Saturday, October 13, 2018

10/12/18 Traveling Through the Swamps and Hurricane Michael

      After leaving the Chesapeake we have entered an entirely different environment characterized by the swamp. Swamps are miserable to try and walk through but when you have the luxury of gliding through in a boat, not worrying about snakes, they become beautiful in their own way. The Great Dismal Swamp was named by a disgruntled Revolutionary War era surveyor who was trying to determine the Virginia/North Carolina border. George Washington, however, saw the value of the wood, especially the cedar for shingles, and bought a huge amount of land in the area. The job of digging the canal to get the wood products out was horrific work, mostly done by slaves using shovels in chest high water. The water was brown from all the tannin in it. I learned that ships liked to take on this water for long voyages because the tannin kept the water from spoiling. The canal was very narrow and only 6 feet deep. We occasionally hit logs that were submerged. I heard a story of one boat that got stuck hitting a submerged SUV that someone had stolen and somehow dumped in the canal. We also got to go through two locks in the process which was new for us. One hazard was hitting branches. Our VHF radio wasn’t working well and we discovered later it was because we bent it over when we hit oak branches. At the Great Dismal Swamp Visitor Center and Rest Area, the only highway rest stop that I’ve spent the night in a boat, we hiked the trails and learned more history about the area. The only bright side for the slaves digging the canal is that they learned the lay of the land and it became an important component of the Underground Railway. Recent research has also determined that there were communities of runaways living on slightly higher “islands” in the swampland until after the Civil War.


    Our first lock experience


The vegetation




Lots of duckweed


Cypress Trees

 
The water was brown from the tannin 

     The canal soon became a small, twisty river through the cypress swamp and then joined a larger river before entering Albamarle Sound and heading to the Outer Banks, characterized by sand, wind and waves. We stopped at Kitty Hawk and walked to the Wright Brother’s Memorial. After seeing photographs of the flight I was so surprised to see Kill Devil Hill, once a giant sand dune, covered with grass so it would not blow away. The memorial was a massive 1930’s Art Deco structure.

The sculpture at Kitty Hawk

    
Kill Devil Hill


The monument

 
     
     The next leg of our journey had us scuttling back to the ICW for protection from Hurricane Michael. We traveled down the Alligator River - yes, there are alligators in it - and through another canal called the Alligator/Pungo River Canal. We entered the canal in the early morning and once again enjoyed the beauty of the swamp. The birds were amazing, especially hawks, buzzards and hundred of swallows. I’ve seen so many eagles on the trip too.

We bought crabs off a boat


Alligator River Canal
   
  Now we sit in a well protected creek called Slade Creek, waiting out the storm and admiring  the uninhabited swamp around us. This morning we heard coyotes yipping. We also found a green tree frog that has probably hitched a ride since the Dismal Swamp area. He is hanging out in a container with air holes and some Romaine lettuce until we can release him in a good spot. The wind is blowing 20 to 30 mph but it hasn’t started raining yet. We are ready for it.

Update - We were NOT ready for it. The forecast predicted winds of about 45 knots. We took off our jib, rolled up the bimini, took off all the gear on deck and anchored with twice the usual amount of chain. We had fun waiting for it to hit, reading and watching movies. Then, after dinner, the speed kept creeping up. First it was gusting to 40, then 50, then amazingly, 60 knots! At that point our alarm went off indicating that we were dragging our anchor! Nico lept on deck, started the engine and tried to motor up to relieve the pressure on the anchor but the engine wasn't powerful enough to combat the wind. I got out our second anchor, Nico set it and thankfully it held. It was attached to 150 feet of nylon line so I spent over an hour on the bow shinning a flashlight on the line, checking for chafe and blowing a whistle if Nico was in danger of running over it as he tried to keep pressure off it by motoring. It was blowing a steady 50 to 60, gusting to 75!  I learned later that 75 knots is like 85 MPH. Waves crashed over the bow, covering me as I clung to the staysail. At one point the second anchor, a Danforth, started to drag but caught again just a few feet from the shallows. Finally, after what seemed forever, the wind gradually started to abate. Although it had been raining, at this point all the stars were out.
     Nico stayed up the rest of the night, keeping an eye on the anchor, finally napping at 5:30. As soon as it was light, however, we hauled up the anchors and moved back to our original spot. We slept until 11:00.


The wind speed before all hell broke loose


Our chart plotter showing how we dragged

1 comment:

  1. This is terrifying. Eep. as you were hanging on for dear life on the deck as waves crested over you. Dear Lord...

    ReplyDelete

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