Sunday, June 03, 2007

Toward the Chesapeake

After an overnight stop at Tuckaho Point, we had to wait for the Alligator River bridge to open because the fog was too thick for the bridge tender to see whether or not the car traffic had stopped.
We stopped at the free docks at Elizabeth City and walked up to the Rose Buddy party at Fred's fascinating house. Then, a bunch of us went to the dinner/movie theater to see "In the Land of Women" -- not bad for a chick flick.
We led a few trawlers through the Dismal Swamp to the North Carolina Welcome Center free dock and had a potluck dinner ashore with them (Sesame served butter pecan ice cream from her freezer for dessert!). Most of them were "Loopers" (a popular 1-3 year cruise that circumnavigates the Eastern US: along the ICW on the coast, up the Hudson River and the Erie Canal, around the Great Lakes, back down the middle of the country from Chicago, across the Gulf of Mexico to Florida, down the West Coast of Florida, and then back up the coast). Those who are doing it in one year in slow-moving trawlers always seem to be a a hurry because they have to meet certain weather deadlines along the way.
The dismal Swamp is quite beautiful most of the way and has a fascinating history.
Once through the Swamp ("Swamp" means a wetland where the major flora is trees, such as mangrove or cypress. A "marsh" is full of grasses.) we spent two nights at the Waterside Marina in Norfolk where we window shopped through the huge mall.
The Captain went through the nautical museum and the Battleship Wisconsin.

After the excitement of Norfolk, we were relieved to spend a couple of nights at anchor in quiet creeks before our trip up the Potomac River to Washington D.C.

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