The Intracoastal Waterway (ICW) has several segments (one that even leads out to Texas) but the segment I’m referring to is Portsmouth, VA (Norfolk, VA) at mile marker 00. to Key West, FL . The ICW uses natural inland rivers, marshes, and manmade dredged canals to allow commercial and social maritime safe/alternative passage from the Atlantic Ocean
(ex: shoals around Cape Hatteras; map of shipwrecks below).

 

It’s amazing but it’s not sailing. I wasn’t looking forward to the ICW motoring until I saw a friend of mine post a picture of her experience. It was a picture of flat glassy water reflecting lush beautiful trees on either side of her boat. It was gorgeous. Firstly, it technically wasn’t a picture of the ICW, it was another passage that reconnected with the ICW. Secondly, it was called the Dismal Swamp but frankly I don’t give two nuts what it’s called. It looked like this:So the Dismal Swamp dates back to as early as George Washington. Yes the first U.S. President, George Washington. He had a company that helped build the canal. It’s 6 feet deep and less so in some areas (reminder, Gaia’s draft is 5.2 feet).  And the water is tea colored due to to the tannic acid created by decaying vegetation.

Now that you have some neat-o facts to recite to friends, let me tell you of our experience. It was pretty entertaining actually. There are two locks which allow you entry and exit which opens 3 times a day. On Friday, we were gunning to make the 1:30 locks opening. To do that we had to go under three bridges, one of which, was a railroad bridge that opened at noon. It took longer than anticipated to get the anchor out of this nasty “cakey” mud and it also took longer than anticipated to fill up the fuel and water tanks at the nearby marina. Somehow, in all our luck, we were still early for the locks. In fact, there was a traffic jam. The 11:00 opening had a 17 boat rally traveling together down the ICW. Since only 10-12 boats can go through the locks at a time, several boats were anchored out in front of the locks in a single file line waiting their turn. We motored down to get a better look but a few of the anchored boats loudly and anxiously announced they were there first. As a sailor, I didn’t care, but the accountant in me appreciated their order. So the locks master eventually got on the radio and began corralling boats into the locks one by one at 2:30.  The locks master ushered 4 boats in on either side of the wall and any late-comer boats got stuck in the middle and rafted up to the side boats. Once we were secured in the locks and the water levels slowly rose, people began starting conversations back and forth.

::Scene:: What’s your boat? Who are you? Where are you from? Where are you going? ::End Scene:: But we did have two boats comment on how young Mike & I looked. We turned around and saw another young couple looking at us anxiously. She yelled over ‘There’s not many of us around are there?”. Being a bit daft I had no idea what she meant by “us”. Wall to wall boats, we were both white couples on boats…. we looked the same as everyone else…… ahhh, except for that 20-40 year age gap I didn’t notice….   After the locks the rally continued onward down the canal but us youngsters tied up at the free dock after the locks and bridge.
And that free dock was amazing. There was a grocery store across the street so we could fill up on food. There was also an autoparts store that had our engine oil and filled our propane tanks! Thank you universe for being so good to us! We started on our journey at 7 am and we were first on the water! On the down side we had to be extra vigilant for stumps and deadheads since we were first on the water. No, that’s not a Jerry Garcia / Grateful Dead reference. Stumps are partially submerged logs drifting through the water and deadheads are dislodged logs that have been pinned to the bottom sticking upward. Hitting a stump or deadhead is a really great way to lose a prop! Throughout the entire traverse, we only heard one loud thud that shook the mast. We also bumped one smaller log but it wasn’t terrible. When we passed the rally boats rafted up at the Welcome Center, we also passed a beautiful navy blue sailboat called Valiant, absolutely pristine. The captain wore a hat, sun glasses , a scowl, and ….. driving gloves on at the helm. He did not smile, he did not wave, but he gave me a chuckle that I won’t soon forget.

In case you don’t know me all that well….. I tend to make up lyrics to songs and sometimes I just sing annoying morning songs. During the morning passage at the helm, and Mike was down below, I created a song to the tune of the Y.M.C.A…. I’m sure you’re familiar with it.

Heeey CAPTAIN! – Are you going 5 knots?

I Say Captain! – Are you searching for deeeadheads?

Captain! Motoring through only

6 – feet – of – non-ti-dal waters!

It’s fun to motor through the …. DIIIISMAL SWAMP!

It’s fun to motor through the DIIIISMAL SWAAMP!

(It goes on about the locks masters but I forgot my own lyrics).