East Coast Travels

5/1 to 5/30 2007

This leg took us from Charleston to Elizabeth City.

We plan to post and update at least weekly. We move the older portions of the log to secondary pages accessible at the bottom of the page. Join our voyage!

Updated on 06/12/2007

5/1/07 - May Day, we fueled and watered in Oriental and still were on the water by 7:45am. There wasn't any wind to speak of so we motor sailed to the Pungo River and through it. We saw our first live deer on land in 1 3/4 trips on the Eastern and Midwestern waterways. It was an easy day, even though we made 80 miles. Temperatures in the 90's were offset by light breezes, especially in the afternoon. I spent a lot of the day troubleshooting a system problem that came up when we powered up the instruments this morning. The boat thinks it is facing 180 degrees from its true heading. Had this issue when we first got the boat, thought it had been solved. I also worked on the VHF to no avail... it may just be a bad radio. We made the Alligator River by nightfall, anchoring  in a spot Ruth and I had used two years ago. Ruth photographed a neighboring boat anchoring as the full moon rose. An interesting couple we'd passed earlier who are lazily sailing the waterway - motoring only when there is no wind. 5/2/07 - Tuesday, we had a fantastic sail up the Alligator River  - 7.5 - 8.5 knots all day. We arrived in Elizabeth City, NC about 3pm and tied up at the City Dock - no charge. At 4:30 we joined our dock mates for wine, cheese and roses courtesy of our hosts Fred and David (world renown for the Rose Club, official greeters to Elizabeth City. We learned lots of local knowledge from them - The Guardian was filmed here (very large Coast Guard air base at EC), most all of the blimps other than Goodyear were built here, the blimp hanger we saw replaced a wooden one that burned down, the current hanger will hold several blimps, and the history of the Dismal Swamp waterway. Very neat history - alive in people like Fred, 93 years old! Ruth asked him if there was anything he'd like to do in life - he answered that he was doing exactly what he wanted to do. We met several Looper's at the get-together... some we'd met before, some new.  We joined Maeve and Bradd for an excellent meal on Sampatecho. About 9 pm a Nor'easter blew in, causing us all to return to our boats to make sure they were secure. We were... good thing as the thunderstorms rolled through all night. 5/3/07 - Two years ago this date we were anchored south of Camp Lejeune, 185 miles south of here. As if to remind us of that trip the mild Nor'easter left us with grey skies, drizzle and a 60 degree temperature. Today is a down day - groceries, pharmacy, wash and boat projects. A couple of days ago I got the diesel heater working (it was 90 that day), it may come in handy if it gets any colder. Yesterday we talked over the VHF with a TowBoatUS location 30 miles away... seem to be gaining on that project. Yesterday afternoon I reached Raymarine and got the system realigned - they noted we need to keep an eye on it. If it reverses again we'll need to send the Course Computer in for servicing. I wonder why the ancients called these vessels "boats" and not "projects". 5/4/07 - Last night at 6pm we walked in the light drizzle to a dinner theater. It was a neat concept, nicely executed. The exterior was that of an old movie theater with marquee and ticket booth. The interior was colorful, clean and modern. We entered up a ramp and took a right into the theater. The front half of the theater was conventional seating for general admission. The rear half was a series of 3 decks with tables and comfortable swiveling arm chairs. On each white tablecloth laid a wine list, menu and a phone. We called in our order and waitresses brought our drinks and meal from the adjoining South Carolina restaurant - bussing our table as we finished. At 7 the movie started - Anthony Hopkins in Fracture. Ruth and I agreed it was a great meal, great movie - what an unexpected treat. Speaking of treats, Mother Nature surprised us with a downpour for the 6 block walk/run back to the boats. I found an old cobbler's shop, Crank's, on Poindexter Street and surrendered my favorite boat sandals for repairs. The cobbler related there had once been 6 shops in Elizabeth City... he was the only one remaining. He was doing a brisk business. It is a heating day today. Ruth asked if we could start the heater for Buddy (yah, sure - for Buddy)... I was afraid to - I hadn't run it since I fixed it. Would it really work? It did! Very nice and toasty below while the cold drizzle dances on the windows. I worked with Bradd, troubleshooting his alternator. We found a broken wire and got the system operating again. Man over machine - another victory. We departed for the Dismal Swamp about 4pm. Missed the Rose Buddies greeting to new boaters, but we'd done that. We anchored  above Goat Island in 9 feet of water. There are two cold fronts forecast for the next 5 days, this is a good place to be. We had a glass of chardonnay while we listened to the cardinals and woodpeckers communicating in the wilderness. Only 2 boats in our private little anchorage. We could be a thousand miles from civilization. Our wish, to share this with our grandchildren... they may be the last of the story tellers - telling the world what it was like before the Yuppies condoized eveything. We watched a DVD, Closer, while we had supper... what a wondrous technological world we live in! Bradd and I closed the day with a Conch duet followed by Ruth's fractured soprano Conch solo. 5/5/07 - Another weekend! Time flies when... you know. Nights in the 50's, days in the high 60's. I think we've caught up with Spring. Ruth had a Hummingbird hover just a foot from her face. She marveled at the sound of its wings. A pair of geese flew by, their trumpeting echoing in the silence of our little cove. Though the sky was a sullen gray as we motored into the Dismal Swamp we found it anything but dismal. The natural waterway narrowed into a straight ditch. We experienced an 8' lift in the South Mill lock, our only lock of the day. It was also the widest part of the canal. There were originally more locks, but as digging technology improved the ditch was deepened and locks removed until only two remain. Traversing the canal Ruth and I had to watch for deadheads in the 8-9 foot water while watching for trees that tried to canopy the waterway - our wind instruments and antenna are at the top of the mast. By 1pm we were at the Visitors' Center 6 miles from the Virginia border where we tied up for the afternoon and night. As we approached the seawall we realized the place was humming. 208 canoeists and kayakers were just completing the 5th annual "Paddle to the border" event. We watched the last of them straggle to the cheers of relatives and friends. Later we watched a water moccasin slowly swim by our boats. It attracted quite a crowd as they are apparently rarely seen. According to a local resident it was a "northern" moccasin - not poisonous.  I didn't check that premise out. The water in the Dismal Swamp is fresh, but is tea colored from the cypress tannin. The water is so acidic that bacteria can't grow in it -  water barreled from the waterway stays fresh for months. The canal was started before the American Revolution. George Washington was one of the original investors. Their goal was draining the swamp and harvesting the cypress trees. By 1950 loggers had removed the last of the virgin cypress stands. Draining the swamp proved more formidable, hence a significant wildlife area still survives. There ended up being 8 sailboats rafted for the night at the Visitors' Center. Most were taking their time, waiting out a pending "backdoor Nor'easter". We had an impromptu cocktail hour and sing along. It was interesting talking to the different couples and learning of their travels and plans. 5/6/07 - It rained all last night. Sunday began with a cloudless sky and blustery winds. Two boats headed north, the rest remained to outwait the "backdoor Nor'easter". I had an e-mail connection and was able to work a couple of hours in the morning. The wind blew in a winter sky and temperatures dropped. Our diesel heater kicked on - keeping "Buddy" toasty. Our only traffic during the day was 2 sailboats passing by, enroute to Norfolk. Our decision to stay put seems smarter by the hour. NOAA has raised the wind forecast to 50 knots. We helped 3 more boats raft up a the wall here. It was pretty dicey as the wall is upwind of the canal and perpendicular to the wind. We picked up our e-mail and were surprised by a photo from Susan Gray, MV Gracious, of us waiting for the South Mills lock to open so we could enter the Dismal Swamp canal. Cool! Thank you Susan! Say Lady Lynn, see how nicely the dinghy hangs in the arch. It seems much happier nestled into a sailboat. Bradd found his VHF radio tester today and lent it to me. Everything in our radio system checked out A-Okay so that means our transmission garbling is the result of some other system on the boat. Hmmm, we've tested with everything shut off that we can shut off and still have the noise issue. Guess it will take a tech with an oscilloscope to track it down. It's important as it is our communication link with bridges, locks, other vessels and the Coast Guard. 5/7/07 - Woke up to a cool, sunny, windy day. Nobody headed out at dawn, or 8am... At 9:30 we decided to move the 11 miles to the next lock. Wind gusts in the high 20's sometimes brought us literally to a stop as we motored slowly down the canal. Robert, the bridge and lock tender at Deep Creek, did a special opening to allow the 4 of us through to the Elizabeth Dock - warning us not to go further as the wind was driving waves up the canal. We heard from boats in Oriental that the docks, wall and streets by the waterfront were flooded by wind driven water. We walked to the supermarket and provisioned a little, trying to run out of most things before we drive home.  5/8/07 - The low pressure delivered a rainy morning. We (a group of 4 boats) walked down to the lock for coffee and donuts and an interesting morning of conversation. This group is staying here the day as there is no compelling reason to be in Norfolk in this weather. I'm working on client projects and Ruth's trying to sell something. Feedback on the radio from a few boats that passed through indicates they wish they'd holed up with us. Wind, waves, spray and rain making travel unpleasant. When we headed up this part of the ICW an alternative was to go outside and around Cape Hatteras. Given that the weather is unsettled this time of the year we elected to stay in the ICW. Again this proved prudent as we read of the rescue of 9 persons from 3 sailboats off Hatteras yesterday. A 4th boat is missing. The Coast Guard's capacity was tested as they had to recycle tired crews to get everyone that they did. The 4th boat was lost when their radio quit transmitting. We don't like being outside Hatteras because it takes a couple of days to get out and a couple to get back. The weather forecasts aren't good for that long this time of the year and once you are there you are committed to dealing with whatever Mother Nature dishes out. The Coast Guard rescue teams reported regular 50' waves mixed with 70 footers. Not a nice place to spend a couple of days. 5/9/07 - Heavy fog greeted us this morning. We locked out of the Dismal as the fog rose to tree top height. We worked our way through Norfolk enroute to the Chesapeake. As we got to Hampton Roads the fog settled to water level and visibility dropped to less than 1/8 mile. It was challenging moving slowly toward the bay and an anchorage with ships marking their presence by sounding their horns, we responded with our bell and horn to announce our presence. Occasionally the fog would darken, revealing a tug or large container ship that would slowly glide by and disappear off our stern. Our radar indicated the passing of a couple of vessels we never got a visual fix on though we heard them. With relief we found the #3 buoy and crossed the shipping lane to feel our way into an anchorage. Good day for a book! We were serenaded all afternoon by the throaty ship horns as vessels moved slowly through the pea soup. The radio buzzed with calls for assistance by lost boats, boats with engines out drifting in the channel with warships and cargo ships that couldn't see them and the Coast Guard's repeating request for all vessels to keep a lookout for the 54' sailing vessel "Flying Colors" missing with 4 persons aboard off Cape Lookout. It was a delivery crew bringing the boat from St Thomas to Annapolis. 5/10/07 - The search for "Flying Colors" goes on while we sit in dense fog behind Fort Monroe in Hampton. The radio chatter gives one a sense of the size of the Navy fleet here... ships arriving and leaving in a steady stream in the fog. Surprisingly we are also tracking our first sub-tropical storm. Andrea is off Savannah, strengthening, currently headed SW toward Dayton, away from our position. We left for Deltaville in the fog, visibility about 1/2 mile. As we got on the Chesapeake the visibility dropped to 1/8 mile and less. Both AA and Sampatecho have radar and we both sounded our bells and horn as we crept up the bay. On radar I saw ships and tugs with tows slip by unseen by our eyes. It was eerie being in such a busy body of water... essentially flying like a bat. We worked our way up the western coast of the bay, running in shallower water to avoid the big ships. It seems a lot of smaller craft had the same idea. Pegasus and Nauti Boyz were 1/2 hour behind us so we occasionally radioed them with updates on traffic they would be encountering. We had a brief "Raymarine Moment" when our radar and chartplotter crashed as we crossed the interface between two electronic charts. At Wolf Trap Shoal the fog burned off and we had wind. We sailed on to Deltaville. Late afternoon we were anchored... watching the fog bank roll in and recede like waves on a beach. Ruth was on the phone trying to set up a rental car for the trip home. The next step is to find a marina to store for AA for a few weeks. 5/11/07 - The fog is still around... south of us. We have a hazy sunrise. Deltaville is a quiet little anchorage - very well protected. Ruth has been calling around to get rates for a car and for boat storage. We plan on a 24 hour drive home starting some time Monday afternoon. We rented bikes (and washer/dryer, wifi, showers, pool, etc) and visited Walden's Marina by bike to see the slip AA will occupy and do the paperwork. 5/12/07 - Fog again, about 1/2 mile visibility. We sailed for Tangier Island but soon had to motor the 18 mile distance (about the same as a motor from Neenah to Oshkosh). We took a slip in Milt Park's marina for $30.00. Tangier Island is a fishing community. It's relative isolation has allowed the islanders to retain an Elizabethan English dialect that is challenging to listen to. They are watermen and crabbing is their industry... combined with a little tourism. Crabbing is getting harder as the cost of running a boat is $3-4,000 per week and the yields are falling. Many of the young men have gone to working on tugs, following their water heritage. Islanders rely on golf carts for cars as the streets are narrow - conserving land on this 2.75 mile long island. You see very few motor vehicles. 5/13/07 - Grey skies with showers and cold 20-25 knot winds made the decision to return to Deltaville a hard one. We said our good byes to Maeve and Bradd last night - we'll miss them a lot the next few months and are looking forward to catching up with them next fall. We have to head out as Enterprise will have a car at the marina at 8am and there is no way to reschedule it. I hate it when sailing decisions are based on arbitrary deadlines... emphasis on dead. The locals say not to worry, the Chessie will be riled but not beyond the capabilities of AA. We hit the bay in 20-24 knot winds under a sullen sky. The waves built to 4-6 feet as we ran down wind to Deltaville. Rain squalls passed us but none hit us. By the time we were docked the sun was out, the wind subsided and it was t-shirt time. We spent the balance of the afternoon getting the boat cleaned and stowed for storage. Tomorrow we'll be heading for Wisconsin by car. It was hard to say goodbye to Maeve and Bradd... its like having good neighbors move away. Another Adventure is all tucked in, ready for a short hiatus. 5/14-15/07 - We headed home from Deltaville in an Enterprise car. 17 hours and 1,083 miles later we arrived in Appleton... at 3am. Log postings will be resumed in 4 weeks when we rejoin the boat. Looking forward to catching up on the house, work... and meeting with a lot of friends the next 4 weeks.

Sampatecho passes thru a narrow Dismal Swamp route RR bridge - photo by Ruth The old wood retaining wall remains - by Ruth Truckin' thru the Dismal Swamp - by Ruth AA at South Mills lock - photo by Susan Gray, MV Graycious "Dismal" party at Visitor's Center dockside Chesapeake viewed from Deltaville Deltaville homes Tangier Island harbor Tidal creek across from our slip Bradd & Maeve on Tangier street corner Tangier buses, note raised platform for flood protection Ruth with float - crab trap background High water dictates that tanks and houses be raised Tangier's stays close to its past - often in front yards Crusty old salt, photo by Ruth So long for now... for our buddies Bradd & Maeve - smooth seas and fair winds, photo by Ruth

Visit earlier portions of our east coast travels...