New Bern Trip Day Two, Out of the Frying Pan and Into the Fire!

6/19/14.  After spending a very hot night tied up at the Dismal Swamp Visitor Center, we started early enough to make the first lock opening of the day at 8:30 am at the South Mills lock, four miles from the Visitor Center.  We locked through without incident along with the southbound sail boat based in Oriental, NC.   Even though the Dismal Swamp Canal was a "must do", we decided that we had done it and there was no need to do it again.  We vowed then and there to return home through the Chesapeake and Albemarle Canal "main route" of the ICW instead.  The Dismal Swamp Canal may be historic, but we found it monotonous to creep down a perfectly straight, narrow waterway, lined on both sides with trees, no air moving, and with very little variety of scenery.  In addition, when you are used to cruising at 30 mph, 7 mph seems like a snails pace, especially on a hot day.  In the future we will take the other route if we have a choice.

We transited a short "land cut" that connects the Dismal Swamp Canal to the upper Pasquotank River after locking through at South Mills.  Finally, we entered the Pasquotank River and were able to open up the motor and travel at a decent speed.  The upper Pasquotank above Elizabeth City, NC is quite beautiful and is, in my opinion, the only reason you may want to endure the Dismal Swamp Canal.  It helped that we were finally able to get our first relief from the heat in the last 24 hours by traveling at our 30 mph cruising speed.

We had read that Elizabeth City, NC was a very nice stop on this route, and planned to stop there.  However, as we approached I was checking the marine weather on the Albemarle Sound and found
that this day was projected to be the best of the next several days, with forecast waves of one foot.  Subsequent days waves were projected be 2-3 feet, so we decided to cross this sometimes treacherous body of water today under better conditions.

After we passed the TCOM Airship Factory on our starboard (they build blimps there) and entered the Albemarle Sound, we realized that the forecast one foot waves were actually closer to 4 feet.  Slowing down and trimming the boat made the passage rocky but possible, so I elected to continue.  It took us almost two hours to transit the wide open mouth of the Pasquotank and across the Albemarle to the mouth of the Alligator River.  It was a very rough passage, requiring intense concentration on my part to keep a good angle on the waves and at the same time avoid the innumerable crab pot floats.  The Albemarle is virtually paved with them.  Every time I thought I was settled into a good angle and path of travel, another crab pot would appear directly in front of the boat!  Sharon also had a rough time attempting to keep Jake and Kimi somewhat comforted.  They were both very disconcerted with the constant and unpredictable motion and sounds.  We were taking a lot of spray over the cabin as well, which they did not like either.  All in all, by the time we reached the other side we were both exhausted and the dogs were nuts.

After finally entering the mouth of the Alligator River and winding our way carefully through the shoaling at the river entrance, we went directly to the Alligator River Marina which is about 4 miles into the river to starboard just before the bridge.