Dismal swamp was not so dismal 36◦45'.401 N 76◦18'.058 W

We left Elizabeth City this morning, once again not an easy task as we were wedged in there pretty snugly, but my captain managed the exit expertly. He did not get a standing ovation from all the onlookers but he did get an awful lot of pats on the back and "way to go Captain"  comments.

Immediately beside our dock was the first bridge we needed to get through. Pretty uneventful crossing. 

We are now traveling with Chic and Barbra on 'Sundancer'. They are new 'loopers' who just started their voyage in Florida. Chic and Barb asked if they could follow us! Apparently they feel better following seasoned sailors like us. It is odd that we are now considered the seasoned ones. Seems like only yesterday we were the ones seeking out the experts to follow.

Our route today had us going through an area called the dismal swamp. There are two option for getting from North Carolina to Virginia.  One is called the Virginia Cut. This is a commercial route, nice and deep but not very pretty and very busy. 

The second option is the Dismal swamp, more picturesque and not very busy. The Dismal swamp also has 2 locks and lots of dead heads. (logs that float just under the surface of the water) We did not know about the dead heads before setting out on our trip, but we sure did find out about them after hitting a few. We counted somewhere around 14 hits today. This is the price we pay for being in the lead. Our fellow boaters got the benefit of our either clearing the way for them or warning them of their presence. Chic says that when all was said and done, he hit one log to our 14! Lucky him. We do not appear to have any new  leaks though, so "so far so good".  

About 2/3 of the way through the Dismal swamp, we entered into Virginia and it started to rain. Welcome to Virginia indeed.

There were some rather interesting sights along the way. This one for example was quite interesting. I'm not sure if this was meant as a choice seat or some redneck's idea of a good spot for hunting!

We also encountered some bridges. One very narrow railroad bridge. Another is a farmer's pontoon bridge. He lays it across the water whenever he needs to get equipment across to his land on the other side of the swamp. We as boaters are asked to be patient as this is the guy's livelihood. We got lucky today, guess all the rain was preventing him from needing to work the fields at all.

We are now just an hour away from Norfolk Virginia so we should be driving by there tomorrow. However the rain we got this afternoon, is going to continue on all day tomorrow. Lovely! Ah well we are that much closer to New York.

Well I need to go have a hot shower and warm up. This cold rainy day has us chilled to the bone.  

Good night all.