N 28-31 Loop
1/20/11
3:25 PM
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LOOP LITE:
THE
CAROLINA SHORT COURSE
S
hort on time but looking for a safe, enjoyable
cruise? You might want to listen to Edwin
Emerson and Bill Fluty’s suggestion for
where to go.
“The Carolina Loop is such a nice cruise, with a
little of everything — Dismal Swamp, rivers, three
locks and bridges, friendly people, great restaurants
and so much wildlife, even osprey and eagles overhead,” says Emerson, a 55-year-old lifelong sailor
from Chesapeake, Va. “I like a cruise where I don’t
go out and back the same way.”
The well-marked 110-mile loop around eastern
North Carolina does not require the time or resources of a Great Loop cruise. Chesapeake boaters
can enter the Carolina Loop where the Intracoastal
Waterway divides at Mile 7.3, fewer than 10 miles
south of Waterside Marina in Norfolk, Va.
From there they have a choice: go eastward along
the Albemarle & Chesapeake Canal (North Caroli-
na-Virginia Cut); down North Landing River, Currituck Sound and the North River to Albemarle
Sound; then return north on the Alternate ICW
(Pasquotank River and Dismal Swamp Canal) to
their starting point. Or cruise southwest, reversing
the loop. Boaters in Albemarle Sound can head to
Elizabeth City or Coinjock, N.C.
“What’s great about the Loop is that you can do
the trip in three days or take your time and enjoy
the scenery,” says Bill Fluty, 64, of Radio Island Marina in Morehead City, N.C., who led a weeklong
cruise to Norfolk, Va., via the Loop in his Pursuit 25.
The scenery varies, from Dismal Swamp’s
primeval wetland forest to Currituck Sound’s
windswept marshes to Elizabeth City’s historic
neighborhoods. Crab pots dot Currituck Sound; cottages dot some riverbanks.
“Everyone should experience the Dismal Swamp
Canal,” Fluty says. “It’s so full of history.” The 22-
mile canal, completed in 1805, connected North Carolina products with Chesapeake Bay markets and
provided safe haven for escaping slaves during the
Civil War. Occasionally, small craft negotiate the feeder ditch to Lake Drummond in the swamp’s heart.
In 1859, the new Albemarle & Chesapeake Canal
became the major commercial water route, and in
1913 it became part of the ICW. The A&C has 12-foot
depths and a single lock and bridge. Although the
Dismal Swamp Canal was rebuilt in 1899 with 6-foot
depths and two locks, it remains a quiet backwater
route, subject to water levels in Lake Drummond.
Emerson, who keeps his Gulfstar 43 ketch in
Coinjock’s Midway Marina, cruised the Carolina
Loop in June 2009. “I stayed overnight at Elizabeth
City’s Mariners’ Wharf and Top Rack Marina in
Chesapeake, Va.,” he says. “I could have stretched
the trip out” by also tying up free at Dismal
Swamp Welcome Center’s dock (Mile Marker 28)
or anchoring on the North or Pasquotank rivers.
Coinjock, Elizabeth City and Chesapeake have fullservice marinas and restaurants.
Among Fluty’s 17-boat flotilla were Rick and Janie
Margaret Perrin in their Pursuit 26. The 63-year-old
Morehead City dentist considers the cruise “very informative and a lot of fun. Though my wife and I
had cruised to Georgetown, S.C., this was our first
experience with locks or bridges. Going through
Deep Creek Lock with 16 other powerboats and five
sailboats was an adventure. Now we’re confident to
go farther afield.”
Fluty continues: “This weeklong cruise gives our
boaters [in boats from a 25-foot Pursuit to a 36-foot
Sabre] experience on the ICW with a nice group of
people. They learn that you can get out on the water
and it’s safe, that you see things from the water you’d
never see from land. We make it a fun trip, providing
good places to stay and nice places to eat.”
The good places to stay include famously friendly
Elizabeth City. Emerson says he “had a hoot, sitting
on the stern of my boat talking to people who came
by, then checking out all the restaurants.”
He recalls doing the Loop years ago in an 18-foot
center console. “But the way to appreciate the
scenery is in a slow-moving trawler or sailboat,”
Emerson says.
(Clockwise from top) A northbound boat passes through
the pedestrian bridge at the Dismal Swamp Canal Welcome Center; Carolina Loop cruisers can stop in Elizabeth City, known for its hospitality toward visiting boats;
the canal passes through wetland forest.
30
WWW.SOUNDINGSONLINE.COM MARCH 2011
• Elizabeth City, www.discoverelizabethcity.com
• Dismal Swamp Canal Welcome Center, www.
dismalswamp.com
• Army Corps of Engineers, Norfolk, (757) 201-7642
• A&C Canal: Great Bridge Lock opens on demand
in conjunction with the Great Bridge openings
hourly from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m., then on demand, (757)
547-3311. North Landing Bridge opens every hour
and half hour from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m., then on demand, (757) 482-3081.
• Dismal Swamp Canal: Locks at Deep Creek (Mile
Marker 11.5) (757) 487-0831, and South Mills (Mile
Marker 33) (252) 771-5906, open at 8:30 and 11 a.m.,
and 1:30 and 3:30 p.m., subject to water levels.
Bridges open in conjunction. n
ROBERT L. DRAKE
FOR INFORMATION