FRIDAY JUNE 25TH

Traveled from Portsmouth to Hampton. Not very far, but thought we’d go check it out.

Passed many, many Navy ships on the way. This one is Cape Rise. It’s what the Navy refers to as a roll on/roll off ship. It’s used to move large military equipment.

 This is the San Antonio. It is used to transport the Marines along with their equipment. Such as hovercraft.

Now we understand that a sailboat underway without power has the right of way. But c'mon, do you really want to quibble that point with a Navy Oiler that needs 3 tugs to move it around? We have come to realize in our travels that sailors seem notorious for not having their radios on. The Navy ship kept trying to hail the sailboat to get out of the way. Finally the sailboat listened and at the last minute, did get out of the way.

We passed several aircraft carriers being worked on in a shipyard, but some didn’t have numbers so we couldn’t identify them. This one is the Enterprise, also known as “The Big E.” It was the first nuclear powered aircraft carrier. It is set to retire in 2013 after 51 years of continuous service.

This is the Iwo Jima, a multi-purpose assault ship that was running some type of drill. We saw rigid inflatable boats coming and going from it.





I took this ship’s picture because I thought it was so funny how large they had painted “NO SMOKING” on it. We laughed that it must be its name. Little did we realize.

Later, watching the local news, we learned about this tanker. Her name is A WHALE. She is a tanker that has been converted to be an oil skimmer. In its hull are compartments with spinners to extract oil from salt water. She’s ten stories high and almost as long as 4 football fields. She had hoped to be in the Gulf by now skimming oil from the BP spill. Problem is, she can’t remove all the oil from the water so there is oil present in the discharge. Which is NOT allowed by the EPA. Government agencies with their infinite wisdom, will not give them a permit to skim because of that. Even though this ship can handle 500,000 barrels of oily water a day. Which is just slightly less than all the skimmers in the Gulf have gathered in the past 60 days.

Last we heard she is headed to the Gulf to wait.

Very hot and humid, again. We did laundry at the marina. Which was most conveniently located next to the swimming pool. We could bob around in the pool staying cool in between loads.

THURSDAY JUNE 24TH

 

Despite the heat, we decided to take the bikes and ride the ferry across the river to Norfolk. The price was $1.50 one way. What a bargain!

The temperature today is 102 degrees with a heat index of 112 degrees. A perfect day to spend indoors at The Nauticus museum.

It is another museum devoted to maritime history of the area and the seas themselves. Ships were built from wood until the late 1800’s when other countries started to build ships out of metal. Our Navy was falling behind, so President Theodore Roosevelt commissioned the building of The Great White Fleet. 16 coal powered battleships painted white to reflect heat. He then sent them on a good will world tour. Most of the fleet was built in the shipyards of this area.

Permanently moored next to the Nauticus museum is the Battleship Wisconsin. The Wisconsin was built here in Norfolk in response to the discovery that Japan was running sea trials of the Battleship Yamato. The League of Nations had agreed upon battleships of limited displacement and with a maximum of 14-inch guns. The Yamato had 18-inch guns and over twice the displacement size as agreed upon. More bad news, the Japanese intent was to conquer the world.

America ingenuity prevailed, despite being limited on the size of a ship since it had to pass through the Panama Canal to reach the Pacific. So what the ship maybe lacked in displacement, they made up for in speed. The Wisconsin could pass through the Panama Canal with 12” on either side. Since she was smaller, her guns could only be 16” guns. These guns each weigh 3,000 tons!! Wow!







But they put spiral rifling in the guns,
which increased velocity, range, accuracy
and penetration capacity of the shell.
So maybe our guns were smaller, but we
could outrun the Yamato.










Hey Mom! I joined the Navy.

Each one of the shells fired by the Wisconsin weighed 1900 pounds. The approximate weight of a vintage VW Beetle.

The Wisconsin saw duty in three wars. WWII, The Korean War and Operation Desert Storm.

As we walked on to the Wisconsin, we warned about the heat. Them temperature on the deck was 150 degrees. No that’s not a typo, 150 degrees. Needless to say, we didn’t dawdle with our walk. With all the steel, it was a giant heat reservoir.






 The shells needed to be moved with a cart because of their weight.

Each shell is loaded in the gun.

Followed by these silk wrapped bags of smokeless gunpowder. 9 bags in all.


















These were for firing Tomahawk Cruise Missiles in Iraq.










The deck is covered with over 4 acres of teak wood!













Ross on the very aft deck.

We passed many of these decorated mermaids
as we rode around. After photographing
a few, I realized they were everywhere!!
So here are a few of them.

Caught the ferry back to Portsmouth. Sat up top where there was a breeze, even if it felt like a blast from a furnace.

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.

TUESDAY JUNE 22ND

Early morning at the Alligator River Marina.

The 3 guys walking into the store in the photo heard our engines firing up as they came out of the gas station and wandered over to check things out. You can see the Oddysea to the left of the gas station.



We left shortly after sunrise and it is already hot and steamy out. We had to cross the big water of the Albemarle Sound so wanted to leave early while the seas are calm. They generally pick up as the day wears on and we didn’t want to deal with. The sound is around 13 miles wide so it can whip up some good waves.














Ross reports that the water temperature is 86 degrees. What little breeze we had when we started out, died. It became dead calm and water like glass. You could see the color of the markers from a great distance as they reflected in the water.

You may have to click on the photo and enlarge it to see all the fish traps. They were everywhere! As far as the eye could see. With the water being as calm as glass, they really stood out.

We noticed that the landscape had changed again. The grasses along the shoreline were more of a cattail type than salt marsh. And there were trees growing at the waterline. We figured the water must be fresh. Which would also explain why we hadn’t seen any dolphins or pelicans.

Had to laugh as we saw these guys checking their traps. They had 3 hairy helpers. The one with his back to us in the photo was checking out what they brought up in the trap. Looks like a good size fish. We’re guessing they get an occasional treat.

This picture clearly shows Virginia on the left side of the marker and North Carolina on the right!! (ha-ha) We have entered our 14th state since leaving Minnesota.





We went through a number of swing and lift bridges today so had to time things as they only open on the top of the hour or half hour. It is too hot to sit for long and wait, so we tried to arrive at the bridge with a minimum time of waiting. We also had a lock to pass through today, which seemed very odd. It’s been a long time since we’ve encountered a lock. This lock’s purpose is to control the water on the down-bound side of the lock, which is fresh water.

It was a scenic trip until just before Norfolk, Virginia. But at this point it was an assault to our senses! Noise, smells and activity everywhere!

The Norfolk Navy Shipyard is here.

There was the sound of metal on metal. Beeping sounds. Cranes running. Helicopters flying over. Grinding and screeching sounds. Industrial smells. Smoke. You name it.

This crane was unloading coal.



















We came the closest to these three ships being worked on. Two of them were in dry dock.

This is the HSV SWIFT. It’s an Australian tri-maran being leased by the Navy for testing new military technology. It has a wave piercing; aluminum hull and can travel 53 miles per hour and has a 4000 mile range.

This is the USS MAHAN DDG-72. It’s a destroyer and its homeport is right here in Norfolk. Its motto is:  Built to Fight!






It was a very long, very hot day. But we made it to Portsmouth where we will stop for a few days. Very glad to have air conditioning on the boat and pizza delivery close by!

MONDAY JUNE 21ST

Left Oriental early so we could make it across Pamlico Sound and River before the wind picked up. It’s nice to be traveling on big water. And Pamlico Sound is big water! For one thing, we can use the auto-pilot. It’s also good to be back on the wide-open water again, rather than stumped lined canals. It also gives us the opportunity to run the engines up for a while.

Before arriving in New Bern back in May, we noticed the speedometer wasn’t working. There are little wheels on the hull of the boat that spin and calculate our speed, but not when they are full of critters and gunk. The freshwater killed that stuff off and our speedometer is now back in business. Running fast every so often also knocks crud off the bottom of the boat and we actually pick up a few mph at he same rpm once we do this.

It was a long day of travel and very hot.  The scenery has changed again. We now see many stands of pines.

This F-18 entertained us for quite a while. Practicing low runs and steep turns. Their speed and the sound they make is something else!!

This is the gross picture of the day, so be warned. The flies have been back. Ross nailed this trophy sized one. Hey, it was a long boring day.

We arrived for the night at The Alligator River Marina. It was not at all what we expected. As you can see, it’s a gas station with a dock behind it. At this point of the day, we didn’t care. And the dock-master told us they had good burgers inside and cold beer. That works!


Went up for supper and ordered our burgers.

Many people came in and ordered food. Turns out it’s a very popular stop. Soft shelled crab and sea trout are specialties. We didn’t know that till after we ordered the burgers. But it turned out the burgers were good too.










Guess we don’t get around all that much because we’ve never seen bowling pin beers. We grabbed a couple of them out of the cooler to have with the burgers. Only $1.09. Cheaper than the pop!!

We ended up eating dinner with Ben Fulton from the sailboat, Loon. (he had the sea trout and said it was fantastic) He is from Annapolis and offered to mark up our charts with places to visit in the Chesapeake.

Shortly after Ben arrived at our boat to share his knowledge of the Chesapeake with us, the gal from the gas station appeared outside our boat. Seems Ross and I skipped out on the check!!! We each thought the other paid when we ordered, and they never gave us a check. We felt like a couple of dorks. The gal was nice about it, but I’m sure she was thinking, “dumb Yankees”.

SUNDAY JUNE 20TH

HAPPY FATHERS DAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Just a short jaunt of 26 miles today to Oriental, North Carolina. There was a small grocery store about a mile away, so we hopped on the bikes and sweated all the way there. It was worth it when we found they had fresh fruits and vegetables.

With that task out of the way, we decided to spend the remainder of the day at the pool.

1. Cool down in the pool
2. Go to the Tiki Bar
3. Read book
4. Nap

5. Repeat.

The folks at the pool were all friendly and everyone was chatting with one another. Ross said the pool had “good chi”. Most were boaters staying in the marina. We met a boy we enjoyed very much named Dillon. Wish I would have taken his photo. Scrawny kid with red hair, freckles and the whitest skin ever. I asked if he had sunscreen on and he told me “plenty”. He was quite a character and full of facts. We ended up visiting with his parents too. They were both school teachers from Ohio on a quest to buy a sailboat.

This Gecko was hanging around my pool chair. Dillon informed me Geckos like salami and if I put some on my hand, it would probably crawl right on it. Unfortunately, I hadn’t brought any salami with me to the pool.

Most Dads could just be content with a tie for Fathers Day. But not Ross. Nooooooo. His request was for me to learn to tie a bowline. I think it had something to do with the knot I used to tie the step stool to the boat. (In my own defense, he knew my knot tying (dis)abilty when he assigned that task.) Okay fine! I’ll learn, but don’t give me any of that rabbit around the tree, down the hole, boy scout stuff.

Ate Fathers Day dinner at the Toucan restaurant a few steps away from the boat.