Dismal Swamp, people you meet and the Fxxxing bilge !

One of the many things I love about sailing is all the interesting people you meet and what a helpful community the sailing community is. I was really looking forward to coming in to Lambs marina for a hearty meal at Lamb’s seafood restaurant. I learned at the dismal swamp lock that the restaurant is now closed. We decided to go to Larry’s marina anyway (I’m a little in love with Larry).

When we arrived, Randy was there to take our lines. He remembered us from the last time, but then said ‘that’s not a 30 day old boat.’ I had called Larry earlier and told him our bilge was not working and how annoying it was because we had just put a new bilge pump in less than 30 days ago. …. Larry is a little hard of hearing.!

 I heard a good expression when I was talking about having to stay in Elizabeth city for three days. ‘ When a Sailor makes plans he may as well write them in the sand at a low tide ‘.

Despite the setback of the bilge not working. I still love Dismal Swamp.  Everyone there is so friendly and helpful. The Lock keeper who delayed opening as we were six minutes late.  the North lock keeper who recognized us and told us to hurry back, but I don’t know why he recognized us. Is that a good thing or a bad thing. Those disastrous  sailors who always have something wrong with their boat or just those two eejits. 

Before we arrived at Dismal Swamp, we had to cross the Chesapeake Bay to get to Norfolk. The day before Larry and Lynne returned after an hour at sea because they had Green-water coming over the bow and said how awful it was. We agreed that it was very mature and wise to turn back if sea is yucky. Larry reminded me of a saying ‘it’s better to be on land wishing you were at sea than at Sea wishing you were on land.’ We figured we would stay a day and then thought we were OK crossing because it was a north wind that would be pushing us in the following sea and it would be a nice crossing. Unfortunately, when we tried to reef, the sliders in the mast, were sticking and we had to drop the sail altogether and motor across. It just made boring and lumpy Sailing we were still OK.

I guess the more astute sailors may notice that that ship is at anchor.

While Norfolk is fairly boring once you’ve gone through it more than three times because it’s all these big gray Aircraft carriers, Portsmouth is absolutely charming.  The dock is free and smack bang in the center of the town. There are very few chain shops. The pharmacy was an individual pharmacy. The grocery shop was the most unique grocery shop I’ve ever seen in my life with all sorts of everything in it, and a lot of the other shops had specialties in community related produce. One of the girls was telling me that since Covid there was a lot of hardship, and people are helping each other out. Even the people on the street are very friendly. A lot make comments or wave as they walk by the boat. One guy started talking to us and vented how he lost a job that day and had found another. He said he thought we were his angels ! Well I guess they come in all forms.

The beauty of the dismal swamp are the overhanging trees and the greenery all around however, sometimes you don’t realize how near you are to going aground until you see a turtle walking on water and you realize he’s not. He’s on a log. Fortunately we spotted that early enough, but while we were looking down at the logs, we forgot about the branches above.

When we docked in lambs Marina, we met with someone we had met up with in Smith Island. (That’s the island where everything was closed until Wednesday). They stayed there for a week choosing to do one thing every day. I think that would’ve driven me crazy and we also met with Pilgrim who we had been in touch with via FB to see what the duck weed was like in the swamp. I would’ve been lost without borrowing tools from Pilgrim and Randy‘s sage advice. (I think I’ve fallen a little bit in love with Randy as well. )

Bilge is now fixed. Marsha from Pilgrim drove us to Fresh produce for local foods. I even got a free carton of sour cream cause it was going to expire tomorrow. What does sour cream become when it’s out of date? We are waiting for delivery of the valve for the manual bilge and we will head off tomorrow. .. Just saw Randy walking by with a snake (water moccasin)  on a stick which he released into the bushes further away.  The big meanie wouldn’t go and get it back because I wanted to photograph of it so I guess you’re just going to have to imagine it 🐍