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| We passed by Norfolk early this morning, several aircraft carriers were in for repairs |
We left Hampton at 6:45 am in order to ensure making the
9:30 opening of the Gilmerton Bridge so
that we would also make the 11:00 am Dismal Swamp opening. So deadlines piled
upon other deadlines and I got up at 5:30 to start getting ready.
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| Entering the Dismal Swamp, we first see palm trees! |
Somewhat to our surprise, the wind piped up and surpassed 20
kts as we headed towards Norfolk and we rocked and rolled. We were fortunate to
reach Hampton before the winds turned strong later this week. As we entered
Elizabeth River, the winds persisted but they had no reach and so little wave
action. As it turned out, we were 1/2 hour ahead of time for the bridge but we
wanted the extra safely margin since we could have been caught at either of the
two railway bridges before Gilmerton which are normally kept open but close
when a train approaches.
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| The locks at the Dismal Swamp are in full action |
We were also surprised that we were the only sailboat
waiting for the 9:30 opening and as we turned into the Dismal Swamp entrance,
we were all alone. Eventually a small motorboat joined us as the lock was
opening and we continued on into the canal. We were greeted with duck week from
shore to shore for the first 14 miles, ugh! Eventually we ran out of it and the
rest of the trip to the welcome center was almost without incident. As we
approached the free docks, we saw a mat of grass in the middle of the fairway
so we swerved to avoid it and didn't notice the overhanging branches of a large
tree on the side. Fleetwing swiped the tree limbs and branches came tumbling
down! Luckily, the branches only touched the shrouds and not the top of the
mast where the wind speed sensor was located! So there was no damage but a lot
of surprise at the resultant gravity fall of tree debris onto Fleetwing.
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| Just the start of our adventure! |
After that bit of
excitement, we finally docked Fleetwing next to the only other boat present, a
trawler going north, and we settled in for the night. The welcome center has an
interesting nature display that's free so we all marched over to see that along
with several nature trails, interesting.
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| Hummm, I think we got too close to a few trees! |
We'll set out at 10:00 am on Sunday to overnight in
Elizabeth City where Rudy and Alison plan on leaving Fleetwing for home. We'll
continue on south and meet up with former PYC members Don and Liz Bunch and
hopefully Bill and Pat Zeising at Washington, NC. We look forward to seeing
long-time friends!
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| At peace at the welcome center |
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