Elizabeth City, NC

We spent a fun-filled week with our friends Ryan and Kari and Shawn and Haley in Deltaville, VA.  Oyster Festival, movies aboard Valkyrie (Ryan's boat), dinners together and spending time down below on Persephone with the Aladdin lamp keeping us warm.  Here's Jerry's Swan pie.  I think we still have a bushel of apples left onboard.

We even had an early Thanksgiving with Kari's family at their home!  Ryan, Kari and kids are preparing to leave for the Virgin Islands asap.  We had to say goodbye and continue on our way south.
The wind has been blowing from the northwest and north for the last week - everyday 20 knots with higher gusts.  Perfect for our sail down the Chesapeake to Norfolk and a motor through the Dismal Swamp Canal.  I took a picture of Robert, the lock tender at the Deep Creek Lock on the Dismal Swamp Canal (and his dog too).  Robert has just brought coffee and pastries to the guys on the boat behind us in the lock.  How's that for southern hospitality!  We're encouraged to eat as much as we want because his dog has gained too much weight from the leftovers.  Before leaving the lock Robert entertained us with a song played on the conch horn.

Last night we arrived at the free city docks Elizabeth City, NC offers to passing boaters.