Lady Royal: From Oriental to the Dismal Swamp Canal

May 21

Oriental, NC was a nice stop. We stayed at the Oriental Marina and Inn, an out-of-the-way marina with a nice pool, on-site restaurant and a few nearby shops. Chris and Bruce (Bade Boomer) stopped by and we shopped, visited the tiki hut, and bought Chilean sea bass from the fresh fish market across the street from the marina. We grilled out, and it was great. The place was full, and on a smaller scale, reminded me of Riviera Beach, with partying going on all around us until all hours of the night. Bad time to have an all-day pounding headache!

Bruce, Chris and Rob at Tiki Bar

Oriental Marina and Inn

Oriental • Sailing Capital of NC

May 22

Our next stop was Dowry Creek Marina in Belhaven, NC (May 20), another marina in an isolated location. John helped us tie up, and invited us to join them for a barbequed ribs pot-luck dinner. We settled in, used the courtesy car to go to the grocery store, and enjoyed a great dinner with about 20 other people. Our contribution was tomato, basil, mozzarella and onion salad with balsamic vinegarette dressing. Mary, the owner, was really personable and runs a nice facility with a pool. There's really no benefit to staying in Belhaven, and we found this to be a really nice stop.

Mini-Alcohol-Bottle Tree Art

May 23

Next was Elizabeth City, NC. Our journey took us across the Albamarle Sound and Pasquotank River. The Albamarle Sound is known to be rough at times, so our rocking and rolling wasn't too bad! Although there are city docks at which dockage is free for the first 48 hours, we continued north and docked at Lambs Marina because the weather was supposed to get bad and dockage was more secured. The marina, which doubles as a trailer park, was pretty run down, but for one night, served our purpose. We borrowed a pick-up truck from one of the employees, went into town, and enjoyed a ceremony presented by the “Rose Buddies,” a group of volunteers who welcome boaters to Elizabeth City and let you know what to expect when navigating the Dismal Swamp Canal, the oldest continually operating man-made canal in the United States. We had a cocktail at Coasters, and dinner at Cypress Grill, both nice places. The city is somewhat depressed with a lot of empty store fronts, but the people we met and places we went were good.

Elizabeth City

Rose Buddies

May 24

We left Lambs Marina around 8:30 a.m., allowing enough time to make it to the 11 a.m. opening of the South Mills lock, the first of two locks on the Dismal Swamp Canal. This 22-mile passage took 12 years to build, and has been open since 1805. It was dug by slaves to transport wood and shingles, and today, provides an alternate, scenic route when traveling north on the ICW (Intracoastal Waterway). It connects the waters of the Chesapeake Bay in Virginia and Albemarle Sound in North Carolina. We stayed at the Dismal Swamp Canal Welcome Center, the only welcome center in the continental U. S. that greets visitors by both a major highway (Highway 17) and an historic waterway. Just across the canal is the Dismal Swamp State Park and its Visitors Center. We walked around for a while until we couldn't take the 90+ degree heat any longer, came back to the boat, and cranked the air conditioning. The area is rich with birds, butterflies, bears, snakes, beavers, bobcats and many addition animals. While sitting on the bows of our boats with Chris and Bruce, we saw river otters barreling down the river. No photos of them as they were too fast for me! Tomorrow morning we'll leave around 8:30 a.m. to catch the 11 a.m. opening of the Deep Woods Lock, and enjoy the continued beauty of this narrow, unique passage on our way to Norfolk, VA.