Friday, November 20, 2009 Dismal Swamp to Elizabeth City, NC The friendliest Town

Dismal Swamp Visitor’s Center to Elizabeth City, North Carolina.

Sunrise 6:47am Sunset 4:54pm winds 6mph from the NW and light rain/drizzle at 6:30am.

After making coffee I grabbed my camera. I noticed that Rob and Tiva were up so asked permission to cross his boat and he said to come ahead, I didn’t need to ask. It just feels weird to walk across someone’s boat without permission though. I walked over to the visitor center and noticed it doesn’t open until 9:00am but noticed that the bridge going across the canal had closed again so foot traffic could cross to the other side. After taking pictures on this side, chatting with Spray, Hampshire Rose and Jade East, I headed over to the bridge.

The bridge tender’s name is Jennifer. She’s a nice young lady. We chatted for a bit and she kept covering her mouth periodically which was distracting until I figured out she was trying to hide a tongue stud but for the life of me I couldn’t figure out why… A lot of the kids back home have them but probably not so many here in the middle of nowhere. I learned that she read her first full book here and was starting her second one. She was amazed that people wanted to know about this area where she grew up. I guess she never really appreciated it. She was telling me that it amazed her when a boat from Washington State came through. They were so thrilled to be here. They thought that the stories that they’d heard about the Dismal Swamp were nothing but fairy tales and were enthralled that the place existed. This gave her a totally different outlook on the area so she decided to read up on it. I’d asked her about the Halfway house and she said that she thought it hadn’t been around for quite a long time. I’d told her I was bummed about it not seeing it – it’s in brochures about the canal and she said that she was surprised that it was still in the books and brochures because she couldn’t remember ever seeing it. She told me about the trails etc… around here and we talked about the area before I noticed that it was approaching 9am. I wanted to visit the Center and sign in before we left otherwise I could have probably stayed another hour chatting with her. She told me to use care up ahead towards South Mill, a boat coming through there had broken a mast on one of the overhanging trees (that must have had a lean to it from the storms). I thanked her and got a picture of her before taking off.

I learned over at the Visitor Center that the Halfway house had been gone for at least 20 years! I’m thoroughly surprised that someone didn’t try to save such a historical building.

What a shame. The ladies at the visitor center and I all decided that if they’d rebuilt or even built a place near there they could make a lot of money selling tickets and/or opening a bed and breakfast to all the tourists that came through… hmmm… a new career.

We untied from Jade East and backed and turned back onto the canal, then Jade East untied and turned and then Hampshire Rose. We look like a little parade going through the Dismal Swamp Canal, timing our arrival to the 11:00 Bridge and lock opening. Spray (the trawler with a terrier similar to a Jack Russell), Hampshire Rose, Jade East and us all locked through together and when we got to the Pasquotank River the depths changed from 6-9 feet to 12-15 feet. This is really a much nicer route than the path through Coinjock. There are a lot of places to pull over and anchor and the scenery is beautiful.

At 12:00 our mast hit some tree branches overhead but there doesn’t appear to be any damage to the antenna or anything.









3:00pm we made the Elizabeth City Dock. You pull nose in to the pier and there were several people there to catch our lines. Hampshire Rose came in first, then Jade East, then us (Spray came in way earlier – he’s a faster boat).

We had a welcoming committee of a WWII vet named Sam and a younger gentleman named Gus. Both wanted to give us the lay of the land and it appeared that there was a little generational animosity between them. Sam walked off in a huff and we learned about where to go, what to do and how to get groceries and showers, etc… from Gus, then later Sam came back and gave us all kinds of information too. He invited us to a wine and cheese party for the boaters and told us about the best place in town to get a Ruben sandwich if we like Rubens (You know I like Sam now – Rubens!). He also told us about a Dinner Theater where you could get dinner and a movie – you just call from your table to order the food via phone and they bring it to you, then you can kick back and watch a movie. Sounded good to me!

A little after 4pm another person was standing outside our boat so we came up and chatted with him. We talked about boats, heading south, and he pointed out his boat to us. I told him he should go south this year with us – a little blue trawler across the way - and he smiled and said he had commitments, so couldn’t, but was looking forward to boating more in the future. He asked us if we knew about the wine and cheese party for the boaters and we told him that Sam had told us about it. He said he hoped to see us there and was going to invite the rest of the boaters and hoped that they all knew about it from Sam too. He was really interested in knowing if Spray was going to be there – I guess that they’d run into each other before and had both been laid up in New Jersey during the storms last year. We all headed for the wine and cheese party (the four boats plus 2 more) and that’s when I discovered that I’d been trying to convince the mayor of Elizabeth City to head south with us. Oops… my bad… New title for today’s blog: How to feel stupid without trying. Now I know why he was smiling at me, and what his commitments are. I’d heard that the Mayor came out to the docks to greet the boaters and was surprised to learn that this was he. I don’t know of any other city where the mayor comes out to greet its visitors and invite them to a wine/cheese gathering…

Pictured from left to right is the Mayor, Rob, Holly, and Rob

He gave a nice little chat to all of us about the amenities of Elizabeth City and its history of giving roses to the boats (I got 3 and Holly got 3 – we were the only women there) and trying to cater to boaters. It was a very nice gathering & I have to remember to send some of my recipes for use in a cookbook that they’re trying to put together. After the Wine & Cheese party I dropped my roses back at the boat and we went into town to go to the dinner theater.

The city streets are old and the houses and shops are historic. They have Christmas wreaths on the lights that line the street with sailboats inside them – very cute for a boating friendly town. There was a host of great looking places to visit. But with dark upon us, and thoughts of Ruben’s and dinner theaters in my head, I was on a mission. We were told that because it was a first run movie tonight (plus date night) there might be a line-up and we should get there around 5:30pm to get a good table even though they don’t open the doors until 6pm. When we got there, there were 3 couples already in line ahead of us. The movie that was showing had a star-studded cast of: Jeff Bridges, George Clooney, Kevin Spacey, Ewan McGregor and… a Goat. It was called “The Men who stare at Goats”… Huh? I can’t say as I ever heard of that one and I like all of the characters – even goats… We stood in line and chatted with the couple in front of us. We were told it was a comedy and that it was about the military?

I decided to explore up and down the street while Wayne held our spot in line – we were couple 4 of about 10 couples. When I spotted the sailboat wreaths I had to line up to take a picture of one on the alley near the theater. Two teens (a girl and a guy) were in the alley doing something – I guess I disturbed them because after I got my shot of the wreath they were gone. Across the street there was a wig shop with some outrageous wigs. Good thing they weren’t open or I’d have been all over this one full-bodied, brilliant blue one. A longhaired purple one was really WOW too! I got an eye roll from Wayne on that one but, I know, he was just grateful that the shop was closed so I couldn’t try any of them on… Quite frankly I think either would keep my head warm in the cold weather.

At 6pm they opened the doors and we got one senior rate, one not and were seated in the center section near the railing. It was a cute little theater. The section before the screen was like a regular movie theater and the back section was divided into 3 areas/rows of tables that had lamps on them and phones to call in your order once you were ready to order. The low light setting and roominess was fairly romantic and the menu items were all very reasonably priced with beer on tap, wine, soft drinks and on the back page they had a menu of the theater candies, pop corn, and “sodas”. After scanning through the menu, Wayne got a Yuengling beer and French Dip and I, after much thought, got a Ruben and chocolate malt. We both got onion rings and coleslaw. Then the lights dimmed and we watched the movie. Wayne thought it was worse than “Attack of the Killer Tomatoes” and I thought it was kind of funky. Can’t say as I’d really recommend it but it was kind of a humorous tale of our military trying out a “psychic-friendly approach” to winning wars with LSD and hippy philosophies. It was overall an entertaining evening. I wouldn’t have missed it for the world – a very unique evening.

Getting back to the boat we discovered that there was no easy way to get back onto the boat other than trying to catch the bow from topside (we’d had to jump down from the bow to the small dock at the bow, below the wharf, to get off the boat) and climbing on over the railing of the wharf. I managed to get back on, then Wayne discovered that he couldn’t climb on from the dock below – we were to high off the water. He had to climb back up to the wharf and grab the bowsprit to bring her back to him and I guess we were being kind of noisy trying to get back on because all the sudden there were two guys and a German Shepard on the boat next to us wanting to know what the problem was and if we needed help. We told them no, and the Shepard stayed at the bow to watch us as the guys returned to the back of their boat to go below. I couldn’t help but say “The things I gotta do to get a man aboard my boat!” This cracked Wayne up, but we managed to get back aboard without going into the water. I put my roses in water.

All in all it was one of those wonderful days from start to finish. We need more like this.