Serendipity

Wednesday, April 12, 2023

As we reported yesterday, we arrived in Coinjock to find that our route north was blocked, because the Great Bridge Lock was closed indefinitely. (What?) The Coast Guard did a woeful job of getting there news out, otherwise we could have chosen a different route.

Undeterred, we decided to back track about 1-1/2 hours and take the other route – through what is known as The Dismal Swamp Canal. It’s an ugly name, but it turned out to be a GORGEOUS ride.

Leaving the Albemarle Sound, you follow the Pasquotank River north to Elizabeth City, a cute little town at the river bend. As you enter the river, you pass the Weeksville Dirigible Hangar.

We weren’t quite sure what we were seeing until we got closer-neither of us win the bet!

From there you follow the river’s winding course for several hours until you connect with the Canal.

In May 1763, George Washington made his first visit to the Great Dismal Swamp and suggested draining it and digging a north–south canal through it to connect the waters of the Chesapeake Bay in Virginia and Albemarle Sound in North Carolina. As the first president, Washington agreed with Virginia Governor Patrick Henry that canals were the easiest answer for an efficient means of internal transportation and urged their creation and improvement

In 1784, the Dismal Swamp Canal Company was created. Work was started in 1793. The canal was dug completely by hand; most of the labor was done by slaves rented from nearby landowners. It took approximately 12 years of construction under highly unfavorable conditions to complete the 22-mile long waterway, which opened in 1805.

Along the canal, there are what appear to be original stone mileage markers

The only drawback of the trip is that it is SLOW: 23 miles at 5 MPH. It was a 9-hour day, our longest passage ever. And very straight!

I would not have chosen this route, and I’ll probably never do it again, but I’m SO glad I got to see it!

The good news is that – rather than sit pinned at the Coinjock docks, we ended up just a few miles short of where we would have been if the Great Bridge Lock had been functioning!

We are spending the night at the foot of Deep Creek Lock just miles from Norfolk. We would have continued, but the last opening was at 3:30, and we didn’t arrive until 5PM. We knew this in advance, so we decided to push on as far as we could so that we’d be poised for the first opening tomorrow at 8:30 am.

Then it’s on to Kilmarnock

We are pleased that – once again- what seemed like a setback resulted in a great adventure!