Elizabeth City Dock, Pasquotank River

Our goal today is to get to Elizabeth City, North Carolina -- the Dismal Canal feeds right into the Pasquotank River and it's only about an 15 or so mile run from the canal's exit lock to that city. We were planning to leave the boat overnight at a city dock and visit with our friend, Janet Benton, who lives in nearby Hertford -- Janet had graciously offered to put us up for the evening -- we were both looking forward to a "real shower" and a "real bed" -- we have been on the boat almost 4 weeks at this point.

As indicated earlier, the locks work on a fixed schedule with the first being at 8:30am -- we "passed" on getting up very early to make that locking; rather we would do the 11am. Since it was only about an hour or so from the Visitor's Center to the lock, we had time to kill -- I opted to take a walk and Sue opted to hang at the boat.

Just before I left the boat, I got a phone call from Janet -- she wouldn't be able to host us after all -- another family member had unexpectedly shown up (her grandson was already visiting) and she had no more space for us. Indeed, while she would be able to come and see us for a few minutes at the boat, she wouldn't otherwise be able to spend time with us. We all (including Janet) were disappointed at this turn of events, but at least we would get to see her to say hello.

Back to my walk -- the canal originally had a towpath -- today many parts of it have been turned into walking and/or biking paths. There are also nature trails and "boardwalks" that let you walk into the marshier parts of the swamp. Having about 1.5 hours to kill, I tried all three; the towpath was wide and paved and I was passed by a couple of bikers as I walked down and back; the nature trail was a short loop and highlighted the trees of the area; the boardwalk took me into the swamp -- I quickly realized that the mosquitoes & gnats that couldn't get at us last night were still hungry and I was the main course -- it was a very short stroll along the boardwalk!

Scenes from a walk -- LilyPads on Canal

Scenes from a walk - Tiger Lilies?

Scenes from a walk - Morning Sun

Scenes from a walk - Nature Trail highlighting local trees

Scenes from a walk - abandoned still turned into state park exhibit

Scenes from a walk - Morning light on My Weigh

During all this walking I had done a lot of thinking about the loss of the "real shower" and the "real bed" - I know that Sue was feeling a little "cooped up" on the boat and came up with a solution: maybe we could substitute a nice B&B in Elizabeth City for the lost trip to Janet's House. When I got back to the boat, I suggested this to Sue, who loved the idea. Using the resources at the visitor's center, we quickly found a couple of candidates within an easy walk of the Elizabeth City docks.

Armed with this information, we left the dock and continued our journey down the canal -- we got to the lock ahead of time and tied up on a dolphin. Like before we called the tender, expecting another like Robert, outgoing and friendly; we got the polar opposite -- the tender barely spoke to us, gave us no helpful hints on how to handle the boat during the locking and certainly offered no coffee and snacks -- the yin and yang of locking through the Dismal Swamp.

Hitch hiker on My Weigh

Turtle Family Outing

Last Dismal Picture

The locking went smoothly and we were in the Pasquotank River -- we followed its meanders back and forth for the next couple of hours as it wended its way to Elizabeth City -- it was a partly sunny day with gusty winds; the river gradually widened as we got further from the locks -- it was also reasonably deep, mostly in the 10-15 range, much more comfortable than the canal itself.

When we arrived at the city docks, we were presented with a challenge -- how to make a drama free landing without help from someone on shore -- the dock was just a set of slips against a bulkhead -- each slip had a small finger dock at the bow and the pilings were such that My Weigh would stick well out of its slip into the river.
Fortunately the light breeze was blowing off the bulkhead and there was little current, so I would be able to have decent control of the boat while entering the slip, but it still would be a challenge to grab the pilings and settle he down with just the two of us on board.

As we circled around outside the slips, discussing our options and preparing lines, Gus came to our rescue. The "self appointed" greeter at the Elizabeth City public docks -- he hangs out at them all day, helping new arrivals "land their boats", giving them the "lay of the land" and providing any help they need to make their stay pleasant. Gus gestured to us to come into the widest slip (15', My Weigh is only 13' wide, so far so good) and was there to hold a line and steady the boat in the slip as Sue and I grabbed the pilings -- a drama free landing, the best kind.

Once we got the boat settled, we chatted for a few minutes with Gus and his entourage (two other gentlemen, one with a pet monkey, who apparently hang out with him all day). Gus had a lovely drawl and was full of bad jokes (like your from New Jersey, is that next to Old Jersey), but very helpful. We were hot and wanted an ice cream before going to check out the B&B's -- he gave us directions and offered to drive us, but we wanted the exercise, so off we went.

Elizabeth City was a center for trade from the early 1800's until the railroads made canal shipping uneconomical; during the railroad era it thrived as a lumbering, shipbuilding and oyster processing center, but eventually all of those industries shrunk and/or moved elsewhere and today the city is a shadow of its former prominence in the region. The major economic drivers are a large Coast Guard Air station (the CG's largest), a branch of the State University and the county seat. The city's center reflects its history and current plight: its streets are lined with many large run down Colonial/Victorian homes and for sale signs are everywhere; the commercial street have many empty storefronts -- this is clearly a town that is struggling.

Ice cream was a DQ on a strip-mall lined artery that enters and leaves the city center -- we then walked through some residential streets to the nearest B&B -- its location was convenient to the boat and the home was large, looked well kept and had a nice sign outside claiming it was the "oldest building in Elizabeth City". We knocked on the door and met the proprietors (Georgena and Vidal) who were happy to show us both their "King" and "Queen" suites -- each had a sitting room with a TV, a bedroom, a spotless bath and Internet -- we were sold, we booked the king suite for 2 nights.

Our home for the next two night

Vidal drove us back to the boat, we packed our stuff and Janet and her grandson Peter arrived to say hello. We spent a few minutes visiting and did a mandatory photo op with them. On the way back to the B&B,  Sue and I grabbed  light dinner at a local restaurant -- it had been a long day and were both looking forward to a shower and some quite time in our suite.

Sue, Janet & Peter on the dock in Elizabeth City