Morehead City, NC was a good place to provision the boat, get some marine supplies and a bicycle tire tube. (some things do wear out after use, and the salt water is hard on things!) Lots of marine stores and big fishing boats there.
And military boats...
Beaufort, NC, a quaint historical seaport we visited after leaving Morehead City. They have a unique English double-decker tour bus.
The building where they build wooden boats (part of the NC Maritime Museum), which we toured and the Beaufort waterfront. We also learned about all the shipwrecks buried in the "Graveyard of the Atlantic". They are currently excavating the vessel, Queen Ann's Revenge, believed to be Blackbeard, the Pirate's flagship.
Watched a film on Blackbeard the Pirate. Grand kids would have loved it.
They were headed home to make the Dr's. appointments - interesting situation.
Leftover from Hurricane Irene (Aug. 2011) which hit the area quite hard.
After crossing the Abermarle Sound (which was some rough water) and the Pasquotank River, we entered the Dismal Swamp Canal - 23 miles long, at 5 mph. We again took 30 minute shifts of driving. It is a beautiful narrow canal, with gorgeous scenery along the way.
The Dismal Swamp Canal is "no wake" for it's entire distance. Our boat was designed to go 25mph and wonders around like a drunken sailor at slow speed. It isn't much fun to drive like that.
In 1763 George Washington was one of the original investors in what is now the Dismal Swamp Canal. At first it was just a ditch used to bring timber out of the swamp. By the way, the Dismal Swamp is aptly named. It's a haven for all kinds of wild life but dismal for man. Later it was expanded to a canal, the hand digging mostly done by slave labor. As a private enterprise it had many ups and downs thru it's history. In 1929 it was purchased by the federal government. It is now operated by the U.S.Army Corps of Engineers and has been placed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Caught this turtle sunning.....
Here we are anchored by the NC Visitors Center which is about 1/3rd of the way through the canal (it services both the Highway and the Waterway). We spent the night here along with several other boats, traveling the canal.
We're in Virginia now! This superintendent's house needs a little TLC!
Not a project that Bruxvoort's Renovating would even tackle.
That's "old friends" as in we've met them before on our cruise.
Look for more on Norfolk, Portsmouth and the Hampton Roads area next week as we plan to be here a few days....
Some of the greatest battles in the history of our country were fought in this area.
Some of our midwest friends and ralatives have asked "Why float around in a boat for a whole year?". That's a good question and there is no easy answer. Obviously we wanted to explore our country from the water rather than the interstate highway but the answer goes deeper than that. When Theresa and I finally figure it all out we'll let you know. Sorry for getting all philosohical. But, we hope that some of you are getting a sense of our adventure from reading this blog db.
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