WEDNESDAY JUNE 23RD

Record breaking heat here in Virginia. Oh goodie.

Decided to brave it and went out for a walk. Stopped at the nearby visitor center and found out that Sheryl Crow had given a concert last night in the park just outside the center. Dang!! We missed it. Armed with all sort of brochures and info, we headed on our way.

We stopped in the coolness of the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard Museum. It was a fascinating museum chronicling the history of the area and it’s relation to the sea.  Shipbuilding has been a major part of the economy since colonial days.

Major battles of the Revolutionary War were fought here and the Monitor and Merrimac duked it out here during the Civil War. Many ships were built here for WWI and WWII. During WWII the workers at the Navy Shipyard would practice burns to create smokescreens in the event bombers ever tried to strike the shipyards.

We learned about Lightships, which were used in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. This is the Lightship Portsmouth. Built in 1915 it would anchor in a strategic spot and it’s light would guide mariners in at night. This was usually in some treacherous spot. The crew lived aboard for months at a time, tending the light in its mast.











This is what the lens looked like.

It set at top of this hollow mast. The mast was hollow with a ladder so the crew could tend it during times when it would be too dangerous to go outside.

The main dangers the crew faced (other than probably being bored to death) was the anchor coming loose during a storm or having a ship collide with them. There was a Lightship that the sister ship to the Titanic collided with, killing all aboard the Lightship.

Despite the heat, we took a self-guided walking tour. Not too many highlights, really.




I did enjoy these hydrangeas. The soil must be acidic for them to have these beautiful shades of pink.













This is an example of a “tax-dodger” house. Colonists in Virginia built homes like this during 1730-1750 with gambrel roofs that came down to the first floor. This was to avoid paying English taxes on a 2-story house.

The highlight of our walk was meeting this man, James “Rudy” Guest. Rudy is what his grandma nicknamed him and it stuck. He is 95 years old and had plenty of spunk. He owns the apartment building he is standing in front of. We stood in the shade and listened to his stories while he showed us the little photo album of loved ones he carried in the pocket of his Bibs. All the while the sweat was trickling down us. I think even my knees were sweating! We noticed that Rudy didn’t even have a bead of perspiration on him!

Back at the marina we realized that our Looper friends, Peggy and Alan, from the Muriel June were a few boats away from us. We had a fun evening together catching up and ate dinner at the marina restaurant.

More record breaking triple digit heat expected tomorrow.