Dismal Swamp Welcome Center, Dismal Swamp Canal

Sue was awakened at 6am by the whistle and noise of the shift change going on in the boatyard across the way; I slept through that, but did get up shortly thereafter.

We had to delay our departure till after 8 since there was a lift bridge a couple of miles downstream that we were told (by our cruising guide) was closed to recreational traffic until 9:30am. The trip downriver to the bridge was one "Government Property" boat-yard after another, complete with the "Restricted Zone" signs and barbed wire -- Portsmouth is truly and amazing and other-worldly place.

"Keep out" !!!

We had left early since we had to pass through a number of "normally open" railroad bridges before we got to the lift bridge. Of course, "normally open" doesn't guarantee that a bridge will be open, so we left ourselves some extra time "just in case". As it turned out, we didn't need it -- we arrived at the lift bridge about 1/2 hour early, contacted the bridge tender to let him know we were there and were pleasantly surprised when he told us to keep on coming, he would open the bridge for us -- sometimes you just get lucky.

A short distance past the bridge, we came to a major "fork in the road" -- the intercoastal splits in two: we had to choose either the "Virginia Cut" fork which would go down the coast behind a string of barrier islands or, the "Dismal Swamp" fork which takes you further inland through the "man-made" Dismal Swamp canal. The two routes come together roughly 90 miles later at the entrance to the Alligator River in North Carolina; the main difference is traffic density: the Virgina Cut is heavily traveled by both commercial and recreational boats whereas the Dismal Swamp route is much less traveled and with a controlling depth of 6', is pretty much used just by recreational boaters. We opted for the "road less traveled".

The Dismal Swamp is not dismal -- it got its name from the English who settled in the area and who called all swamps "Dismals". The swamp covers a huge area of southeastern Virginia and Northeastern North Carolina. It is essentially flat lowland with a large lake in the middle -- lake Drummond, fed by artesian wells, is 44 feet higher than the surrounding lowlands -- basically, the lake's overflow creates the swamp. The swamp's foundation is a 35 foot deep layer of peat that has slowly grown over the centuries as leaves and limbs shed from the swamps trees and lush vegetation decompose. The peat colors the water a dark brown from its tannin, like tea -- this brown is a characteristic of all of the waters in this area. Finally, the swamp supports a wide variety of animal life, including deer, black bears and rattlesnakes, and is one of the last large wild areas in the Eastern U.S..

The canal, on the eastern edge of the swamp, was built by slave labor in the early 1800's to connect the Albermarle sound to the Chesapeake Bay for trade. The canal was backed and funded by a consortium of private land owners -- it wasn't built by the government. Logging of the area's Cypress and Cedars quickly became the principle industry supported by the swamp and continued until the early 20th century.  The swamp was used by escaped slaves to avoid recapture and the canal was used as part of the underground railway to help escaped slaves get to the Northeast. The canal has locks, one at either end -- the northern lock raises the boat 12', the southern lock lowers it 8'. The locks have tenders and the Northern tender is named Robert.

Now, we "mindlessly" drove right by the entrance to the canal fork but made a quick recovery including a 350 degree turn and brush with a grounding in very shallow water -- it would have been very embarrassing to run aground before we even got into the canal proper! We want a mile or so up the creek that is the "on-ramp" for the canal, approaching the lock cautiously because its doors were closed and its light was red. We called Robert on the VHF, who told us that the next opening would be in an hour -- we tied ourselves up to a handy dolphin and waited.

Although both Sue and I have been through locks before, most recently on our French Canal trip, we had never done one on My Weigh. We were a little nervous but the cruising guide had been fairly clear on what would be expected of us and once you have done one lock, well, you have pretty much done them all.

Robert opened the lock's doors at the appointed hour and gave us the green light to come on in. As we entered the lock's well, he was standing 12' above us at the starboard wall and picked up our lines. He then proceeded to give us clear instructions on what to expect and what we needed to do to tend the lines -- he then went off to start filling the lock. The water came in, we gently rose to Robert's eye level and in perhaps 5 minutes time, the whole locking process was complete -- well almost, for you see, rather than opening the door and letting us out, Robert invited us into his "tender" house for coffee and a snack !

Robert on the lock wall

Lock is filling

Tending Lines as the lock fills

Actually, he is quite famous among the cruising circuit for doing this -- he has been the tender at this lock for 20 years and is known for his hospitality. It does come with a price -- he is eager to share all of his knowledge and expertise about the swamp and the canal with you. It appears to be an outlet for him -- he loves to talk and will chat about almost any aspect of his world enthusiastically and exhaustively. Perhaps too much so; after a pleasant 20 minute conversation and snack, Sue gave me the high sign -- time to go :-)

Coffee Break !

It took a little bit of doing, but eventually we "ganged up" on Robert and got him to move on. But he had one more "trick" up his sleeve -- he has a large collection of conch shells brought to him by snow birds coming back from the Bahamas -- on the way back to our boat, he picked one up and serenaded us with a conch-horn version of "My Way" -- like his hospitality, he is famous for serenading boats coming through.

The canal is 20 miles long and a sailboat can make it though and get down to Elizabeth City, the next "major" port on the Intercoastal, in one day only if it catches the 8:30am locking. We were in the 11am locking, so we planned to stop overnight about halfway down the canal at the Dismal Canal Visitor's Center -- in no rush, we stopped and do some shopping in the town of Deep Creek which has a dock on the canal just past the lock. No multi-mile walks here -- within 5 minutes we had groceries and a hardware store that would fill our empty propane tank. Very cool!

Shopping and lunch behind us, we started down the canal -- it is narrow, straight as an arrow, has lush vegetation on both sides and trees overhang much of it; the water is almost chocolate colored and it is very shallow everywhere. We were careful to stay in the middle but still managed to bump bottom a few times (probably logs sitting on the bottom) and  actually had to keep an eye on the shrouds to make sure they didn't clip the trees (we did shave off a few leaves along the way). There is a gentle southerly current but otherwise the waters were very still; reflections of the vegetation on the banks was visible everywhere. The sides of the canal were lined with numerous fallen limbs, most of which protruded out of the water. Many of those limbs were occupied by (box) turtles sunning themselves -- otherwise, there were no other birds or animals visible.

Straight and narrow

Still waters on the canal make for great reflections

Turtle Sunning itself

Love those reflections

The canal has a major road next to it, Route 17. The Visitor's Center serves both the highway and the canal's boaters: there is a parking lot, an information center, some rest rooms and some snack machines along with the dock that allows boaters to stop. We arrived at the dock about 4:30 -- it was easy to land on and had water available. We were both hot and sweaty from the day's activities, so we opted to take "joy" shower on the dock -- this drew some interesting looks from the "car" people, but we didn't care -- it felt wonderful.

The canal side of the Vistor Center / Rest Stop

Showering in the rest stop

Since we were in a swamp, we were concerned about bugs -- always prepared, Sue had ensured that we had a solution for this eventuality. Mary Ann Leuhman, a fellow cruiser and good friend, had shown her how to make special "gnat proof" screens for all of our windows and a (roll down) screen for our companionway -- basically a piece of screening with chains woven into the perimeter to weigh it down, it covered the whole entrance way below. We deployed these "shields" and spent the rest of the evening quietly, undisturbed by any flying pests -- a big "Thank You" to Sue :-)