The Dismal Swamp

The Dismal Swamp   …   Saturday 20th October 2012

The Atlantic Intra Coastal Waterway (ICW) starts in Norfolk (mile zero) and heads south up the Elizabeth river. Almost immediately you have a choice of taking the Virginia cut to Albermarle sound (faster but less scenic) or go through the Dismal Swamp Canal, which is more interesting with a greater variety of places to stop, but is shallow and has speed limits. We chose to go the Dismal Swamp route because it is recommended that if you can go this way you should. We have a 5'6'' draft and controlling depths in the canal are 6'. We left the dock in Norfolk shortly after 8am with two key time points to meet - the opening of a road bridge at mile 6 at 9.30am and entry to the lock at mile 11 at 11am. We arrived in good time at the bridge but it didn't open until almost 10am because the adjacent railway bridge was down and there's no point opening if you can't get through anyway. So after much hanging around with about 5 other sailboats and a dozen power boats we made it under the bridge. Shortly after we turned off into the Dismal Swamp route - accompanied by only two other boats. The next five miles meandering along the river to the lock were really beautiful and going through the lock was fun. We then motored an additional 16 miles down the canal itself which was pleasant enough if a bit repetitive. We saw depths of 6'9" on the depth meter but mostly it was more than 8'. However, we saw numerous floating logs and every now and again hit some piece of submerged debris, which was a bit nerve wracking. We arrived at the Dismal Swamp visitors center at about 3pm and tied up to their dock for the evening and took a walk down the nature trail. Originally this area was a vast wetland, but early explorers were keen to drain the swamp, harvest the trees and turn the area over to agriculture. The canal was finished in 1805 and most of the hardwood was logged out by the 1880s but logging continued until the 1960s. Since then efforts have been made to protect the area as a wilderness and today it is home to a wide range of wildlife including bobcats, otters and some 350 black bears. When we came back from our walk we found another boat rafted up. We had expected this as the dock really has only room for about 3 boats. The only issue will be whether our neighbors (Steve and Rick) are as keen to get going early in the morning as we are!

p.s. we are now in North Carolina

36 30 23.7 N, 76 21 21.0W

Mike

Deep Creek lock at the south end of the Dismal Swamp Canal

 The Dismal Swamp Canal

Rafting at the visitors Center