You know what they say about the best laid plans of mice and men? Well, that was our day. We started off so well. The wind was perfect... My captain did a fabulous job maneuvering us through the super tight marina, down the super shallow channel, and into the Pasquotank River ....heading to the Dismal Swamp canal. We filled with diesel as soon as Ed got to the marina, and left right afterwards. Who knew that wasn't early enough????

Apparently, in order to get through both ends of the Dismal Swamp in one day, and get through both locks, and all the bridges, you need to leave Elizabeth City by 6:30 am. Hhmmm... Well, we didn't do that, so we though maybe if we hurried? Yeah, no. It doesn't work like that either. The speed limit is 6. That's barely idling. If you hurry, you just end up sitting at the lock waiting. Might be better than going crazy slow, but then maybe not. We arrived at the first lock at 11. It opens at 11:30, so we're doing great. It only opens at 8:30, 11:30, 1:30 and 3:30. To make the 3:30 open at the end, you need to be through the 8:30 lock at the beginning. Oh well.

The pictures are beyond stunning. Check out the video I took of the water behind the boat. I took SO...MANY...PICTURES of the swamp. It was storybook beautiful. I don't feel a need to do it again, but I definitely recommend doing it once. The sides were so thick, and so lush, and appeared so buggy and snakey that I want no part of walking through it. According to history, this area was a part of the Underground Railroad, and when the slaves made it this far they were usually safe. No one would follow them into the swamp. Between the Cottonmouths and the Copperheads, and the Alligators, oh yeah....and the bugs, and the bears... It's pretty inhospitable to people, for sure. Just the fact that they were willing to endure that to get to freedom says a lot. The entire swamp canal was dug entirely by hand, by enslaved human beings. They had to be forced to do it, because of the horrible working conditions, but they also learned enough about the swamp to be able to live successfully in it for a while.

This canal is 4-6 ft deep, about 50 ft wide, and has little to no current. Trees fall occasionally, because trees whos roots are on the edge of a canal sometimes give way. The tree takes up quite a bit of those 4 ft deep that we need, so we bonked quite a few times. A few of them were pretty serious bonks. I wasn't getting in to check it out though, so hope its all good.

We made it as far as the Visitor Center and decided to spend the night tied to the dock. Seemed like a great choice. I wish it would have been a bit further off the beaten track, because the streetlights of the Visitor Center made it too light to see any wildlife at night. Bummer. We tied up with 7 other boats doing this same trip. There are a few pictures of the evening docktails. Fun times! We thought about walking over to the other side (there is an overhead walk bridge) but I am a mosquito magnet, and didn't want to deal with it. I may have missed something amazing, but I'll risk that.

Tomorrow? On to Norfolk!