Wow, we are on our last week before crossing our wake. It's hard to believe we have been cruising for 13 months. What an incredible journey and enough memories to file a life time! In preparation for the final leg of the trip, Roofus got a spa bath. Well, really a warm bath in the galley sink. As you can see from the pic below, she was tolerant but more than ready to escape and has that 'take pity on me Dad human...get me out of here'.
We made our way to Alligator River for the night and captured this gorgeous shot of the evening moon with a replica of the Cape Hatteras lighthouse in the background.
On the 30th we docked up in Elizabeth City and picked up Patsi, Ken's sister, for the last few days of the loop. We headed out the next morning and entered the Dismal Swamp Canal. It was a beautiful day. The canal itself is the oldest continually operating man-made canal in the United States, opening on 1805. During the Colonial period, water transportation was the lifeblood of the North Carolina sounds and the Virginia Tidewater areas. A canal connecting the of waters of Chesapeake Bay in Virginia and Albemarle Sound in North Carolina was first suggested in May, 1763 by George Washington. In 1784, the Dismal Swamp Canal Company was formed with work starting in 1793. The canal was dug completely by hand with most of the labor being done by slaves. It took 12 years to complete the 22 miles long waterway. Today the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers operates and maintains the canal.
Interesting fact. The canal was closed in October 2016 due to the flash floods caused by Hurricane Matthew. The runoff from the storm filled the canal with silt and sand, making it impassable. It wasn't reopened until March of this year. Timing worked great for us as we really wanted to make the canal part of our Great Loop experience.
The Dismal Swamp Canal is part of the Dismal Swamp State Park. Combined with the national wildlife refuge that spans two states, is a 125,000 acres of wetland forests, making it one of the largest undistributed tracts of land remaining in the U.S. It's home to birds, butterflies, black bears and more. We didn't see any bears though, which was OK with me.
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| Dismal Swamp North Carolina - So calm the water was like a mirror reflecting the trees on the banks. |
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| Dismal Swamp North Carolina - Patsi and Ken at the helm. Love the smile on Patsi's face. |
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| Dismal Swamp North Carolina - Patsi got to be First Mate as we locked through at South Mills |
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| Dismal Swamp Canal North Carolina - We spent the night last day in May at the North Carolina visitor center. Just a few miles from the Virginia state line. |
June 1st dawned bright and beautiful and hot. It had been warming up bit by bit as we moved up the east coast. But after chasing spring-like weather for most of the trip, it was a smack in the face to remember that summer is hot. Needless to say we ran the generator even while we were underway to keep cool. But even the heat could not dampen our enthusiasm as we headed north on the canal and into Virginia.
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| Dismal Swamp Hamburg Ditch - There are 150 miles of ditches that have been dug for the purpose of slowing the drainage of the swamp in order to maintain the eco-system. |
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| Great Dismal Swamp - All along the way were these beautiful flowering shrubs raining their petals down on the water. |
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| Great Dismal Swamp - One of my favorite pictures. So calm the banks reflect like a mirror on the water. Our poor tattered burgee is ready to be retired. |
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| Great Dismal Swamp - We picked up this passenger and several of his friends. |
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| Great Dismal Swamp - Another gorgeous shot of the reflections on the water. |
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| Great Dismal Swamp - In the background is one of the 10 remaining granite mile markers that were originally along the canal. This one is #15. There were originally 23 marking the beginning and each of the 22 miles. Most have been lost. |
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| Great Dismal Swamp - Welcome to Virginia. Yoohoo! |
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| Great Dismal Swamp - Patsi at the helm. Should I be worried? |
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| Great Dismal Swamp - Water lilies. |
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| Great Dismal Swamp - Our first water obstacle, a fallen tree across 2/3 of the canal. |
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| Great Dismal Swamp - The Army Corps of Engineers marked the obstacle and we though we got by, we scraped at bit. |
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| Great Dismal Swamp - Nearing the end. Love those tannin filled waters. |
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| Great Dismal Swamp - A big family of geese as we approached the Deep Creek Lock. |
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| Deep Creek Lock, Chesapeake, Virginia - Almost home. This was our 173rd and last lock of our trip!!! |
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| Deep Creek Lock - Patsi is making my job so easy!! |
We docked in at Top Rack Marina for fuel and to wait on our children to finish their work week.
Sunday, June 3rd dawn overcast with a threat of rain in the air. But that did not damped our excitement. Family was on their way to our home port at Tidewater Yacht Marina as we left our last stop on this 13 month adventure. On our way to Portsmouth, we passed the USS carrier Eisenhower, #69 with it's iconic 'IKE' on the flight tower.
The next thing we knew, we crossed our wake at Mile Marker #0 which is the beginning of the AICW. And just that quickly we were docked and our amazing adventure was at an end.
Once all the hugs and kisses were made, the champagne flowed with toasts all around. Roofus got big bowl of water.
Then a moment of reality, we could now change our white burgee to gold. Just too cool.
It was an amazing trip. We made it and are still married, And the best part I remember why I fell in love with Ken and why he is my best friend. We set on a path to discovering new places and new friends with the Great Loop Adventure but we found the old us along the way. After years of balancing work, raising a family and hundreds of other things life threw our way we were alone together 24-7 and actually got closer. Best part of the trip!
PS from Roofus:
I survived!!! 6,600 miles later, I'm on my way to our dirt home. I am with my Mom human, that it is time to get off the boat and truly settle down to retired life. Though I know that my Dad human wants to keep going. Staying on Independence and keep looping has its appeal as my humans will always be close at hand and no going off hither and yon without me. HMMMMM....will have to give that some thought.
But I will still be first mate no matter where we are, which means the world will always revolve around me!!!
Life is good!
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