{"id":4537,"date":"2015-05-14T19:10:12","date_gmt":"2015-05-14T19:10:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/?p=4537"},"modified":"2015-05-14T19:47:53","modified_gmt":"2015-05-14T19:47:53","slug":"dismal-and-beautiful-can-you-be-both","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/?p=4537","title":{"rendered":"Dismal and beautiful. Can you be both?"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s Thursday morning and we are motoring through one of my favorite spots on the ICW, the Great Dismal Swamp Canal that straddles both NC and VA.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The scenery here is amazing and although I could do without the occasional bump (more like a good wack actually) on submerged logs as we motor along,. \u00a0For me, it is perhaps the most beautiful part of any trip on the ICW.<\/p>\n

Here is what greeted us as we headed out early this morning from Elizabeth City.\u00a0 What a great way to start the day.\"\"<\/a>The river winds through bald Cypress stands for miles.\u00a0\"\"<\/a><\/span>We were visited by this beautiful dragon fly.\"\"<\/a><\/span>Along the way we made time to stop, although briefly, at the welcome center.\u00a0 What nice ladies behind the desk.\u00a0 Southern hospitality and with a smile.\u00a0 Pandora looked smart at the welcome center dock.\u00a0\"\"<\/a><\/span>There was quite a bit of wildlife along the way.\u00a0 Turtles on every warm surface.\u00a0 Notice the rope on this log, it was pulled out of the canal.\u00a0 That\u2019s the sort of thing that I bumped along the way.\u00a0 Better out of the water.\"\"<\/a><\/span>How about a water snake?\u00a0\u00a0 Want to go swimming?\u00a0 Hmm\u2026 I\u2019ll think about that for a bit.\"\"<\/a><\/span>This is my first \u201cspringtime\u201d visit to the Dismal and there were flowers everywhere and the sweet smell of honeysuckle wafted by on the breeze.<\/span><\/p>\n

You see all matter of craft on the ICW.\u00a0 How about this \u201clive aboard\u201d, Clam?\u00a0 It\u2019s bound for the Bahamas.\u00a0 Need living quarters?\u00a0 No need to do a major refit.\u00a0 I\u2019ll just bring along my camper.\u00a0 Much simpler. \u00a0\"\"<\/a>I shudder at the thought of this boat going across the Gulf Stream.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Going through the locks is always a treat. \u00a0At first you are down at the bottom of the lock.\"\"<\/a>And then it fills up and you are on your way. \u00a0\"\"<\/a>Locktender Robert is wonderful.\u00a0 I think that he looks a little like Elton John.\u00a0\u00a0 \"\"<\/a>He wondered why Brenda wasn’t aboard.\u00a0 Perhaps he was hoping or some sort of juicy story.\u00a0 Sorry to disappoint Robert.\u00a0 She just hates long deliveries. \u00a0Lucky for Michael and Jim. \u00a0Well, at least that’s what I hope they think.<\/p>\n

Doesn’t Pandora look marvelous in the lock?\u00a0 What a wonderful afternoon.\u00a0\"\"<\/a>I will never tire of this beautiful stretch of water.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Tonight we leave Hampton Roads and will head out into the Atlantic to make our run to Montauk Point and home to CT.\u00a0 I am very excited about being at our \u201cland home\u201d again after so many months away as it\u2019s been since just after Christmas when we packed up to head south.<\/span><\/p>\n

The weather forecast says that we will be heading out into some fairly rough water with perhaps 6\u2019 seas at first, left over from the strong north winds of the last few days, but that it will improve fairly quickly. \u00a0I’ll vote for “quickly”. \u00a0We do expect to be able to sail after the first half day or so and be able to sail for half of the run. I hope that the front that\u2019s coming through late Sunday with unfavorable NE winds, won\u2019t arrive until we reach our destination.<\/p>\n

I won\u2019t be able to post until we are back in Cell Range on Sunday but, as always, I\u2019ll be noting our location every 4 hours on \u201cwhere\u2019s Pandora\u201d.<\/p>\n

For the moment I\u2019ll enjoy our run through the Dismal.\u00a0 Yes indeed, it’s clear that you can be both dismal and beautiful, bumps and all.<\/p>\n

FLASH ALERT: \u00a0I just spoke with Chris Parker, the weather router, and he advised us to stay local until Friday morning and leave at dawn. \u00a0This evening the seas and wind are still up and it would be miserable to head out now. \u00a0Still expecting to be in on Sunday, and we’d better be, as unfavorable winds from the NE will kick up late Sunday afternoon. \u00a0 Such are the trials of passage making.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s Thursday morning and we are motoring through one of my favorite spots on the ICW, the Great Dismal Swamp Canal that straddles both NC and VA.\u00a0 The scenery here is amazing and although I could do without the occasional bump (more like a good wack actually) on submerged logs as we motor along,. \u00a0For […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","_s2mail":"","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4537","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4537","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4537"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4537\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4551,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4537\/revisions\/4551"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4537"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4537"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4537"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}