Had a leisurely morning, leaving at 7:45 to head further up the Pasquotank River to the Great Dismal . Swamp. The Pasquotank River narrows significantly and twists and turns for the next 12 miles through pine and cypress woodland.
This area is a flyway for birds and their songs are everywhere. I saw lots of cardinals, swainson warblers, and some type of thrush I could not identify.
The Great Dismal Swamp is neither dreary or dismal. It’s told that the swamp got its name because the Europeans called swamps “dismal”. The Great Dismal swamp, a boggy depression in northeast North Carolina, once encompassed more than one million acres. The swamp now has about 440 acres, about a third of the original land.
The Dismal Swamp Land Co was formed In the 1760’s to dig a canal through the swamp to drain it for agriculture. George Washington was an original investor and surveyed the area for the company. By the 1790’s, the company shifted interest to harvesting the cypress and white cedar trees in the swamp. The wood was used mainly for roof shingles. In the late 1800’s, the harvesting of the trees stopped. Currently about six percent of the original white cedar trees remain in the swamp.
The canal dug in the 1760’s is still in service today, mainly for cruising pleasure boats. The canal is the oldest operational, man made waterway in the US.
To enter the Great Dismal Swamp canal, your must go through the South Mill Lock and rise the 8 feet into the canal waterway dug so long ago.
Ask we traversed the waterway we saw turtles sunning on logs, along with snakes swimming in the water. Saw the largest snake I have ever seen draped over a log sunning himself. He must have been 4 inches in diameter and I don’t know how long, as his body was not all above water.
We tied up to another boat at the North Carolina Welcome Center and Great Dismal Swamp Park. There are 5 other boats here and we have invited them to come aboard to do docktails.
We walked across the pedestrian swing bridge to go to the Visitor Center for the Great Dismal Swamp and walked the Canal Trail. Apparently the area was used for moonshining back in the day. Bill was disappointed that weren’t serving samples!
Enjoyed our evening visiting with the boating buddies who accompanied us down the swamp canal.
May 17. Day 46 23nm total miles 1162 On to Portsmouth, VA
We continued up the Dismal Swamp Canal for another 14 miles to Deep Lock, where we will lock down to Deep Creek.
Along the way, we entered the State of Virginia and also passed the old Park Superintendent house and old bridge obviously not being used for awhile!
Bill decided we should try to touch the leaves from the over hanging branches- was successful once!
The further north we went we began to see farms and homes on the east side of the canal. We also saw lots of ducks, one mom with 5 ducklings, geese and lots of sunning turtles. The birds are still singing their hearts out as we go by.
Locking through we went down 8-9 feet to enter the South Branch of the Elizabeth River. We turned our corner in the creek and suddenly we were in a huge industrial area - commercial boatyards and bulk shipping of sand, rock, oil, and scrap metal.
We felt small up against these large shipping vessels! But then we entered the naval boat yard and felt even smaller up against the aircraft carriers in the naval shipyard being serviced and repaired.
These buildings are old naval warehouses and storage facilities supporting the naval ship yard.
We turned into the Ocean Marina to take a slip for two days. Time to do laundry and make a grocery run. Tomorrow we will tour Olde Towne Portsmouth and Norfolk’s waterfront.
Met fellow Loopers, Mike and Cindy, who invited us to go to dinner at Baron’s Pub for their famous hamburgers. They were delicious.