We continued on at first light, which is now about 7am,
towards Elizabeth City. The Dismal Swamp
Canal was just as weed infested as yesterday.
We met some of the other boats we moored with last night at Elizabeth
City, and apparently some of the power boats had troubles with their water
cooling systems getting clogged and engines overheating. Our outboards did not have that problem. Our issue was that our props would frequently
get fouled with weed and we needed to put the engines astern to clear it.
If you’ve ever been in a harbour with large ships coming to
and fro, you’ve probably noticed that every so often you’ll hear 3 very load
blasts on a ships horn. It’s annoying
for landlubbers, but serves the very useful purpose of signaling “My engines
are going astern” to other ships – it’s not at all obvious, but very important
to know. Anyway in almost 40 years of
sailing I’ve never had a legitimate reason to use this sound signal – until today. With several boats in convoy along the canal,
I signaled the boats behind me that my engines were going astern with 3 blasts on
the horn!
Just before Elizabeth City is a lifting bridge. We had stopped to refuel, but by the time we
got to the bridge, our companions were still waiting for it to open. Apparently, the bridge opening mechanism was
broken. The frazzled bridge tender was
getting shorter and shorter with his replies every time someone radioed him for
a status. It all worked out perfectly
though, we tied up, had lunch, washed dishes and then were on our way. We passed through and tied up on the town
dock in Elizabeth City, 36° 17’.937N 076° 13’.095W.
The towns people were very welcoming and friendly. One even brought a flower for the 2 ladies on
the dock. Teresa still has hers on our
saloon table 2 days later.
Ships Log: 7138.1
Trip: Log fouled with weed. Trip
Total: 478.5
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