The Dismal Swamp was a bit of a disappointment, with a major highway running alongside it. However, when we left the Swamp ditch and started navigating the Pasquotank River, everything changed… we were in the most beautiful cypress swamp I have ever seen.

We anchored behind Goat Island, a good anchorage, but well known for its owls. We had at least 4 of them carrying on, so David did one of his atrociously bad owl calls, and that shut them up for the rest of the night. They’re probably as scared of the swamp monsters as most people are.

 We dockied in Elizabeth City the next morning… Known as the City of Hospitality, you get free docking, a wine and cheese party, and a gentleman at the dock all day to help with any questions, tying up, etc… Unfortunately, my alternator repair I had just done gave out within about 5 hours, so I found myself fixing it while

underway several times… I took it all apart, found the source of the problem, and needed the services of a machine shop to fix the problem.. (For those of you that have asked… I’ve got the hi power alternator which provides more than the amperage my batteries need. I have backup systems and safeguards as well, so the loss of the alternator wasn’t a big issue. We have an additional generator, as well as solar and wind generation, and I can turn off the battery to the engine, so no matter what, I can always start the engine..) Well, it turns out on Sunday nothing is open in North Carolina, except for Mike and Mike repair services, who do anything, and I mean anything, that will pay them something. I gave them the parts I needed machined, and they disappeared with my expensive alternator and a bunch of parts…. They showed up 2 hours later, apologized for the bill, which was far less than anyone, anywhere would have charged, and did a superb job on the repairs. I put it all togerther, and it has worked perfect.  They were an interesting father and son duo.  Father Mike didn’t like naming younger Mike a junior, so he just named him Mike.  And Sarah, named their little girl Sarah…so, the IRS thought they were just taking double deductions.

We met up a bunch of our friends from Rock Hall in Elizabeth City, NC.  It was great to see them and share stories. They left a week after we did, which gives you an indication of our slow pace, or their very fast one.  We did not get the EC wine and cheese party…it was Sunday in NC, so we did it ourselves.  Carol, retired recently and shared her champagne with us…apparently she will be greatly missed by her colleagues, but we’re happy to have her as one of our fellow retirees.

We left Elizabeth City 2 days ago and headed North to the end of Albemarle Sound.  We are going 60 NM out of our way…everyone is wondering why we were heading north when everyone else is going south as fast as possible.   Well, we are so happy we chose Edenton, NC.  It is a perfect small town for boaters and maybe for just about everyone.

The city docks are free for 2 days…electric $3 a night, free wifi, showers, cable and…the use of a car!  we were the only transients there!  the charm, history and hospitality of this town was incredible.  We  were greeted everywhere like we were the most important people in town, we went to see a free afternoon movie at the Taylor Movie house, built in 1925…saw Teahouse of the August Moon…was great, with a full audience at 4 PM…gotta love us retirees!

We Had a great meal at one of the local restaurants…Watermans and, we went on both a walking and a trolley car tour that left us numb with their historic legacy going back to the very early 1700’s. First courthouse in the state, oldest house in the state, several signers of the Declaration of Independence, and the Constitution, one of the most famous runaway slaves in America, active underground railroad, and on and on and on.  And, did I mention everyone was incredibly nice? I met an old guy named Jim, who has a decrepit old trawler he’s fixing up… If we lived here it’d take about 2 days for Jim and I to become best friends, except he doesn’t drink alcohol.

Edenton also was home to Governor Iredell…actually, I think he was better known as one of the first Supreme Court Justices, and the Barker House was the location where the ladies league of Edenton refused to drink tea as part of their revolutionary stance against the king of England and the tax on tea.  There is a great museum at the Barker house in their honor.  There are about 170 high end historic homes in downtown Edenton dating back to the 1700’s!  They have their own Sotheby’s agent on Main Street and when we slowed down to grab a flyer, she flew out of the door and handed us a card saying…you never know.

The lighthouse has a story too…was originally at the Roanoke River Inet,  but, a man bought it about 50 years ago, had it out on Edenton Harbor and lived in it for 40 years and his son sold it to the county and now it is a museum!

So we’re leaving Edenton tomorrow morning early, to find an anchorage on the Alligator River. We leave it with some melancholy, and hope to be able to return to this lovely town. So, we anchored in the little Alligator River, I fixed a Caprese Salad and Spaghetti and, we had a great sunset.

We were pooped, so we went to bed early….water was like glass, almost no wind, and perfect protection from the south.  Around midnight, the wind shifted to the north and was 22-28 kts and we had some waves AND we were dragging our anchor, along with about 10 others boats that had anchored there.   It took me a couple of hours to get the picture of David running around the boat naked except for his life preserver out of my head!  It was the rockiest, rolliest night I have ever had in the boat.  we didn’t sleep much watching to see if the anchor would hold and I actually got a little sea sick from the waves and wind….oh, and then it started pouring!  Needless to say, we bugged out of there this AM as soon as it got light enough, along with everyone, but this poor trawler who was waiting for Boat US to come and tow him out of the stumps….guess he is a sound sleeper and didn’t notice his boat was moving!

I did not get the pics lined up with the story….you will have to guess what matches up!

PS We are now in Belhaven visiting a friend’s parents, and we just heard that the swing bridge we came through yesterday is closed due to 35 MPH winds!

We left the Rappahannock after a raucous couple of days…didn’t get off the boat at all!  So, we left early – 5AM. It was pitch black out, so we left by instruments… slowly. Got out on the Rappahannock just in time to see a glorious sunrise, tugs and barges starting their day, and the Rappahannock oyster fleet going out. There were well over a hundred waterman’s boats moving to the oyster beds just outside the mouth of the river. I haven’t seen so many watermen in years. It was a wonderful sight! The south wind started building again, and so rather than buck the wind and waves again, we sailed 45% off the wind, and headed for the Eastern Shore. About ¾ the way across the Bay, we tacked and headed west, ending up well south of our anticipated destination, in a little place called Bennett Creek.

In the morning, the anchor windlass gave up the ghost, and quit working. The he windlass is an automatic winch that brings up the anchor and up to 220′ of chain…heavy chain, so we needed to get that fixed. Distressed, we went into a little place called Poqouson, filled up on fuel, and headed out to go to Hampton Roads and fix everything.. On our way out, David called a friend he knew in High School but hadn’t seen in 44 years, but thanks to the wonders of Facebook, we had reacquainted. David knew he lived near Hampton Roads, but whenu he called Bob, it turns out he lives in Poqouson! We turned around, he lined us up with a mechanic who fixed the sheared bolt, and we were back on our way to Hampton.

An uneventful trip, we wanted to hunker down here for the Nor’easter that was coming. We’ve had a great time here… spent a lot of time with Bob. He loaned us a car, and we’ve done our laundry, shopping, got a new windlass, as well as had some great meals with Bob and Debbie.  we also met some great new friends from the UK who had bought a boat just like ours…and, from a marina right next to ours  over the Internet!  They even know some friends of David who are also headed down to Florida.

We also went to the Air and Space Museum here, tested our skills on the different planes and flying skills…some were really hard!  but, both of us achieved HOT SHOT Military pilot level and I crashed my 737 in a field.  and, we both rode along with a army Air Force team through Romania in a B-24….we bailed out just in time.

We also met some nice boating folks, all going south… Waited an extra day for our windlass, was finally delivered and David installed it and we went on our way through the Norfolk Navy Ships and the Portsmouth Shipyard…really impressive!

Now we are in the Great Dismal Swamp which was surveyed by George Washington, has been open for navigation since then, and is one of the more discussed routes on the trip. It’s a 62 mile “ditch” filled with nature, beauty, bears, turtles and other such critters usually found in swamps. Unfortunately, it also has “deadheads”, old semi-rotten logs just below the surface that can do serious damage to a boat. The best advice seems to be to go slow, and keep a good look out. The most interesting part has been the locks…just like the Panama Canal.  First we had to go into a canal with 5 other boats and then the Lock Master filled it with 12 feet of water and then opened the gate so we could go out…now we are at the other one and we will go down 12 feet….

We’re planning on spending 2 days in the Swamp before exiting in North Carolina.

I am going to try to update every couple of days as I can…David is also contributing, so I am trying to merge our updates…love to all!

Katie & Dave

Subject: 2nd day
Our second day was exciting! Started out beautiful, then we had 20+ in winds directly on our nose and 3-4 ft seas with a few 5-7 ft. The waves came crashing over the bow, and I did not secure all the ports or hatches properly, so beds and bedding all wet….clothes, etc. So we anchored in this picturesque little creek across from the supersonic testing planes for the Navy. Tried to start the engine so we could get a hot shower, engine won’t start! David has been working on it all morning and has figured it out and is trying to fix it….we had planned to stay put anyway as there are some thunderstorms and rain predicted.

We were still smiling, but tired at 10 last night, so guess we are going to be okay. We are going to have a hot shower to celebrate our 3rd anniversary!

Forgot to add that during our furious flight down the Chesapeake, we heard this really bad sound, looked at each other and David flew out of the cockpit to stop the anchor from going down 200 ft. the wave broke a steel thingy, which hit the button on the automatic wench which allowed all the chain to go….down along with the anchor. David stopped it, yelled at me to put the boat into reverse…we were in 30 ft of water and he saved the anchor and we continued on our MERRY way…we needed wine!

We are having a great time…