The following discussion has been copied, with all author’s permission, from the MTOA List Serve. All of us at the Salty Southeast Crusiers’ Net continue to highly recommend a membership in the MTOA for ALL trawler owners. You won’t find a better bunch of cruisers anywhere.
The one and only lock on the primary AICW North Carolina – Virginia Cut/Albemarle and Chesapeake Canal route, is located at Great Bridge. The discussion below centers around dockage and shoreside opportunities at this location.
I have never had the good fortune to sample the dining attraction reported on below by Captain George, but it WILL be on my to-do list, effective immediately!!

Just a Note we passed through Great Bridge on 9/28 and stayed at the south dock before the bridge and found a couple of boats had been there for a few days and were staying longer the stay is posted for 24 hours but some are not doing that so the wall can get over loaded very fast. You can also tie up to the wall on the other side as long as you stay back from the bridge so the tow’s can get by, you have to tie to the trees or drive a stake in the ground. When we went through the bridge the dock on the east side had signs on it that it was closed for the park construction my guess is that you can use it but it looked very hard to get off the boat because of the construction fence barrier.. just our observations.
Larry & Margie Ross
Wanderin’ L&M
55′ Hampton

While you are at Great Bridge DO NOT FORGET to eat at Franks 2 Italian Restaurant.It is located north of the Great Bridge in a shopping center just past Kellys Pub.Frank is from NY and his food is very good.If you like N.Y. pizza then you must stop at Franks.I love good Italian!
George Kay
Summer Slopes
36 Marine Trader

We came through Great Bridge on Oct 19. The Lock Master told us that the dock across from Atlantic Yacht Basin had been closed off and docking banned by the company building the museum on that site. The usual wall between the lock and bridge had been full the night before and the locktenders let people tie up to the entrance wall on the Norfolk side of the lock. She also said that tying up to the trees on the left side between the lock and bridge was risky as commercial traffic had priority on that side and could demand that you move.
Chuck Berry