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.