June 4, 2014 Chesapeake, VA

The Dismal Swamp was beautiful. We had a peaceful night at the Visitor Center dock; it was calm and cool in the morning. At 7:30 we headed down the waterway to the northern lock at Deep Creek. The lock master at Deep Creek is also the bridge operator at the bridge right before the lock. He raises the bridge, lets the boats pass, lowers it and then drives his truck down to the lock. We passed through the lock and headed to the Elizabeth River and Chesapeake, VA where the waterway was a lot busier.

June 3, 2014 The Great Dismal Swamp

Well after a peaceful night at Lamb's Marina we headed out at 7:30 up the river to the south lock on the Dismal Swamp at South Mills. The lock only opens four times each day. We arrived at 11:00 for the scheduled opening. George Washington ordered the canal dug in the late 1700's and it was completed in 1810. Today it is the oldest operating man made canal in the US. We arrived at the Visitor Center where there is a long dock for boats to tie to to visit or for overnight. We were spending the night. Three other boats we have been traveling with we're also spending the night and we all had docktails at 5:00.

June 2, 2014 Albemarle Sound to Elizabeth City, NC

We left Alligator River Marina at 6:45 this morning and headed out on to the dreaded Albemarle Sound. I say dredged because other boater friends have already crossed it and had a very rough trip. We were lucky, there was a 4 mph wind and the water was flat. We got to Elizabeth about lunch time and turned into Lamb's Marina. Lamb's is well an interesting place, see the picture below. We ate lunch at Lamb's recently opened restaurant with our cruising friends Gerry and Judy and then we all toured Elizabeth City in the marina couresty car.

June 1, 2014 Alligator River

We left Belhaven at 6:10 headed up the Pungo River to the Alligator Cut to the Alligator River down to the Albemarle Sound. Our trip started good with smooth water. About half way across the Alligator Cut we picked up some strong wind. We saw no gators but last week a car hit one on the road near the water that was 12 1/2 feet long and weighed 672 pounds. The trip got a little uncomfortable with the high wind so we pulled into the Alligator River Marina with some other boaters for the night. We all gathered for dinner at the restaurant next to the marina and called it a night.

May 31, 2014 Belhaven, NC

We left River Dunes at 6:15 to get across a big stretch of water before the wind came up. We entered a cut for fifteen miles passing a seafood processing plant with a number of shrimp boats at the dock. We crossed the Pamlico River and went up the Pungo River to Belhaven, NC where we spent the night.

May 30, 2014 River Dunes

This morning we left New Bern with descent weather headed down the Neuse River to River Dunes Marina near Oriental, NC. Beautiful marina near Oriental a cute little town on the water. We enjoyed a nice dinner in the up scale River Dunes restaurant.

May 29, 2014

We were up at 5:30 this morning getting ready to leave New Bern. I checked the weather and it looked like strong thunderstorms in the direction we were headed. So, we stayed another day in New Bern. The weather looks good for tomorrow so we hope to leave then.

We had breakfast on the boat, did some laundry and then headed out to walk around town. Our first stop was the Bay Leaf Cafe for a Indian buffet lunch. Was it good. Next we walked to the other side of town and went to the New Bern Fireman's Museum. Since we had a big lunch we had a light dinner at Morgan's Tavern of wine and artichoke dip.