Entering the Intracoastal Waterway
Days and days have gone by with lots of beautiful sights and miles under our keel.
Days 33-34, October 13-14: Williamsburg, Virginia
Day 35, October 15: Hampton to Newport News and Norfolk, then into the Dismal Swamp
We left Pandora on her hook in Hampton, Virginia, in order to visit our dear friends, Harris and Barbara, in Williamsburg. As Bob predicted, we all regressed to the age when we met and became friends, roughly our mid-20s. There is no therapy like laughter, and we did a lot of that over the weekend. We were spoiled with Harris and Barbara’s wonderful home cooked meals, visits with some of their local friends, and catching up on lots of family news. We had a terrific time!
The contrasts in sights we’ve seen from the overwhelming display of naval power along the shores of Newport News and the commercial shipping of Norfolk to the tranquil, unspoiled sights of the Dismal Swamp are about as shockingly different as I can imagine any two days could be…
This is the buoy nun “RA36” which marks the beginning of the Intracoastal Waterway, mile 1. We passed this on Monday, mid-morning, and I knew we were on to something completely different!
We entered the Dismal Swamp through my first lock on Tuesday morning, and what a complete contrast this is from the channel that runs through Norfolk. Just before entering the canal we had to lock through at Deep Creek Lock. This is my first experience at locks, and I’m happy to say that it was not nearly as adventurous as I’d anticipated. At this lock we went from the salt water of Norfolk up four feet into the fresh water of the swamp canal.
The Dismal Swamp is stunning and does not seem very much like a swamp and certainly is not dismal.
There just aren’t words to describe how beautiful this passage of water is. It is a narrow channel of tea colored water, with verdant growth coming right down to the water on either side. The woods are so lush it’s breathtaking. All but the tallest trees are covered in vines. There are very few ferns in the undergrowth, mostly vines. The fall color is just beginning so we saw patches of red and yellow, and leaves were floating down on us as we motored south down the canal. There were lots of leaves in the water already. It was a beautiful fall day, bright sun and deep clouds which made dappled sunlight on the water for the whole trip. The wind alternated from light breezes to fairly strong breezes, and this was reflected by the changing look of the water, from mirror surface dotted with leaves that reflected a perfect image of the clouds above and the trees overhanging both banks, alternating with ruffled water from the stronger breezes. The canal is so straight that I could see a long distance down the way, and I could see the mirror surface changing to ruffled and back to mirror again a long way before we got to those bits of water.
We saw lots of painted turtles sunning themselves on bits of logs and branches along the way, and at one point we were surprised by a wild turkey flying right across our bow! This place is so serene….calm water, lush woodlands, the sound of birds (and unfortunately in some places the sounds of highway). There were mallards on the water and Canada geese overhead. If you’re not familiar with Dismal Swamp which is a national park, you might be surprised to learn that it was built under the direction of a group of men that included George Washington, starting in the 1760s. Washington was president of the Dismal Swamp Company decades before he held the more memorable presidency. The swamp was dug by slaves, and no doubt that was extremely dismal.
Dusk approaches, there is only a zephyr of wind as we sit on board Pandora gazing at the passing clouds mirrored in the still surface of the water. It’s time for a Hendrick’s G&T!
