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

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 :-)

North Landing, Elizabeth River

Our goal for today was to get to a small harbor a few miles north of Norfolk -- it was a 30 mile or so run and we figured that we would be better off stopping there and going through Norfolk the following day when we were fresh -- it's a busy port with lots of large boat traffic.

Norfolk would mark the end of our time in the Chesapeake -- we have really enjoyed it here -- there is much to see and do, lots of history and an infinite supply of small harbors and anchorages to visit. Indeed, in our two weeks here we have barely scratched the surface: we spent essentially no time on the Eastern shore or in any of its long rivers (Potomac, Rappahannock, James, York, etc.). "Some day we'll have to bring the boat North and spend a few months here" -- a new entry for my bucket list.

Norfolk also marks the beginning of he Intercoastal Waterway -- this is an interconnected system of rivers, creeks, bays and man-made canals that enables a cruiser to get from Norfolk to the Florida Keys without venturing out into the Atlantic. Colloquially known as "the ditch", its start, a.k.a. Mile Marker 0, is on the Elizabeth River in Norfolk.

Red Buoy 36, a.k.a.,  Mile Marker 0 of the Intercoastal

So, with a plan in hand, we were up and off early -- we left on a falling tide but had no trouble getting over the bar at the entrance to Deltaville (saw 4.5' on my depth meter at one point but never touched bottom). It was a sunny day and the wind was light and out of the SW, on our nose as usual, so motor sailing was the only realistic option. The seas were calm, almost dead flat, the current with us and the trip was uneventful save  for four different sightings of porpoise pods -- try as I might, I was unable to get a shot of any of them as they would "disappear" once my camera was in hand.

Really -- there was a porpoise there a minute ago !

We arrived outside our planned destination just North of Norfolk at 1 or so and were still feeling fresh, so we changed the plan and headed on down  and into the harbor. We passed Mile Marker 0 around 4, dodging a ship or two along the way.

Sue at the helm as we enter Norfolk

Dodged this guy as he was going out and we were coming in

Norfolk/Hampton/Newport New/Portsmouth are tied together by interconnected harbors and rivers and they are home to the U.S. Navy's Air Craft Carrier ship-building and maintenance yards. Cruising through this area is a little intimidating: there are "security" boats everywhere manned by big guys with automatic weapons (don't get to too close to the Navy's ships!); the waterways are lined with boatyards with signs that say "U.S. Government Restricted Area", and barbed wire and guard towers are sprinkled about. Distinctly "unfriendly" to recreational boaters.

A typical scene along the waterway -- Naval Ships are everywhere !

This is a WWII Battleship turned into a museum (which we didn't visit)

Fortunately, the town of Portsmouth, just beyond Mile Marker 0, offers a couple of free docks in its "downtown" area. The docks are in two separate square "anchorages" squeezed between office buildings and hotels. Both "anchorages" had Water Taxi and Ferry stops in them -- we picked the smaller of the two since there was a nice space for us in it -- we tied up between an (out of service) Ferry and another cruiser for the evening -- we were happy to have finally stopped for the day.

Home for the evening

The Ferry stop was very active with Paddle Wheel ferry boats coming and going every 20 minutes or so. Across the  river was a boatyard with a gigantic Air Craft Carrier under construction -- lights were on all over it and workers were scurrying about (even after 5 -- there were at least two shifts working on this carrier!); there was a distant din of construction noise and parts of it were wrapped in enormous sheets clearly intended to discourage any picture taking or prying into the boat's construction. Our tax dollars (quite literally) at work :-)

Neither the construction noise nor the hustle and bustle of the ferries coming and going bothered us in the least -- we both were very tired, turned in early and slept blissfully through whatever was going on around us -- after talking about it for a year, we were finally "in" the Intercoastal.

Jackson Creek, Piankatank River

When on a boat like My Weigh, once one person wakes up, everyone tends to wake up -- the space is too compact for it to be any other way -- today, we were all up by 7, feeling refreshed from our Crabfeast adventures and ready to take on another day.

It had rained very hard overnight but had stopped by the time we woke -- everything was wet, but we could see patches of blue forming in the sky -- perhaps the weatherman got it wrong this time. Sue, ever full of energy in the mornings, prepared our standard "guest" breakfast, bacon and eggs. We ate on deck and the sun briefly appeared -- the weather had promise.

Jon and Rachel were planning to leave by noon or thereabouts, so we hadn't planned much for the day -- after a brief post-breakfast discussion, we settled on taking Scarlett to a park to give her a chance to get some air and burn some energy before the long car ride home -- all we needed was a park to take her to.

You might think this would be an easy thing -- Google "park" or "school" or "kindergarden" or any other number of terms and "poof", there it would be, a short ride away. Well, not so fast Kemosabe -- Google doesn't know much about rural Virginia and what it does know "a'int necessarily current". So, after following a number of Google generated "false leads" generated by multiple adults using multiple cell-phones and driving perhaps 10 miles out and back from the Marina's creek, we eventually "stumbled across" such a park, at a "Community Center", not more than a mile or so from our boat. So much for modern technology !

We did hang at the park for an hour or so -- Scarlett loved it -- the swings, the slides, the "monkey bars", all of it. At one point she became "inspired" and started "directing" all of us in her inaugural play, "the princess" -- I was the cook (then the king), Sue the good witch, Rachel the princess, Jon the prince and Scarlett the "super"- princess -- the story line of the play was to keep the apple away from the princess and have the prince kiss her awake. She was very emphatic about her direction -- something her grandmother found very familiar. Scarlett clearly could be headed for a career in theater or film!!

Loves the swings

G'ma and mom join the fun

Dad watching the fun!

Wheeeeee !!!

G'pa joins in the fun

G'ma taking a break from her role in the play

G'Pa trying to be 4 again !

On the way back from the park, we stopped at a local cafe for a cup of coffee at a local cafe; from there, Grandpa Jack and Grandma Sue walked Scarlett back to the boat (perhaps .5 mile) to further "wear her down". By the time she was in the car and ready to go, her eyes were drowsy -- she was going to be sleeping for a while on the way home -- score one for the grandparents ;-)

Thanks for a great weekend !!!!

The rest of the day was occupied by a long walk for Sue and I -- we started out for Stingray Point, the place where Capt. John Smith was stung by a stingray that he had lanced with his sword; as the story goes, he almost dies but recovers quickly, so quickly that he ate his share of the stingray for that evening's dinner -- ya gotta love local history.

As it turned out, what was going to be a "couple of" mile or so walk turned out to be a marathon -- the day had become very sunny and hot and we thought we'd might stop at a restaaurant for a cool drink -- Stingray Point was at the end of the creek and the creek was lined with large Marinas, and they often have restaurants attached to them so, we thought, we should be easily abe to find one. Not!!! After walking out along the whole length of the creek searching for a restaurant, we finally had the good sense to ask a couple that happened to be passing by on their bikes where one might bet; they told us the only restaurant on the creek was on its other side which meant we ended up walking  all the way back to the creek's end, up the road to cross to its its other side and then almost all the way out its other side -- oh well, we had nothing else to do :-)

Jackson Creek, Piankatank River

Well,  another family day has finally arrived -- Rachel Jon and Scarlett join us today -- the trip from Charlottesville is a few hours, so we don't expect to see them until about 1pm.

Unfortunately, the weather forecast for the weekend was dismal --cloudy skies and 70% chance of rain for both days.  Going out on the boat wasn't going to make much sense, so Sue's plan was to take them to "land" activities -- the Deltaville Maritime Museum  this afternoon and an annual "all-you-can-eat", $30 per head Crabfeast at a local firehouse for dinner -- this was a great plan -- it immunized us from rain getting in the way of having a good time and included participating with the locals in their annual event -- what more could you ask for.

The morning began with our moving the boat to a slip in the marina -- this would make it easy for us to get Rachel's crew on and off the boat. When they arrived we "re-acquainted" them with the boat (we had taken them out last year for an afternoon sail but it was "curtailed" when Scarlett had a meltdown -- this time and a year older, she was fine with the boat and in fact, was fascinated with the head and couldn't get enough of going up and down the companionway stairs).

Scarlett just loved going up and down !!

After the "tour", we had a picnic lunch and celebrated Sue's birthday in the cockpit -- this was the first time Rachel had seen Sue since her birthday, so she brought a cake and some presents to have some fun -- Scarlett really enjoyed "reading" the card (which she made) and opening the presents at Sue's party :-)

"Dear Grandma, Happy Birthday, I love You"

Grandma reacting to Rachel's guessing her age

The "Healthy" Birthday Cake

In its heyday, Deltaville was a big center for shipbuilding on the Chesapeake -- they were particularly noted for building "dead rise" boats -- made of wood and with a "V" shaped hull, these were the "work horse" boats for the oyster and crabbing industries. As might be expected, the museum had a collection of such boats, including some afloat in a creek on the museum grounds. They also had an exhibit of paintings by John Barber, a well-known local artist who specializes in Maritime art -- indeed, Walter Cronkite had commissioned him to paint a picture of his yacht. Barber's paintings are very realistic -- almost photographic quality -- quite nice.

Of course, Scarlett wasn't interested in any of this -- she (briefly) liked seeing the boats but was much more interested in exploring the child's garden and fountain on the grounds and particularly liked an (empty) stage down by the creek that enabled her to "dance" and "sing" (largely unintelligible lyrics to herself) -- she put on quite the show.

Testing to see whether Mr. Frog is real

Petting Mr. Dolphin who is giving Scarlett's doggie a ride

Mom & Dad in the garden

"Dancing" much too fast for me to get a good picture

Grandma joins the show

After leaving the museum, we made a West Marine and grocery run (always good to take advantage of a car when you have access to one) and on the way back to the boat, happened to pass the Crabfeast firehouse. We were happy to see the tents up (keep us dry of it rained) but were amazed at how large they were (2 HUGE tents) and even more amazed that a line was already forming to get in (the "fest" wasn't scheduled to start for another hour). We wondered what we had gotten ourselves into.

We soon found out -- returning about 1.5 hours later, we were directed (by volunteers) to park under a tree at the rear of a large field behind the firehouse -- it was a long walk back to the Crabfeast entrance. To say the place was mobbed wouldn't do it justice -- when we got in, we found long lines of picnic tables strung together as far as the eye could see, all of which were filled with people and each of which was piled high with Maryland style steamed crabs; people were grabbing crabs to eat from their "communal" pile and volunteers were scurrying about everywhere with huge trays of new crabs to make sure that no pile was ever depleted. This was "all-you-can-eat" on a grand scale -- and in a noisy, messy medieval setting -- crab shards were all over the tables, the floors, the seats and the people -- there was no doubt about it, if we wanted to eat, we had to find an empty spot on some table and just "dig-in".

The crowd at the crab feast -- note the tents in the distance

A volunteer making a delivery

At this point, some of you must be wondering whether we actually planned to feed Scarlett, a 4 year old, crabs drowned in Old Bay seasoning and steamed in beer -- well, no -- we (and the VFD) had more sense than that --Rachel had fed her some dinner before we left and hamburgers, hot dogs and corn-on-the-cob were also on all-you-can-eat menu -- we had Scarlett covered.

So, after finding a table where the 5 of us could squeeze in (without missing a chew, the two other gents at our table assured us that the previous foursome had already left), and cleaning off the pile of "crab shards" the previous occupants had left behind, we got something to drink (beer and wine were available at a cash bar) and "dug in". Jon, being from the western part of the state, had never had crabs before so we gave him a lesson is "dis-assembling" a crab -- while he complained a lot that it was hard work for a relatively small reward, I soon lost sight of him across the table as his shard pile grew -- he was clearly enjoying himself.

Aftermath -- crab shards everywhere

You might think that this was enough excitement for one evening, but it didn't quite turn out that way. You see Scarlett was restless, so we all took turns taking her for a "walk/run" around the tents and the tables and the stage (a Band was scheduled to come on at 8pm). She loved wandering around the crowd, "dancing" in front of the stage, talking to the crab lady (a volunteer, dressed up in a "Crab suit" and helping to sell 50/50 tickets) and "watching" the few other kids her age capering about (she is still somewhat shy).

We were all careful about holding her hand and/or escorting her closely to ensure that she didn't wander off unattended -- it was a big noisy crowd and well, "you never know", even at a local Crabfest in rural Virginia. Scarlett, imp that she is, did manage to "escape" from Sue on one of these excursions  -- immediate panic set in -- the search parties (us) were sent out in search of her -- Sue's DYFAS (Division of Youth & Family Services) training immediately kicked in -- she had cops posted at the exits (many VFD members were also cops) and had the band ( who had started playing shortly before) make multiple announcements over the speaker system -- it was an agonizing 5 minutes or so, but Rachel eventually found her in corner with some other kids -- she was fine (although she did get reprimanded and reminded us many times on the trip home and the next day that she "would never wander away from an adult again". Lesson learned.

Having Scarlett again firmly in our grasp, we hung out waiting for the 50/50 winner announcement -- we had all purchased tickets and since it was a very large crowd, we anticipated a very large payout and were anxious to see whether any of us had won. We were  told that the winner would be picked at 8, but that time came and went and the band was playing but nothing was happening. Eventually, Sue left all of our tickets with one of the organizers along with a phone number to call should we have won -- then we left -- our evening was done.

Oh, just in case you were wondering, we never got a call -- doesn't matter -- we had a great time and happy to help the VFD (this was their major annual fund raiser). And one more thing, 70% chance of rain, but it never did.

Happy Birthday Mom -- hope you enjoyed the day with Scarlett :-)

Jackson Creek, Piankatank River

Today is another hang-out day -- Rachel and the gang arrive tomorrow.

Of course, no day is really a "hang-out" day on a boat -- you just get more time to do chores. For example, this morning we did "housecleaning"  below (wash floors, disinfected the head, shook out carpets and the like), then washed the topsides (we were expecting rain later and it is always good to have mother nature do a "rinse" of the boat after we soap the decks up to clean them). We also checked and topped off the battery water and changed the oil -- always something to do.

Changing the oil on a boat is one of those things you have to do frequently if you are going to keep your engine running well. Also, it is a bit of a pain -- you just can't pull into a dock and tell them "change the oil". While you can usually find someone willing to do it for you if you look hard enough and are willing to pay the "big bucks", my practice has been to do it myself.

The basic technique is pretty straightforward -- run the engine for 15 minutes to heat up the oil (this way it'll flow easier and you will pull out any "crap" that is "in suspension") , then shove a tube down the dipstick tube and use a pump to "suck out" the old oil and put it into a container for disposal. Here's where it gets interesting: you can either use a "manual" pump (i.e., you do the pumping using elbow grease) or, you can use an "electric" pump (i.e., throw the switch and let a motor do the work).

In the two previous years that I owned My Weigh, the engine wasn't used very much so I only needed to change the oil once a season and I used the manual technique -- it was a bit of a hassle (the pump gets hot and its a tricky business keeping the dipstick and outlet hoses in while you are pumping), but quite manageable. I knew this year would be different. Given the long trip south,we would be running the engine a lot more and I would likely have to change the oil at least once on the trip, if not more. So, to make life easier, I bought and permanently installed an "electric" oil pump that would considerably simplify the changing process.

This would be the first time I would use my new oil pump and I did have some "Agata" that it might not work -- while I had been careful about the installation and had tested what I could, the "proof is in the pudding" and so, it was not without trepidation that I threw the switch. Well, hurrah, it worked and this was, by far, the "easiest" oil change I had ever done on my two boats -- worth every cent I paid for that pump :-)

After lunch we took the dinghy into the Marina, and hung out, did some work, took a shower (never miss a chance when you can) and otherwise killed what turned out to be another rainy day, (I did have to walk to local recycling yard to disposer of the old oil -- fortunately, it was close by.)

Jackson Creek, Piankatank River

Today is a hang-out day -- we spent the early morning working/puttering around the boat, then decided to take a dinghy ride into the northwestern branch of Jackson Creek -- it would be closer to the "center" of Deltaville -- we were going to out for lunch ;-)

Deltaville isn't much of a town -- it has no real "downtown" -- mostly it's a series of marine service stores, a very few "restaurants" and an occasional curio shoppe strung out along route 33, the main road in and out of the area. There is a large concentration of marinas in the area, by our count 17 -- it has become the "weekend home" for many "Richmond-ians" because of relatively easy access from that city.

The dinghy ride up the creek was pleasant enough,  like its Eastern counterpart, it is mostly lined with very nice homes on relatively large lots. We headed as far up the creek as practical (to get close to the highway) and lucked out: -- we found a small private marina (essentially a row of slips) and a nice couple who told us leaving our dinghy in the "empty" slip next to theirs for a few hours would be "no problem".

Dinghy-ride scene -- the Crepe Myrtle made this house gorgeous !

Arriving on the dock -- the dinghy is in an empty slip

On the way out of the marina, we met two other nice beings, one canine and one human. The canine, a large black Lab with a collar but no tags, greeted Sue as she came off the dock with great enthusiasm -- he seemed like he had been expecting her and was genuinely happy she had arrived! The human, a "Richmondian", was working on his outboard in a small shed that served as the Marina "office". He welcomed us as well, explaining that dog wasn't his and that, in fact, he had to stop his truck on the way down the road to the marina because it was "just standing there" -- apparently he had spent some time coaxing the dog out of the way; the dog then followed him into the marina!

Since he was a "local" (relative to ourselves), we asked him for recommendations as to where to get lunch. After hemming and hawing for a while, he finally admitted that he didn't think much of any of the local restaurants -- he did mention, however, that a new place had just opened up that he hadn't tried  (Southern Bliss Cafe) and "it might be your best bet" -- armed with this information, we set off to walk the 1.5 mile or so to find something to eat.

It was at this point that we realized our canine friend, let's call him "Midnight", had decided to escort Sue and I to the cafe. Really!! - Midnight stayed with us all the way, He would walk out in front of us, then circle around behind us, all the time sniffing out and marking territory. He had no compunctions about walking in the road, even on the busy Route 33 he was oblivious to the traffic, which invariably went out of its way to avoid him. There were a number of occasions where we even had to explain to drivers that it "wasn't our dog". Midnight also tried to enter a curio shoppe we stopped at along the way and the restaurant when we arrived -- he had clearly become "our" dog.

Jack & Midnight patiently waiting for Sue on the curio shoppe porch

The sun was out and it was hot; Midnight was clearly thirsty, his tongue hanging out to almost the ground. He even sampled some culvert water along the way, but rejected it (it looked pretty foul to me). When we got to the cafe (which turned out, by the way, to be very good) we asked for a paper bowl and put some out for him -- he lapped up three large glasses worth -- and genuinely seemed grateful. He hung around outside the restaurant while we ate and joined us when we were done, seemingly to return with us. Shortly after we started back, however, he disappeared -- we aren't sure where he went but certainly enjoyed meeting and "hanging" with our new canine friend.

When we got back to the marina, we ran into the Richmond gentleman driving out in his truck -- we waved him down to thank him for the recommendation -- when we told him about the decent food (and characteristically southern slow service), he thanked us -- he was on his way to get some lunch and was wondering whether we did OK. Oh, and during the ensuing chitchat, he dropped this "bombshell" on us -- he was leaving later in the day to go back to Richmond for a "birthday party for Bruce Springsteen's Band" -- he actually asked us not to tell anyone because it was a "surprise" -- don't know why he told us -- perhaps he saw the NJ sticker on our dinghy or perhaps he was pulling our leg -- we spent the next three days sampling Google to see if we could find an news about it, but never did.

After dinghy-ing back to our boat, we spent the rest of the afternoon by the Marina's pool (we paid to use the facilities), take a shower and hang out in the lounge (just an air-conditioned room -- sadly, no bar :-) Dinner was crab cakes and clams we had purchased on our "road trip with Midnight" -- yum.

Setting up to read at the pool

I liked the colors and the reflections

Oh, one post script-- in addition to the very friendly people and canine that I mentioned above and yesterday's helpful grocery store and marina owners, we were stopped literally 5 different times while we were walking by drivers leaning out their windows and offering us a ride -- Deltaville is demonstrably  the "friendliest" place i have ever been to.