TEXAS RANGER: Edenton NC to Elizabeth City to Dismal Swamp to Norfolk, VA September 7--9

Blimp Hangar

Elizabeth City, NC

SMALL Railroad Bridge

We left Edenton, one of the highlights of our travels thus far, and ran down the Albemarle Sound to enter the Pasquotank River. Traveling upriver, we passed a blimp hangar and base, and the large Coast Guard Air Station just south of Elizabeth City which is responsible for most search and rescue activity off the upper North Carolina coast. We docked at Pelican Marina and walked across the bridge to downtown. The Visitors Center was closed on weekends, and the Museum of the Albemarle was nearing closing, but we did have time to do a quick spin through it. We then found a delicious restaurant—Montero’s—and after one of the better meals in recent days returned to our dock to crash. Before turning in, however, we looked out and found the neighboring boat’s Siamese cat happily exploring our deck!

The next morning we moved on, passing through the Elizabeth City Bridge we had walked across the evening before, and up the river and Turner’s Cut to reach South Mills Lock, the southern end of the Dismal Swamp Canal, at 1005. We anchored in the river to await the next opening at 1100, watching a snake swim by and turtles perched on branches. We passed through the lock, and the neighboring bascule bridge by 1120, and at 1215 tied up to the pier at the North Carolina Visitors Center in the Dismal Swamp Canal. We walked across the pedestrian pontoon bridge to the west shore and toured the Dismal Swamp Museum and boardwalk path before returning to the boat for the evening.

We departed early in order to be assured of reaching the Deep Creek Bridge and Lock at the north end of the canal by the 1100 opening time. We cleared the lock by 1150 after a long conversation with the lockmaster, and turned into the Elizabeth River south of Norfolk at 1215. We had heard there would be a number of bridges requiring timed openings, but all have been replaced with higher spans that we could get under without requiring an opening, or were railroad bridges that were open already. We passed the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard with many large vessels undergoing work, and reached Tidewater Yacht Marina near the Portsmouth Naval Hospital at 1315.