Tuesday, October 29, 2019

Tuesday October 29th, 2019


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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