We left Hampton today for our trek down the dismal swamp. The "Ditch" as they call it was built by the Army Corp of Engineers as one of two routes for traveling the ICW. It is fairly shallow, about six feet depending on rainfall. It is approximately 10 feet higher that the entrance at Deep Creek so a lock is required to enter. It is straight and narrow, but is abundant with wild life and foliage. You can only travel at about 5 knots and passing other boats that are slower can be difficult at times. Tonight we are staying at the Virginia Dismal Swamp visitors center. Free dockage, but no power and we are rated together with about 15 other boats Quite a flotilla of boats scurrying to get into limited space and trying to help each other in. If you want to get out early, fagadda bout it, it ain't gonna happen.
Oh, yeah, we visited the Air and Space museum in Hampton!
Passing a battleship on the way to Dismal Swamp
She really is happy! That green stuff behind her is called Duckweed. They have been having an infestation of it at the lock in Deep Water. That is the lock wall. You have to hold yourself to the walls as they raise the water level.
This is the passage through the Dismal Swamp, called the Ditch. Fifty five miles of this!
Here we all are tied up at the wall at the visitors center. You can barely see us behind that big boat with the fly bridge.
More to come.
No comments:
Post a Comment