One nice advantage to the Elizabeth City Public docks is the
closeness to the draw bridge. I called
the tender at 6:30 am and gave him a heads up that we would be requesting an
opening in 5 minutes. He said he would
have the bridge opened and waiting! What
great service!! We wanted to get going
by then because the bridge is restricted from 7-9am from M-F. Plus, the weather’s suppose to change and
bring winds and rain tonight. So we’re
trying to make it to Portsmouth, Va to tie up by early evening.
We are now headed to the Dismal Swamp and will get through
it by late this afternoon. The South
Mills Lock opens 4 times a day just like the Deep Creek Lock. We know we can’t make it to its first opening
at 8:30 am but we’ll be able to make the 11 am opening. The only trouble with this is that motoring
very slowly will still get us there 1 hour early. Ugh!
It was so gusty and the waterway directly in front of the lock gates is
pretty narrow, that Chuck was constantly moving the throttle forward and reverse to keep us off the banks
and out of the overhanging trees. It
wasn't a fun filled hour, that’s for sure.
Finally, it’s 11:00 am and the gates are ever so slowly opening…but in
we motor. Since we were the only boat,
it didn't take long for us to lock up and through the gates and then motor the
¼ mile waiting for the lock tender to now become the bridge tender. After 30 minutes, we were through both the
lock and bridge and on our way to the Deep Creek Lock.
 |
| exiting South Mills lock |
 |
| waiting for South Mills Bridge |
 |
| bulkhead at the Welcome Center |
 |
| narrow canal |
The section of the Dismal Swamp between the two locks is
very straight and narrow. I think we are
the only cruisers heading north except for sv/Whisper who left from the Welcome
Center. We are seeing quite a few kayakers
launching at the Welcome Center and a Macgregor Sailboat tied up at a small
dock along the way. The only other boat
is a sailboat heading south…very different than last October. I made a mistake and told Chuck that the Deep
Creek Lock’s next opening is at 2:30. So
he had the hammer down...
3 hours to make it from lock to lock. Then when we were 10 miles out, I checked the
time again and discovered that the last gate opening of the day is 3:30 and not
2:30. Oops, sorry! Chuck slowed us down and we still got there 1
hour early. Not again….darn! We arrived at the draw bridge at 2:45. When I hailed Robert, he decided to call the
other lock to see if there were any boats behind us. There weren’t any, so Robert opened the
bridge and lock gates early for us. Yes,
we finally got a break today…only to face another delay….the Gilmertin Lift
Bridge.
 |
| Gilmertin Bridge and RR Bridge |
 |
| view waiting for Gilmertin to open |
It’s on restriction between 3:30
to 5:30. I knew this was correct because I spoke with the bridge tender about
an hour ago. Robert told me to call the
bridge back to see if they have any commercial reservations scheduled during
the restricted time. The reservations
must be made 2 hours in advance so the bridge tender knows one way or the
other. If we’re there and the commercial
vessels get a lift, we can pass through that opening. So, I called and no such luck! 5:30 it is!
We ever so slowly motored to the Gilmertin Bridge only to have an hour
wait there too. So many delays today….but
once the bridge opened we only had 2 railroad bridges and a fixed bridge to
pass and then we’d be at the High Street Landing and a free facedock with
sv/Whisper. We made it by 6:00…Yikes….it
took us 11.5 hours to go 51 miles!!!! David
and Rita were there, waiting to catch our lines and to give us some back news.
There transmission went out again…this will make it 4 times. I just feel so bad
for them.
 |
| aircraft carrier across the river from us |
 |
| HH II and Whisper at side |
.jpg) |
| HH II at side |
Surprise, surprise.
We were entertained by the Portsmouth Fire Department. They brought in all of their fire trucks, ambulances,
and even their fire boat and positioned them for a photo shoot! Their lights were flashing for about an hour
or two. It was really cool! I thought Zach and Papa Gorby would have been in heaven looking at the fire dept display around us! Finally, Chuck and I needed something to
eat. Rita directed us to a great
restaurant called Roger Brown’s. It’s a
sports bar and restaurant and the owner played in the NFL during the 60’s. It was nice to just sit there and watch all
of the tv’s scattered around the restaurant…
No comments:
Post a Comment