November 20th, 2018
Inter Coastal Waterway
The ICW is the most amazing piece of engineering in that it stretches 4,800km from Boston to Brownsville Texas. In so doing it served as a protected maritime artery up the east coast of the US. It has many guises as it follows the path of least resistance utilising at times pretty open water. Sometimes the engineers had no option but to get dredging and as you can see from the picture its on a big scale. In this case ploughing through seemingly endless forest.
November 15th, 2018
Inter Coastal Waterway
Once on our way we found ourselves diving into the Inter Coastal Waterway with a clutch of boats heading south for the sun. This is an actual migratory pattern for many yachts and motorboats with a large proportion of them from Canada. It was absolutely freezing yesterday and I fully expected it to snow as I looked at the heavy grey cloud cover. This picture is of us all waiting for a bridge to open. Pleased to report that we didn't hit any of the fixed bridges so all good so far.
November 15th, 2018
Sail has right of way over power.....I dont think so
On leaving Norfolk we were herded into a lay-by to allow an Aircraft Carrier past and it was both thrilling and frightening when you think what it is capable of doing. In the foreground is our good friends Ian and Michelle on Mahina. We met them about six months ago in Herrington Harbour and they are now fast friends. Its nice to be traveling in company with them.
November 15th, 2018
GUNS
There is an amazing museum in Norfolk and the Bell of the Ball is the USS Winsoconsin and as you can see we did the tour. Our guide was an old timer who was amazing and just the man to bring her to life. This is her 16inch guns which can fire a shell that weighs the same as a VW Beetle 26 Miles!! We couldn't help thinking of Grandad we walked about for he is full of stories of the Royal Navy which he joined at fifteen years of age. These were the kind of guns he used to play with.
November 15th, 2018
Be afraid
The USS Winsconsin bow is concave which makes it look like an optical illusion. To the naked eye it is just like in the picture - imagine that running down on you at 39knts which is what they got out of her during sea trails.
November 15th, 2018
USS Wisconsin
Now this is what I call a battle Ship and doesn't she look good in the dark
November 15th, 2018
A Short Walk
After a busy day we decided to go for a refreshing walk which turned out to be very short for on rounding the first corner we bumped into Christopher. Its inspiring people like him who we love to meet. He runs StartWheel which supports local entrepreneurs and also owns an amazing cafe where he treated us to the best cup of coffee America has produced to date. Its not often one meets a kindred spirit so we look forward to popping in on him as we come back north next year. Here he is about to get on with some DIY.....www.curecoffeehouse.com
November 15th, 2018
Ocean Cruising Club
OCC port officers Gary and Greta could not have made us more welcome to Norfolk. There were spare berths in their marina and so we found ourselves moored up with four other OCC boats making it both entertaining and informative for we always learn something when we rub up against the OCC.
Gary took us off to top up a gas tank and do our shopping whilst Greta very kindly did our laundry. Avid sailors with four transatlantic crossings under their belt made for a great evening in their flat with the other members for beer and pizza.
This is me up the mast removing antenna and wind instruments in preparation for the Inter-coastal waterway bridges. I also measured it to find that its 63ft 7inches to the top of the tricolour so not a lot of room under the Wilkerson Bridge which comes in at 64ft.
We shall have to be careful for rain and a northerly wind can cause the water levels to rise above predictions.
