It’s moving day in Portsmouth. It’s been great to talk to Bob at Mile Marker 0 again and visit this charming town but it was time to go. You could say the pig floated by. Early crew call, a little sun, and dry docks were a welcome morning sight.
We made good time up the Elizabeth River and had the Gilmerton bridge operator not dropped the bridge right in front of us, we would have made the earlier opening. The ICW bifurcates right after the Gilmerton Bridge, left is the Virginia Cut, right is the famous Dismal Swamp Canal and that’s where we are headed. But first we had to lock through.
Growing up in “The Burgh” locking through is no big deal. While we were in the lock chamber an old friend pulled in, and we noticed people had been signing the lock walls.
The DSC gets very narrow, so in addition to watching for shoaling depths, the cautious mariner has to watch for trees overhanging the canal, waiting to snag his mast and rigging. Marce shows good form spelling the skipper.
While transiting the DSC we crossed the state border between Virginia and North Carolina, not as fancy as a highway sign but it works.
We followed three sailboats to the welcome center and managed to jam all of us onto the free docks, and when we hopped off to stretch our legs in the Dismal Swamp State Park, Izzy “Adventure Kitty” Katzenbaum didn’t even want to get off Escape Velocity.
That’s life on the water.