WILD SWAMP HOGS, SNAKES AND THINGS THAT GOES BUMP ON YOUR KEEL//DISMAL, DISMAL OH DISMAL SWAMP

 

Well before I get to the DISMAL,oh so Dismal Swamp, I need to tell you about our passage to Norfolk.  

You might be familiar with the saying "May you have fair winds and following seas!"  Well I'm hear to tell you to stop wishing that on us...that's exactly what we had on the way to Norfolk. The problem was that the day before the Cheapeake had 15 to 20 knot north  winds with waves 3 to 4 ft. When we left Deltaville we had 5 to 10 with "1-2 feet" waves. Well, no, the waves were easily 3 feet and made the ride so rolley that we both were feeling pretty queasy. Forget going down below. We couldn't wait to get into the traffic of the Navy. And there was a lot of traffic.   Not so much Naval. The tugs were pushing huge barges by that time of day. (4pm)  The best part, and the part that changes our whole day around  was we saw pelicans and dolphins. In fact we had a few dolphins fishing in our anchorage the next morning. One surfaced about 100 feet off our dingy as we were heading to shore for gas.  

We were able to catch up with our friend, Captain Kev off of Distant Horizon.  He is there doing some improvements to his boat. We had a good time walking around and visiting over beers and dinner.  

finally feeling better after the waves calmed down

Jon and Capt. Kevin walking around Norfolk 

always standing ready. We heard (VHF) on our way out of Norfolk that a submarine was on its way in

we are always lucky enough to catch race night

this is bridge going out of Norfolk...not bridge to lock.

 

Ok, so we headed out about 8:30 from Norfolk towards the dismal swamp.  We had enjoyed it the last time we went through out six years ago, so peaceful and picturesque.  It was peaceful to, if you could unclench your stomach from bumping every mile or so on some submerged log or whatever...we must have bumped at minimum 20 times. You'd think we'd get used to it..you'd have 8-9 feet of water then, thump, we bumped. Then 7 feet. 6 feet ok we have 8 feet again we're safe. Then we could enjoy the nature all around us.  The blue Herron flying in front of us, the yellow butterflies, wow an eagle...."what the heck is that black thing swimming across the swamp!!"   "could it be a dog orrr, get a picture..."I don't know how to use your phone", "give it to me...awe we missed it"  "ok google. What kind of animals live in the DISMAL Swamp "  Black bears. Wild hogs, otters..It would have been either a small bear or wild swamp hog.  We're going with wild swamp hog. So back to enjoying, bump, ugh.  "But look at the falling leaves and the sun, What the heck. Is that a snake?? Get the phone,  give it to me!@   I got it! Wow did you see that, it was redish with diamond shapes...ok google what kind of snakes live in the..."  

Well after a "peaceful day" we made it to the bridge that lets you in toward  the canal lock..we were behind a boat,  YeeHaw, who is calling the bridge tender.  (Side note, the bridge tender also runs the lock..so he would let north bound traffic in the lock, fill the lock, let them out of the lock, jump in his car, drive the quarter mile to the bridge and open the bridge. The scheduled opening was 3:30pm and they only open on scheduled openings)  its 3:10pm and the boat a head of us hailed  the bridge tender, who answered and said something about schedule and something we couldn't understand.  YeeHaw waits about 3 minutes and calls again and then again every 3 minutes  because the current is taking his boat.  He is yelling and struggling to keep boat under control, but makes it to the bunker right before the bridge.  In the meantime Jon has put our anchor out, we are about 500 to 600 feet behind him. The current was pulling us a bit and between reverse and forward we were doing ok...then no it was just to narrow. So we pulled up anchor and the reset it about 350 feet now.   And, still, the current is pulling us a little. It is now almost 3:30pm. We also hail the bridge tender to let him know we are there as well...no answer.  Jon has to pull up anchor as we are about to go aground. Now things get stupid.  The current is so intense that Jon is unable to keep  control (yes I handed over the wheel, as things were getting hairy) we were traveling sideways toward the bridge!! all of a sudden our port quarter stern(left side rear) was heading for YeeHaw and the Captain of YeeHaw is flipping out, yelling at the bridge tender for not opening and possibly damaging two boats. Jon is doing his best to not hit the bridge which is only about 4ft off the water. He is putting in reverse then forward...we don't have enough room to clear the other side and hit the bunker with our anchor...again a bit of reverse..me pushing off yelling instructions that I'm not even sure he could hear..a lot of forward we are at the wall (which  by the way, has a small bush coming out of it and all I can think of is I hope it doesn't have pickers or poisonous cause I'm going to get a face full of it.) Steady..get a line on the bunker...there's a cleat. We are safe.  But we are headed the wrong way. THEN YeeHaw has left his bunker (wall) and heading the other way, telling his "crew" to get in dingy and push his bow around..the bridge is now opening..and the one north bound boat comes through.  YeeHaw Captain is spewing and yelling all the way through and telling his crew in the dingy to meet him in the lock, but help us first.  Turned out Jon got us turned around pretty good and we headed for the lock..kind of nervous as to what YeeHaw was going to do. I saw the Bridge Tender/lock tender get in his truck and race towards the lock.  YeeHaw says nothing, except gets off his boat to talk to us and dispose of a can (no speculating) He ask us if we could believe that he just sat in the building watching us struggle..  I nicely told him that I think he was tending the lock at the time.  All was forgotten. 

Now I'm exhausted telling the story and I'm sure you are too.  We anchored about 10 miles later at Goat Island  is was very quiet and super peaceful  Jon and I laid on the deck and counted our lucky stars 

very pretty swamp...water is the color of very strong tea

Welcome to North Carolina                                          Swimming Snake...you'll have to blow up

 you have to blow up these two pictures to appreciate....they just were in the middle of no where on the Dismal Swamp

very short video of Dismal Swamp

This is Yee Haw in front of us

ok google....       

Goat Island, where Jon and I laid on deck to see the million stars....and count our lucky ones

That is all for now.  Please leave comments and give us your link to your adventures.