Monday, 2 November –
We woke up to rain, and it never stopped. Our raft-mates all were early risers and and we were able to push off from the Visitor Center at 0715 to start making our way in what turned out to be a very curvy and at times narrow canal and river.
But first we would have to go through our second lock, the one that would drop us 8 feet to the next water level. This second lock experience was pleasantly uneventful, and we are starting to feel more comfortable with the process. With effective placement of fenders so the boat doesn’t have to touch the wall….. we used all 5 of our fenders and the wooden fender board Bob had crafted for the trip, we entered with no problem. The water dropping under us was a bit more gentle than the filling the previous day. When the lock was empty we pushed off the wall with the boat hooks as we started to move out.
As Bob steered along the canal and river Christina was on lookout (in the steady rain) for floating logs and other debris to avoid. Once we cleared a particularly curvy portion and the river opened up into a wide expanse of water, Bob told a deep breath of relief, and promptly hit 3 feet of water. With our draft (the depth of the boat) being 5 feet this meant we had run aground.
Every cruising book talking about the going through the ICW say there are two types of sailors, those who have run aground and those that are not telling the truth.
There was another sailboat following us, and they stayed around offering to assist us by towing us off the shallow portion, but thankfully we were able to get ourselves off without assistance by putting the boat in reverse and backing off – this took a bit of patience but eventually we were back in deeper water and on our way again.
Another draw bridge to request an opening from, and immediately to our right was the Elizabeth City Town Docks, where we decided to spend a couple free nights. With the wind blowing us into the dock, Bob steered us backward into the slip. The finger pier is even shorter than any we have encountered before, and once the boat was straight in the slip we saw that there was no way to step from the boat to the finger pier without superpowers. Okay, time to adjust all the lines to inch the boat closer, while keeping the dinghy from scraping the wall (The dinghy hangs from and sticks out from the stern) while making sure no other part of the boat is rubbing up against any pilings, etc. After an hour or so making all these adjustments in the rain, we were both soaked, even while wearing our foul weather gear.
With a prayer to the “dock gods”, and a leap of faith, we both were able to get on and off the boat without incident or more importantly without injury.
Elizabeth City is a small town with a lot of history. Many businesses seem to be closed but with the recommendation of the Visitor Center we were able to find a restaurant that features Caribbean fare – (foreshadowing of meals in the future?), and we both enjoyed a more than generous serving of delicious roti (which lasted for a total of 3 meals each into the next few days.)
With everything so wet and with the upcoming weather forecasts for more rain we seriously were wondering if we would ever really feel dry again for a few months.
We planned to stay in Elizabeth City for another day, to do some boat chores, provision a bit, and enjoy the town’s hospitality.
On our off day, Christina took the opportunity to enjoy the local museum to learn more of the history of the area. If you ever find yourself in Elizabeth City, we highly recommend a visit to this free museum – it was awesome.
There is a quirkiness to many of the locals of Elizabeth City, and one of them brings his pet monkey to the docks everyday. We got to pet the monkey and a first for Christina was having a monkey climb up her body and explore her pockets (yes we mean pockets of clothing and purse). He was a cutie…. we are now thinking about our next pet….but Bob will need some convincing.