another catamaran, Jolie Julie.

The display in the lobby of the museum.

Dinner at the Carolina Theatre. The movie has not started yet.

Looking back at the Elizabeth City docks.

Most of the boats that travelled the Dismal Swamp with us left Elizabeth City the same morning we did. The parade out of town and down the Pasquotank River started before dawn. Boaters like to get up and go very early in the morning in order to find a good spot to spend the next night before it gets too dark to see where you are dropping your anchor or pulling into a strange harbor. As long as there is enough light to see the channel markers and the other boats around you (and the crab pot markers) you’re good to go. Retired on a boat does not mean no more alarm clocks!

Sunrise departure from Elizabeth City.

At the welcome party we had been told about some blimps tethered on the shore just south of Elizabeth City. They were still there when we made our early morning passage.

Blimps tethered on shore.

By the time we crossed the Albemarle Sound and reached the Alligator Bridge, at the beginning of the Alligator River, there were thirteen boats in front of us and at least ten visible behind. Everyone was lined up to go through the bridge. Automobile traffic on the bridge was lined up in both directions too so they would only be able to let a few boats through at a time. We were able to pass through on the third opening.

Line up for the Alligator Bridge.

Our turn.

The Alligator River runs through a cypress swamp that I found to be much more dismal than the Dismal Swamp. We anchored in the river overnight and and passed through the swamp the next day via the Alligator River and Pungo River canal.

A Dubarry Day in the cypress swamp.

After a couple of days of light drizzle in the canal and on the Pungo River we crossed the Pamlico River under sail at 6.5 to 7.5 knots in winds of 10 to 15 knots. Tom described it as our “best upwind sail ever” with Polar Pacer. We had been hearing stories about how difficult the Pamlico crossing can be. We lucked out. It only took about 45 minutes and we were greeted by a couple of dolphins as we entered Goose Creek on the other side.

We lucked out again the same day when we followed Kismet into a marina at Broad Creek just off the Neuse River a few miles from Oriental, North Carolina. The River Dunes Harbor Club and Marina is a planned luxury boating community under development. It is so new that it’s man made harbor does not appear on either our paper or electronic charts. When complete it will have 700 homes and 400 boat slips. See www.RiverDunes.com . Transient boaters have access to the well appointed facilities including steam showers, swimming pool, fitness center, laundry, and the central club building which has a beautiful restaurant that unfortunately is only open on weekends. This is the fanciest place yet where we have done the laundry and pumped out the holding tank.

Some River Dunes homes.

The swimming pool and club house.

The restaurant is on the second floor.

Polar Pacer at the docks.

River Dunes also has a courtesy car that we borrowed for the 15 minute drive to Oriental where I picked up a thermometer at the hardware store that shows both Celsius and Fahrenheit. I can now convert the weather forecasts! Tom tried to get his picture on the town’s web cam with the crew from Lily Pad but they got the timing wrong. It was a beautiful sunny day in Oriental with a temperature of 84^oF (28^oC). No Dubarry's , just shorts and t-shirts.

A shrimp boat at the city dock in Oriental.

Travelling down the coast of North Carolina took us through an endless maze of creeks and rivers that are sometimes connected by canals where the water was too shallow and to avoid going out into the Atlantic Ocean. When we dropped our anchor in Cedar Creek, off Adam’s Creek which is off the Neuse River that we got to via Goose Creek from the Pamlico River, Tom noticed that we were still moving after putting out about 80 feet of chain in 7 feet of water. Normally that would have brought us to a dead stop after the anchor settled into the muddy bottom.

When we pulled the anchor back up to try again this is what we found attached to the anchor!

Unmarked crab traps do not make good anchor holding. Good thing Tom noticed right away that we were dragging instead of having to get up and reset the anchor at 2 AM in the dark!

Adam’s Creek must be a good fishing spot. The fishing boats gave us a good wake up rock and roll when they passed through the anchorage on their way out to work early the next morning.

Brown Pelicans and seagulls looking for hand outs.

Fishing the shallows.

Travelling south from Morehead City and Beaufort (Bow-fort) the Intracoastal Waterway follows a narrow strip of land that protects it from the Atlantic Ocean. There are many shallow areas that keep shifting with the tides so the marked channel cannot always be trusted 100 per cent. The dredged channels are narrow and it is easy to make a mistake and end up in the shallows. Tow Boat US and Sea Tow are frequently hailed on the radio to get updates on the water conditions and boaters get together in the evenings to share information on trouble spots. Still, every day there are boats that go aground and need help to get unstuck. We were able to assist a boat that went aground while waiting for a bridge to open. It just took a little tug to get them moving and neither of us missed the bridge opening. Turned out it was a boat that we had met at the Seven Seas gam several weeks ago.

Many of the newer houses in coastal North Carolina are built on stilts to keep them safe from tidal surges. Instead of walk-outs they have walk-throughs.

This one was still under construction.

The ICW passes through the Camp LeJeune marine base and is sometimes closed down due to military exercises. All was clear for us to go through and we were also able to anchor in Mile Hammock Bay which is inside of the Camp LeJeune boundary. We had low flying military helicopters doing maneuvers over the anchorage until well after dark. At times it looked like they were trying to see how low they could go without touching the tops of the masts. Happy hour was pretty noisy.

Karen and Warren – This is where we met up with Sharon and Ian on Celtic Cross. They were also anchored at Mile Hammock and when Tom mentioned that we are from LSYC they told him that they had traveled with Sand Castle last year.

Hampton, VA and the Dismal Swamp – October 19 to 23, 2009

Even the birds were chirping at the sunrise as we left Deltaville and headed for Hampton. The sky was clear and temperature somewhere in the low 40’s, no frost on the decks but it wasn’t far off. It had been cold and wet and we were glad to be in Fishing Bay Harbor Marina where we could plug in our electric heaters. Sorry Debbie, the boots are still wonderful, but we just had too many Dubarry days in a row.

As we headed towards the southern end of Chesapeake Bay this little hitch hiker joined us for part of his southern migration. He really looked cold and miserable. We were glad to help him out. According to my MacMillan Field Guide for Birds of North America he appeared to be a yellow-rumped warbler.

The City of Hampton had a booth at the Annapolis Boat Show where they were handing out passes for one free overnight docking at the Hampton Public Piers so it was not surprising to see many of the same boats there that we had been crossing paths with on the Chesapeake.

Polar Pacer tucked in behind Iron Genny

The Virginia Air and Space Center is just a few steps from the docks and warrants a visit. I enjoyed the “nose art”. Tom appreciated the collection of large aircraft suspended from the roof including a DC-9 passenger plane and an F-18 war plane.

Next door to the Air and Space Center is a restored carousel from the 1920’s that is operational and open to the public on weekends.

We needed to stock up on provisions and after a long walk in the wrong direction we were finally directed to the Farm Fresh grocery. We had run low on a lot of things and had a whole taxi cab trunk (and taxi cabs have very large trunks) full of food, beer and cheap California wine (3 bottles for $10) to find storage places for when we got them back to the boat.

Bar hopping in downtown Hampton is easy. All three bars are on the same block and on the same side of the street, side by side in fact. We started with dinner at the Taphouse on Queens Way (food before bar hopping is a good thing) then went two doors down to Goody’s Deli and Pub where Tom and Roger played some pool and we ended up in the middle establishment at GoodFella’s Home of the Blues just in time for the Tuesday night Open Mic hosted by Don Butcher (real estate agent by day – go to www.donbutcher.com if you are interested in performing or buying a house or just drop by and listen to the great music). I think we were the only ones in the place who did not put our names on list for a turn to show our stuff up on stage (lucky for everyone else). Fortunately for us, most of those who did were very talented and we thoroughly enjoyed the music. And had way too much fun!

“Red” (on the right) is one of the regular Friday night performers with his band “Blues Empacts” at GoodFella’s and was exceptionally good.

My amateur video does not do him justice.

Across the river from Hampton is Norfolk which is home to the largest naval base in the world. Norfolk Harbor is very busy with warships, freighters, tugs and barges. Two large warships were out doing maneuvers in Hampton Roads as we crossed over on our way to the entrance to the Intracoastal Waterway (ICW).

Iron Genny just wanted to say ‘Good Morning’.

The first few miles of the Elizabeth River, which leads to the ICW, are lined with various components of the Norfolk Naval Base, steamship container terminals, industrial storage facilities, loading cranes, dredges and a lot of unidentified machinery, not exactly picturesque but otherwise interesting.

More war ships.

Still more warships.

Old warships. Check out the peeling paint!

One of several container terminals.

Now those are fenders!

Heading south from Norfolk via the Intracoastal Waterway there are two possible routes. We opted for the Dismal Swamp Canal route that takes you to the Pasquotank River and Elizabeth City. George Washington was one of the original thinkers who came up with the idea of the Dismal Swamp Canal and it was completed just around the turn of the 19^th century. It has been around awhile. The canal is narrower that the Oswego and Erie canals and only 6 to 8 feet deep. With our draft of just over 3 feet it worked for us. There are long stretches that are not much wider than a normal 2 lane city street with vegetation hanging into the "tea-brown" water.

We needed to keep a close watch out for logs and other debris in th water, especially when we were following directly behind two large trawllers.

I tried to take a picture that would show the color.

Compared to the 39 locks we went through on the first part of our trip from Lake Ontario to the Hudson River, there are only two 8 foot locks in this canal.

Yes there really is a swamp. Some of it is pretty dismal and some of it is just pretty.

There are not many places to stop overnight on the Dismal Swamp Canal Many boats end up at the Visitors Center just after you cross the border from Virginia into North Carolina. There is only room for three or four boats at the dock, any more than that and they start rafting up to each other. We ended up in a raft of twelve boats, three rows of boats each of which was four boats deep.

Just a few more and we would have had a bridge right across the canal. Rafting turns into an impromptu party. We met up with boaters that we had met previously and made more new friends too. Friendships develop quickly on the water. Most everyone is traveling in the same direction and stopping in many of the same places. People are always willing to help another boater in need and there is never a shortage of free advice. Some new friends last just long enough for happy hour and are never seen again. Others keep popping up in various marinas, docks or anchorages and are sometimes just a voice on the VHF radio.

Annapolis, MD to Deltaville, VA - October 6 to 18, 2009

We had a front seat view to watch the preparations for the annual Annapolis Boat Show. It was like watching a giant jigsaw puzzle being put together. Each piece is put together in a specific order. Firstly, all of the boats in Ego Alley have to leave to make room for the ‘show’ boats to come in. Once the first group of boats is in, a bridge made of temporary floating docks is installed, then another group of boats is added and is surrounded by more temporary docks. This process is repeated several times until there is one giant raft-up. Temporary piles are driven into place to keep the whole thing stable.

We did not find out where the temporary docks are assembled but these are two of the work boats that move them into place. The other two work boats were called Pull and Yank.

Tents for the vendors covered almost all of the available parking spaces around Ego Alley.

Speaking of vendors, there were several who had items available that we simply could not live without! In addition to the Single Side Band radio, yards of sunbrella and phifertex, and the Wi-Fi amplifier that we purchased prior to the boat show we now have an Engel 12 volt freezer, a new inflatable life jacket and safety harness foe me, a boarding ladder for the dingy, new boat shoes, some fancy hose reels for the water hose and shore power cord, replacement LED bulbs for our reading lights and a KISS wind generator. Oh yeah, we also came across a beautiful brass barometer (the weather guru at the Seven Seas “Gam” said we needed one) at the Weems and Plath tent sale on the way to dinner. Several boat units later (1 Boat Unit = $1000) we added a few things to the never ending “To Do” list.

Night view before .

Night view after.

Iron Genny from LSYC arrived in Annapolis the day before the boat show started. It was great to see familiar faces! We had dinner together at the famous Davis Pub (famous to cruisers at least) one night and Roger and Hanni rustled up a great turkey dinner for Canadian Thanks giving. Thanks guys!

Dinner at the Davis Pub.

Our new friends Ron and Suzie, off the catamaran Easy Time, call Solomon’s home when they are not out cruising and recommended it as a good place for stocking up on supplies. After two days at the boat show it was time to move on and start crossing some things off the “To Do” list. We anchored in Back Creek for a few days and Tom got the wind generator up and working. Ron and Suzie took us shopping at BJ’s, Wal-Mart, West Marine, a wine and liquor store and Ace hardware then invited us to their home for dinner and let Tom use their garage to balance the blades on the wind generator. What wonderful people!

The weather forecast was predicting dropping temperatures, rain and increasing waves. Time to go SOUTH! We knew it would be a rough ride out on the bay so we planned a short hop to a protected anchorage that Ron and Suzie had recommended on Mill Creek (almost every river on Chesapeake Bay has a Mill Creek running into it) near Reedville. The distance was just right for the conditions and it was so quiet and protected from the weather that the wind generator wouldn’t turn. It was solid overcast so the solar panels were just barely keeping up with the refrigeration. Good thing it was cold and the refrigeration was not running more than twice a day. The leaves are starting to change color too, a good sign of colder weather. After a couple of days the house batteries were getting low and the weather forecast was telling us that if we did not leave soon we would probably be stuck there for a while. There was no accessible land to land the dinghy and go for a walk so we decided to head for Deltaville with Iron Genny and go to a marina to wait out the next few Dubarry days.

Deltaville is a pleasant village mixed with farmland surrounded by several marinas and boatyards plus a few stores (2 West Marine’s) and restaurants (Toby’s will drive you home after you have had too many drinks with dinner to find your way back past the corn field in the dark). We stayed at the reasonably priced Fishing Bay Harbor Marina which also offers discounts to Boat US members and has very clean and well maintained facilities. The hot showers and plug in heaters were very much appreciated in the cold, wet weather with night time low temperatures around 38 degrees F. It was also nice to be able to get out on solid ground and stretch our legs.

An odd place for a cactus but this one was thriving.

Someone wanted a view of the water when this place was built.

Too bad the trees in front kept growing.

Even the herons look like they would rather be somewhere warmer.

There is sunshine in the forecast for tomorrow. Hampton, here we come.

Stuck in Annapolis

Annapolis – September 28 to October 5, 2009

Help! We’re stuck in Annapolis and we can’t get out.

Most boaters would consider that comment blasphemy. Yes, there are worse places to be stuck and yes, it is by choice that we are here. A week away from the Boat Show and the place started to fill up. On Saturday the number of boats anchored at the mouth of Spa Creek increased by the hour and traffic was heavy going in and out of the harbor. We managed to get one of the rare mooring balls that will not be put out of service during the show and do not dare leave it. If we were not planning on staying for the show (and if it was not illegal) we could probably feed the cruising kitty by selling our spot.

Fortunately there is no shortage of entertainment.

With the Naval Academy on one side and the Eastport Yacht Club and Severn Sailing Association on the other there is always something happening. Most afternoons the sailing schools are out in full force. They start each session with a game of ring-around-the-rosy using the green mark that is usually just off our transom.

Laura - this could be you!

We have been serenaded by a gospel gathering that outsang the blues group on the balcony of the Eastport Yacht Club and were woken early on Saturday morning by the marching band at the Naval Academy with their Michael Jackson tribute as they warmed up for the band competition that was held before the BIG Navy vs. Air Force football game later in the day. Navy won the football game but I did not hear the results of the band match up.

Our new friends Hal and Penny from the sailing vessel Volanatis told us about a concert that was taking place in Eastport at the Maritime Museum of Annapolis. A little bit blues and a little bit country mixed with some East Coast sea shanty from talented musician Scott Kirby and his band in a very intimate venue that held about 150 people. Scott Kirby even has Canadian roots from Blow Me Down, Newfoundland. Thanks Hal and Penny for the recommendation.

For more go to www.scottkirby.com.

There is a constant parade of boats in and out of Spa Creek, everything from the mega yachts to the small but unique ones. Some are here for the show but many make Annapolis their home port.

The Pride of Baltimore

A canoe converted to a sailboat.

Hereshoff 12

Wedding party.

Sensei.

Wandering around historic Annapolis is fun too. This has been a busy place for a few centuries and many of the buildings have been around since the beginning including the oldest state capitol building that has been in continuous use.

Good Galley Gadgets

Doing anything on the boat takes at least twice as long as it would on dry land and you are always thinking about conserving water, electricity and coking fuel (a good learning experience for non-environmentalists). Good Galley Gadgets must meet as many of those requirements as possible and hopefully be lightweight and compact too. The Pasta Presto tube(as seen on TV) works well for cooking vegetables, past and instant rice without using a pot or burner once you have added the boiling water and the insulator does double duty keeping the coffee hot in the French press. The silicone steamer (thanks, Vera) uses very little water and can be crumpled up and stuffed in a small corner for storage. It can also be used to stop the pots from rattling when the sailing is not smooth. The KitchenAid stainless pots with their heavy, thick bottoms are as easy to clean as non-stick and keep food warm for a long time after the propane has been shut off.