After leaving the boat in Norfolk, Virginia, we drove back home to Long Island, visiting friends on the way. In the following two weeks, we visited family and celebrated Halloween and two birthdays, flew to San Francisco and drove north to Sonoma County to celebrate the wedding of one of Sally's longest-term friends, visited friends some more, visited Lynn's side of the family and flew back to New York Phew! We got back on board Southern Belle on Sunday, October 31st, Halloween and got a piece of candy each from a boat that was prepared for trick or treaters.
Monday, November 1st, we got up early and started south from Norfolk, which consists of following the Elizabeth River, going under a couple of bridges and turning right into the Dismal Swamp Canal. It was a cold, but bright, sunny day that warmed up quite a bit. We found ourselves in a pack of boats, about 10, going south in a canal that is about 50 feet wide. One of the other sailboats went aground and we managed to pull them off, the first of three times we tried to assist other boats in two days. Going through the DS Canal requires going through a lock at each end, the first one to go up 9 feet to match the elevation of the canal and the last one 22 miles later to drop 9 feet to the level of the Pasquotank River. After leaving the last lock we motored down the P River and anchored at Goat Island with three other boats, including our rescuees. That night it got very cold, giving us cause to be grateful for the heating system Sally had insisted we install as essential equipment. The next morning we got up before dawn, wearing our long johns, shirts, fleeces, long, warm ski socks, foul weather pants and jackets, just about anything warm we could put on. Oh, yeah, gloves too. We motored down the last few miles of the Pasquotank River, got to Elizabeth City and a bridge we had to wait for to be raised. Then we got out into a wider sound, heading south to cross Albemarle Sound to enter the north end of the Alligator River, so we got to sail for most of this day, with a following breeze.
As we were entering the Alligator River, still under sail, we spotted a boat gone aground on some shoals, which are reported to be shifting to the east so they lie partly across the channel. We lowered sail and motored in close enough to take a line from the captain, who had done an heroic job of dingying over to us in a breezy, wavy sea. We tried to pull them off, but were unsuccessful, despite two tries and we felt badly as we left them waiting for Boat US to show up. They were leaning over quite a bit and obviously hitting the bottom as the waves hit them. We stayed in a marina right next to the Alligator River Bridge, which has to swivel to let boats through. That night we found the snake and alligator you can see in the pictures next to this blog, where they had somehow gotten onto the swim platform on the back of Southern Belle. This is just to let some friends of our (who thought Lynn was fantasizing too much about dangers on this journey) know how right he was. There was a southern woman in the marina office/store/restaurant buying a 6 pack of ale who was talking about how there really are alligators in the Alligator River, but she seemed to be way underneath the influence, so her credibility rating is a bit questionable. Also, after dinner that night, we got involved in pulling really hard on some lines to pull a sailboat into a slip, against quite a bit of wind. So we tried 3 times in two days to help other boaters. It's probably not so surprising that Sally and Lynn, both therapists of some sort, would have this helping reflex, no questions asked.
As this has gone on quite a bit and is meant as a partial update, because we've been off the air for three weeks, we'll catch you up on further adventures in the canals and tidal marshes and forests of North Carolina soon. Stay tuned.
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