All things marine! Holy warship, Batman! We left Hampton in sunshine, so thankful for our enclosure. It is nippy! Didnt realize we were so far away from Norfolk as we were seeing military ships of all makes and models. We had not seen anything yet! As we made our way through the channel with cargo container ships we came to the Naval base, OMG. 2 aircraft carriers were coming home from deployment in the Pursian Gulf and tugs were spraying 60 foot plumes of water in welcome. As we were making our way to Norfolk I couldnt help to compare driving into a city and sailing into a city. In an auto you have 4-5 lanes going both ways. When coming in via boat you have one channel. Driving you can change lanes as you encounter slow, fast, well equipped and ill equipped vehicles. In a channel that is 100/200 yards you encounter vessels of all sizes, speed(which greatly affects your comfort!), and repair. When driving into a city you are zooming with the traffic driving through the sky scrapers, residential an industrial areas. Today we were so fortunate we cruised about 4 mph through our nations biggest Naval station, a stunningly beautiful downtown with waterfront condos, marina and business centers. On through the shipyards that had all kinds of ships in for repairs and continuing on to the industrial part of town, the not so pretty part. I remember sitting in a rocking chair on my grandparents porch on a hillside overlooking the Columbia River across from Longview, Washington and watching cargo ships come in. I would read their ports of call, hailing from Asia, Europe and South America. As I rocked in the wooden rocker and picked apart pods from the tree, I dreamt of places so far away and what it must be like to be on one of those ships. Well, I am not on a cargo ship, but a ship all the same, sharing the waterways with those ships that intrigued me so long ago. We might not make it to Asia, Europe or South America, but at least I have a tiny insight to what life on a ship is. We are in the Dismal Swamp, on the hook, soaking up the glorious sunshine, waiting to go through our very first lock! How exciting! A Prout Snowgoose catamaran is behind us and looks like we will be doing the swamp at the same speed. A fine vessel she looks like! Boats are starting to line up for the locking. I wish my sister was here, this would be a great adventure for her birthday today! 😍. Someday we will get her on the boat! So with a warm enclosure, little wind and a most excellent adventure ahead of us, I have to say, Lifes good on our boat.
Posted on: Sun, 16 Nov 2014 00:38:09 +0000
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