Dismal Swamp and Locks, July 7, 2007

Our trip through the Dismal Swamp was enjoyable for the most part except for a couple of detractors. As mentioned in the last section, the Pasquotank River was gorgeous, peaceful and serene. It ran right into the Dismal Swamp, a very narrow canal with few other boats—fortunately. We passed at most three other boats and wondered each time if we could manage to get over far enough to let them by. Of course, we did, but it was iffy. We were very surprised at the amount of debris in the water. We were constantly on the lookout for floating logs, tree branches and other possible dangers. Since we were motoring, we didn’t want to chance getting anything caught in our props. This constant watchfulness became wearying towards the late afternoon when the extreme heat coupled with a zillion deer flies finally got to us.

However, along the way we had two locks to go through. The first was the South Mills Lock, pictured above. There we were one of two boats to go through. We had a great time visiting with Jim and Linda Allred on Boogaloo, an attractive trawler. After this lock we came to the Welcome Center where a rather large sightseeing boat, Bonnie Blue, was tied up. Before she tied up, however, we saw her coming and were sweating out her passing by us. We were sure it would be a very tight squeeze. Fortunately, no worries, as it turned out.

Then we traveled to the next lock at Deep Creek in Virginia. While waiting for the bridge to open—which occurs just before the lock—the heavens broke loose with a downpour. It continued to rain as we passed through the lock. The lock tender, Robert Peak, was quite a character. He had a collection of conch shells and gave us a demonstration of his ability to actually play a conch shell. He not only could play different notes, he could do trills! He and Mike were going to have a contest on who could play the best, but we quickly determined there was no contest. Instead he gave Mike a lesson on playing the shell. Robert also gave a short lecture on the history of the Deep Creek lock and the Dismal Swamp, all the time managing the three boats going through.

Shortly after the lock, we found a pretty little anchorage a few miles from Portsmouth, Virginia, where we spent the night before going into Portsmouth on July 8.