On a sad note, one of our "across the canal" neighbors in Florida is missing. He is an experienced captain and has made the trip from his dock back and forth to the Bahamas dozens of times over the years. His name is Glen Brandt and he was on his way back from Nassau bound for Marathon, alone aboard his boat, the Genesis. He has been missing since May 15. Our thoughts and prayers are with Glen and his family.
We left the Dismal Swamp Canal and turned into the Elizabeth River going upstream toward Portsmouth and Norfolk, VA. This bridge is kind of the dividing line between peace and solitude and our new world of noise, large ships and cranes, more noise, factorys, industrial sized trash dumps and other installations along the shore and the associated aromas in the air
This is the view looking up river toward Portsmouth. The installation on the right is a Perdue Chicken loading and processing facility. Large ships come here and we could only wonder what they bring to or what they take away from this monster chicken machine. The aroma is what one would expect.
This is one monster crane. It is on the nautical charts as a landmark. Just past is the Ocean Marine Yacht Center where we spent two nights.
This is the little ferry that took us on the ten minute trip across the river to visit Norfolk. $0.75 each way (geezer rate).
The admiral at her station on the ferry boat.
Norfolk is home to the battle ship "Wisconsin" Althought still owned by the U.S. Navy, she is berthed at the very large "Nauticus" museum and entertainment facility. We could only tour the decks of the big "Wis" We were not allowed below decks because all the interior spaces are still protected with asbestos. Strange, on deck is a large "decontamination station" I guess it handles every bad thing except for asbestos This is one huge battle wagon.
Here is a navy ship in drydock, one of many. This one looks like the next generation of war ship design. We were on our way to Deltaville, VA
Container ship docking at Norfolk, still several hundred feet from shore. Note the tug boat. There was another one on the other side. Any guesses what products are in the containers and where they are from?
And as usual, this vessel is not flagged in the U.S. There are reasons for that.
Deltaville on the west shore of the Chesapeake-----I finally figured out why we are always a midget among the fleet. The Salt Shaker is an unusually small boat for serious travel but since that is what we are doing, we are put with the "serious" travelers. I was told the one next to us burns 76 gallons per hour. I do not know at what speed but I suspect it is at the speed that we burn 4 gallons per hour.
Deltaville is small. We were told that Deltaville has about 800 residents and about 4000 boat slips. This guy was giving us an air show in his ultra-light. He flew and danced around in the sky until just before dark.
Here are some floating "aqua homes." FEMA might like to know about these. There were dozens. Notice that some have outboard motors. Not sure how well they would handle waves. Pretty sure I would be just as happy at the dock.
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Next stop---Solomon Island, MD. The trip up the Chesapeake was interesting. The bay lived up to her reputation. Nice chop and on plane tooling right along but the nice chop became 4-5 footers and there was no way I could trim the boat to handle these and stay on plane. Too tough on the boat. So we motored along for a couple of hours at trawler speed and pitched up and down over these things until we reached better waters. Then speed was once again possible.
Pat called her neice Sarah to find out what they live near, we only knew it was near the bay and it is in MD. Turned out she and her family, husband Billy, kids Abby, John and Charlie live 15 minutes from the island and it also turned out that they had plans to visit the Calvert Maritime Museum which is within sight of the Calvert Marina where we were headed. Talk about concidence! We had a great day on Friday with them at this excellent museum.
They live in Hollywood, MD where you can buy beer in either the standard 12 oz cans or--get this--10 oz cans. This is reported to be one of only of 3 places in the country where this choice is available, the second being a county in TX and the third being a county in LA. These 10 oz things are hugely popular for a number of reasons. I picked up a case of 10 oz Bud Lite for the boat.
This is the relocated Drum Point Light House at the museum. It has quite a history. We were able to go inside and have a look. The most who ever occupied the keepers house at one time was 7. Dad, Mother and 5 kids. that would have been an interesting life for the kids.
The kitchen and dining area.
Dining/Sitting Room.
This is the lens with one section removed. It is what they call a Fresnel design, named after the man who developed it in the mid 1800's. It is so efficient that a kerosene lamp (or a 100 watt light bulb) could be seen up to 11 miles away we were told.
Abby, John and a friend. Oh well, so much for signs!
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