I am finishing up the writing this blog entry on a sunny day of 70 degrees on Wednesday, May 13. Freedom’s Turn is cruising just four miles north of the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay. The entire Chesapeake Bay is a whopping 218 miles long. Virginia is mostly on the southwest and southeast side of the bay, Maryland borders on the northwest and east sides and a small part of Delaware is on the east. The southeast end of the bay opens into the Atlantic Ocean.
The Potomac River lies north and west of us where Mt. Vernon and Washington D.C. are. Charlie and I have already been to both places with the girls by car. Of course, seeing it by boat would be awesome. Going up would take 3-4 hard days and then back 3-4 days with a few days of sightseeing; adding about a 10 day side trip. We decided not to do the Potomac at this time. And we have heard the Potomac is tricky at times with cross currents, tidal surges, and an abundance of fish traps and crab pots.
We could get ourselves up for the challenge but we want to stay a little tighter to our schedule now as we get closer to summer. Besides, we learned a long time ago we just cannot do it or see it all.
We just left Ocean Marina Yacht Center today in Portsmouth, Virginia. Portsmouth is located at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay on its south side. Norfolk, Virginia, the sister city of Portsmouth, is located almost directly across the bay tothe east.
Norfolk has the world’s largest naval base. We took a ferry boat from our marina and spent a day going ashore to Norfolk with Jim and Sandy from the boat Footloose and visited the Nauticus-Hampton Roads Naval Museum as well as touring the Battleship Wisconsin that is open to the public as seen below.
Charlie and I are so excited to be the Chesapeake Bay finally. So much of our nation’s history was decided here in these exclusive boating waters of the US! And there is much of our nation’s commercial and international operations conducted here! Annapolis and Baltimore, here we come!
Our destination today is to travel about 50 miles to Deltaville as we begin about a two week cruise up the bay. We are now passing through Hampton Roads just past Norfolk where there are many kinds of the big navy boats on both sides of the harbor. Charlie says he bets they take good care of these babies. He says they look like they are ready to go at any moment, from our vantage point. At the next blog writing time, we’ll show you more photographs of the navy boats.
Norfolk is Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway MM 0 and we just passed it! We have now reached a milestone for a boater’s cruise: traveling the entire Atlantic Intracoastal from Key West, Florida at Mile Marker 1239 starting on January 5, to Norfolk, Virginia, at MM 0 by May 13. Hurray, Freedom’s Turn and her crew have made it this far!
Concluding Our North Carolina Cruise
Charlie and I have greatly enjoyed unique travel days in North Carolina these past few weeks.
This past week, Freedom’s Turn took us 30 miles in one day from Oriental to Belhaven for a two day stay there, then 90 miles in one day(!) from Belhaven to Elizabeth City for a two day stay there. Then we cruised 51 miles in two days from Elizabeth City to Portsmouth, Virginia, spending an overnight during those two days in the Great Dismal Swamp.
Belhaven, NC A tornado Sky
The Belhaven Waterway Marina was small but the husband-wife harbormaster team was big on friendliness and cleanliness. We stayed an extra day because of high winds. Tornadoes actually developed throughout four counties surrounding us on our second night; the county we were in, Beaufort, had a tornado warning with a sighting within 7 miles of us. We watched the sky closely (see photo) and the TV diligently that evening and had a basic bag of essentials ready to go to the local hospital next door, as a place of shelter, any minute if needed. We were relieved when the all clear came shortly after two hours.
Elizabeth City NC
We stayed here at the free city docks for the complimentary 48 hours the city gives boaters; one of the many ways the city makes all of us traveling the Great Loop want to come here. We entered the harbor following our boat buddies Sandy and Jim from Footloose. After getting off the boat, one of the first things we saw was the large painted sign that we had heard about from many. Took a photo of it right then.
We then got to meet the man whom we had heard about and read about named Sam, a self appointed dock master who makes it his daily mission to greet the boaters and help them with docking as their boats approach the docks. He is a fine example of a dedicated volunteer.
Sam waved us in with various hand gestures.
Then came to mayor from the city and the tourism director, (we are serious), to welcome us and invite us to a beer, wine, cheese reception at 4:30, promising a rose for every lady boater.
Several boaters showed up to hear the mayor's welcome and enjoy the appetizers. A group photo was taken (below) just before some of us set out for the town to have dinner in one of the downtown restaurants we had just heard about.
These wonderful folks represent the “Rose Buddies” of Elizabeth City. They are carrying on a tradition started in 1983 when Fred Fearing and Joe Kramer began greeting boaters with roses and a reception. Fred was the original “rose buddy” and carried on the tradition until just last year when he passed away. Lucky for all of us, the tradition is continues.
We filled our time in Elizabeth City staying in the downtown even though we could have had the local grocery store pick up and delivery for groceries if we would have needed to go; all for free We enjoyed the Saturday morning Farmer’s Market (right in front of our dock), shopping and sampling some good meals in a ‘down home’ kind of place and a Wholesale Seafood place that also served the food cooked for us. 
Farmer's Market Day. The man talking to Charlie is discussing the MSU basketball loss to N.C. Tar Heels. The day before, Charlie had replaced our MSU burgee with a new one and had accidentally placed it upside down on the mast. This man started the conversation with"Are you still in mourning?" He then told us with a smile that we had our burgee upside down! They both had a good laugh over this one.
This city is home to the largest Coast Guard command complex in the nation. Entering the city, there were several sightings for us to see of Coast Guard helicopters.
The Great Dismal Swamp Canal
The historical and beautiful Dismal Swamp offered us an alternate route from the more heavily traveled Virginia Cut. The map below gives an idea of the general layout of the water and land. Both routes are still part of the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway.
The canal’s construction began in 1793 and took 12 years of slave labor to complete. George Washington surveyed the land which he partially owned. Later, the canal served as a major commercial artery until it was damaged in the Civil War and later rehabilitated for use of moving lumber and farm products and then passengers.
Now the canal is used for pleasure craft boating and is maintained by the Army Corp of Engineers. The canal has remained open because of intense pressure from local politicians.
I loved taking a place on the bow. There was an intense smell of spring, so much stronger than being on a larger body of water. And the sounds of nature filled me up to the brim! It was Mother's Day and Charlie had taken me to the Dismal Swamp. A good gift after all. Ahead is our buddy boat Footloose.
The Dismal Swamp is only about 75 feet wide. Its banks are heavily draped with various kinds of grapevines. (I bet there are alligators galore in there!) The fresh water is rather stagnant, not being able to really flow in or out due to the locks. The color of the water is a distinctive tea color which is due to the amount of tannic acid from the break down of trees and shrubs, mainly the Cypress tree. I have read about this tannic water being connected to medicinal proposes by the Native American Indians and passed on to colonial settlers.
Water lilies in the dark, tannic waters.
Charlie got his great view from the upper helm station.
eighteen miles from Elizabeth City to get to the south lock. In this photo, at the south lock, we rose the 10 feet to be at the same level as the Swamp. 
The locks do not open on demand, consequently there is a lot of strategic planning on every boat’s timing when approaching the locks, maintaining speeds of 5-6 mph when traveling through, and timing it just right to come out when the lock is scheduled to opened at the north end. (Or vice versa if you are coming from the north)We would travel four miles that day in the swamp and then stop for an afternoon and overnight rafted to Footloose who was rafted to a sailboat who was tied up at the visitor’s center free docks as seen on right!
They next day we traveled about 18 miles more and reached the north lock where we went down the 10 feet.
We had previously heard about the lock master at the north end who accepts conch shells from boaters and if they have a hole in them will blow and make music for us all. He then places all the shells in his conch shell garden right at the lock’s edge for all to see. He did this, true to the stories, and as I held my position holding my bow line tight I regretted that Charlie or I were not anywhere near my camera and thus we lost this ‘Kodak’ moment.
We had maintained radio contact through out the two days with all the other boats and the lock masters to keep everyone on the same page, so to speak. The sailboats were most courteous to let us power boaters maintain the lead all the way through the swamp.
Poet Robert Frost, four time winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, (1874-1963) once vanished into the great Dismal Swamp waiting out an answer from a woman who he had proposed marriage to. She would later accept and be his wife. It was during this time while staying in an inn somewhere in the swamp, that Mr. Frost wrote his signature poem 'The Road Less Traveled'.
About half way in the canal we found the marker welcoming us into Virginia, leaving North Carolina. At this spot in 1820, there stood a hotel once known as the “Half Way House.” It was a popular place for marriage ceremonies, duels (!) and those escaping the law. Edgar Allen Poe wrote his poem “The Raven” while staying at this hotel.
Jim and Sandy on Footloose agreed with us; we all certainly enjoyed this pleasant diversion.
A few trip statistics
Making the “Chesapeake Bay in May” is a goal boats on the Great Loop want to have this time of year. A cruiser’s schedule is all about following the weather. Traveling north any earlier for this area and the weather can still be too cold to travel by boat comfortably. Much later and boats could find it difficult getting through Canada and the Great Lakes before the warm weather of summer and early fall turned to cold again before getting to Mobile, AL.
The time of year for Great Loop boats to start their journeys depends on where their boat is at the time of departure. A boat from Florida would begin sometime in the winter and a boat in Virginia would begin in the spring. We started August 8 from Cheboygan in northern Michigan near Mackinac Island and it was perfect; by October were thankful we were well into Tennessee.
These are general guidelines, however, because someone’s trip might be interrupted by choice or necessity and thus delayed for several weeks, months or even years.
We are close to being on time for our own schedule. Based on what we know now, Charlie and I will tour the Chesapeake Bay for the next two to three weeks. Then we anticipate being in the state of New York part of the month of June and in Canada most of the month of July before returning to our home port of Cheboygan, MI sometime the end of July-first part of August.
A Few Trip Statistics from our ship’s log August 8, 2008 - May 13, 2009
From Cheboygan, MI to the start of the Chesapeake Bay, Virginia at ICW MM 0!
Days: 280
# of marina nights: 230
# of anchorages: 31
# of Free docks: 19
Miles traveled: 4,514
Number of engine hours to date: 1,100.40
Engine hours beginning of the trip: 460.88 hours. ( an accumulation of five Michigan summers!)
Extreme weather:
Warmest day: Elizabeth City, NC: 92 degrees on May 9. Also:
Illinois River: September days in the high 80’s.
Coldest day: Near Demopolis, Alabama: 50 degrees daytime, 25 degrees at night
September 12-24 at Grafton, Illinois
FIRE:
April 23 Myrtle Beach (ICW closed for one day- we came through the next day)
TORNADO:
May 7 Belhaven (7 miles west of us – dusk settled storm down)
Highest price for diesel fuel:
Grafton, Ill in September, $4.75 gal. including tax
Lowest Price for diesel fuel:
Portsmouth, VA in May, $ 1.81 gal. including tax and a .10 per gal Boat U.S. discount
Arriving at Ocean Marina Yacht Center in Portsmouth, VA and having Mother’s Day flowers waiting for me at the harbormaster's office from our two daughters: Priceless
Our route in red traveled so far.
One last note about the Dismal Swamp. We certainly can’t say enough about taking the less traveled route of the Dismal Swamp over the more heavily used Virginia Cut. It was a slow and deliberate route and we were glad to see it. Realistically, we think our visit here will be the only time we will be passing this way again.
The photo below was our sunset view when we spent the night in the Great Dismal Swamp. We were lucky enough to have been the lead boat. The lead dog gets the best view (as Uncle Kenny says!), I guess. And the view was unforgetable.
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THE ROAD NOT TAKEN
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
Sincerely, Linda and Charlie
