The other boats staying at the Welcome Center have decided to stop in Elizabeth City too. SV/Compromise (a Beneteau 41) is headed to Panama and SV/Believe (a Lagoon 39) is headed to Florida. After everyone cleaned their strainers, we left the dock together at 9:45a.m. to make the 11:00 bridge and lock opening at the south end of the Dismal Swamp. Two other sailboats passed the dock before we left and they are there waiting when we arrive. The bridge opens right on time and there are five of us in the lock. This lock keeper is no nonsense and moves us through in 30 minutes. It is only 18 miles from here to Elizabeth City. There is still duck weed as we leave the lock. The two small Canadian boats are in and out first. They soon pull to the side and let us pass. One of their engines is smoking, but they wave us on that all is good. They are soon trailing behind us but by the time we reach the Elizabeth City bridge they are out of sight. Believe decides to stop at the free dock at the college. We are going to Waterman's Wharf at the town waterfront and Compromise does the same. Almost all of the slips are taken, but the wall is open, so we go in and move the boat down to give Compromise room in front of us. After the boats are secure, Karen and I go around the corner to the office to get the code for the showers. Everyone here is so happy to see us. They have really missed the cruisers coming through while the Dismal was closed. The waterfront is full of boats now. They tell us that the "rose buddies" are still active and that they will be having a wine and cheese party for the cruisers, just not sure when. When we return to the boats, Sue and Dave are there on their bikes. We decide to meet back at 5 for the Art Walk and to have dinner. We are all ready for a shower now. At 5, Sue and Dave are back on foot and we all walk to Main Street. We decide to have dinner first at Hoppin' Johnz. It was delicious. Everyone loved what they ordered. The dishes were all very southern...shrimp and grits, fried green tomatoes, duck breast, low country bbq chicken salad, Simply Southern burgers with ham, pimento cheese and jalapeños. Yum! With full tummies we rolled out onto the streets of Elizabeth City to enjoy the art walk. There were 10 or so participating galleries, antique shops and jewelry stores to visit. We chose a few and had another glass of wine while we admired the artwork. It was a great evening. We were having so much fun that we decided to continue the party on Compromise with Cuban rum and Nassau Royale and the rose buddies had left roses on each of our boats!