The day after I decided to give Infinity a wonderful salt water bath, we hauled up the anchors at Hospital Point and started putting actual ICW miles under her keel. We had some time to spare before we got to Deep Creek Lock to get into the Dismal Swamp, but we also wanted to make sure we caught the opening of the first bridge we needed to go under, so we left at normal speed until we got to the bridge. The highway bridge is 65′ high so we didn’t need to wait for that, it was the railroad bridge right after it that’s about 24′ high that we had to wait for. Infinity has a 50′ air draft so she was way too high to get under it. We came around the corner in the river and there were the bridges and about 10 boats waiting for the opening. The railroad bridge was waiting for a train to go over and we heard on the VHF radio that it was going to be about 25 minutes before it got there…ugh. So what do you do for 25+ minutes? Make a snack? Play cards? Nope….you circle around like vultures with all the other boats, trying not to run into each other. Lots of fun for sure!! 😖 Somehow we all survived and eventually the train came and went, the bridge went up, and it was a mad dash for the opening. Sailboat = slow so we were at the end…lol.
Not much further down the river was the big decision to take either the Virgina Cut (most powerboats go this way) or the Dismal Swamp. We took the right at the sign and everyone else went straight!! Yay for us!!
After we made the turn, we started up Deep Creek at idle so we wouldn’t have to orbit outside the lock waiting for it to open. It was fine though as it was a beautiful sunny day!! I put Infinity on autopilot and went below to get the mattress topper and hang out over the boom to help it dry some more. Nothing like being a floating clothes line but hey, ya gotta do what you gotta do, right? As we moved along, the city of Norfolk seemed to melt away into a very rural area with very few houses along the creek. It was nice!!
We motored this way for a couple of hours and made it to the Deep Creek Lock right on time (great job Pegu Club!!).
The Dismal Swamp Canal has a fantastic, and somewhat dark, history associated with it. The canal was first proposed in the 1763 by George Washington as a way to move goods by water instead of over the very poor roads that existed back then. The canal would connect the Chesapeake Bay and the Albemarle Sound in North Carolina. In 1783, the Dismal Swamp Canal Company was formed and in 1794, with was started in the canal. The canal was dug completely by hand using slaves from local landowners. The canal took 12 years to dig the 22-mile cut thru the swamp. The canal opened in 1805 and has since had many owners and lots of modifications.
The people of the time commonly referred to swamps as “dismals” so that is where the name came from. I would highly recommend taking a few minutes to read the history of the canal as it’s played a major role in the formation of this country, both good and bad, and continues to provide a service to this day.
Ok, back to the story…
A lock on a canal is used to maintain a consistent water level in the canal. A lock consists of two massive sets of gates, a way to let water in to or out of the area inside the gates, and a person to run the lock. On the Dismal Swamp canal, there are 2 locks (one on each end). When you approach the canal, the water in the lock is lowered within the lock to the level that your boat is at. Once the water is at that level, they open the set of gates that’s in front of you (the other set of gates remain closed). The lockmaster calls you on the radio to come into the lock, takes your dock lines around a couple of posts, them hand them back to you so you can keep your boat steady. Once everyone is set, they close the gate behind you and slowly let water into the lock to raise you up to the level of the canal water level. Once everything settles, the lockmaster opens the gates in front of you, you pull in your lines, and motor out into the canal. When you get to the other end of the canal, you reverse the process to go back down. We were raised and lowered about 6′-8′ in the locks.
We thanked the lockmaster as we pulled out of the lock and went about 500′ to the dock where we planned to spend a couple of nights at so we could provision, do boat chores, and go to….WAFFLE HOUSE!!!! I’ve never been to a Waffle House before so I was pretty excited to try it out!! So far, the Dismal Swamp wasn’t so dismal after all!! We tied up to the dock and celebrated my first locking on Infinity!!
We got things tidied up on the boats then headed into town (about a mile away) to go to the Food Lion to stock up on needed supplies. We passed the Waffle House along the way but that was going to be for the next morning…😳🤪. We got back to the boats, put things away, and started our boat chores. I brought out the mattress cover, the mattress halves, and some towels to put out in the sun seeing that the showers had passed and it was beautiful again.
As stated before, I had never been to a Waffle House before, so the next morning was like Christmas (well, almost…) and I was ready to go as soon as the sun came up. It was a bit longer but we did get there!! I plopped my butt down in the booth and proceeded to order just about everything on the menu so I could try it all. The waitress was probably thinking something like, “what is wrong with this damn Yankee” but after we explained I was a Waffle House virgin, it all made sense to her!! Well, 45 minutes later, I waddled out of the WH having eaten more than the Pegu Club crew combined. We still laugh about it too. I did survive and it was really good!! That’s my Waffle House story…🐷.
The next morning we dropped the dock lines and headed down the canal at the breakneck speed of 4 knots!! I know this sounds pretty slow but there’s a few good reasons for the speed. Ya see, the canal is 6′ deep at it shallowest and Infinity uses about 4.5′ of that depth with the keel stuck down. Add to that the deadhead logs that lay on the bottom (logs that are water soaked and sink), the logs that are floating on the surface, and the trees that overhang the canal then I think you get the picture.
We motored down the canal with the goal of reaching a very isolated dock about halfway thru the canal for the night. I was glad to be finally in the Dismal Swamp canal as I had watched videos from other cruisers going down this same waterway for years and here I was following in their boat wake!! I had to almost pinch myself just to make sure I wasn’t dreaming.
We got to the small dock about mid-afternoon and tied up for the night. I was pretty proud of myself as I hadn’t hitting any floating logs, run my mast thru any overhanging trees, and had only hit one deadhead on the bottom. One thing I did forget to mention earlier was that you want to put a football fields (or more) length between the boats cos as the first boat passes over a deadhead, the turbulence could cause the log to float up then settle back down so if you’re to close to the front boat, you hit the log. Well, I was too close to Pegu Club and hit a log…😖.
The first night stop was really in the middle of the swamp and the only thing there was a little building with a bathroom in it. Other than the lights on the outside of the building, there were no other illumination in the area. It was sooooo dark….and sooooo quiet!! I was waiting for the Creature from the Dismal Swamp to climb on my boat and drag me into the dark water but it never happened. The next morning we got up early and left as soon as we could see ahead of us. The next (and final) stop was about 12 miles down the canal and it was the Visitors Center. This visitors center is the only one of it’s kind in the country because it not only services the canal, it also services Rt 17 in North Carolina. We were looking forward to getting there to stop for a couple of days and explore the park that’s at the center. As we motored along, the border between Virginia and North Carolina was marked by a sign along the canal so it was cool to cross into another state!!
We soon saw the swing bridge at the Visitors Center come into view so we knew we were close. Seeing that this dock gets a lot of traffic, it’s normal for boats to raft up to each other so everyone gets a spot. We decided that Infinity would tie up to the dock and Pegu Club would raft to Infinity so we started to prep for that as we got closer. The tie up and rating went super easy as there’s no currents, tides, or wind in the canal and soon we were all settled in and ready to start exploring!!
We spent a couple of days exploring the area around the center, met some new cruisers from Canada, participated in a 911 emergency call event, and did boat chores. Soon it was time to go though and this also meant it would be time to lock out of the canal. We said goodbye to our new Canadian friends and the people that work at the center, and motored down to the lock (again timed perfectly by Pegu Club) and proceeded to lock out of the canal in the same fashion we had locked in. Our next stop was a marina just north of Elizabeth City, NC so the Pegu Club crew could take care of some business back in Annapolis and I could be really sneaky and pull off a surprise visit to Denise back home!!
Next up…. Elizabeth City, driving home, and the dreaded Albemarle Sound!!
❤️❤️❤️
Sailing Infinity 