We're early, that's a first!
20 October 2007
October 8, 2007 Monday - Our 19th Anniversary/Columbus Day
Location: 36 50' .756 N 76 18' .070 W - Norfolk, Virginia at anchor off Hospital Point
As dawn approaches we find ourselves arriving in Norfolk a little too early. They say to transit this area during daylight due to the number of naval and commercial vessels transiting the area. We are now in the shipping channel an hour before daylight and the sky is full of moisture. Dew is collecting on the dodger windows, everything for that matter. The visibility is poor, to say the least and we now have a cargo ship heading our way from port. We veer out of the channel to make sure he has plenty of room. The depths outside the channel are fairly deep and we really should not be in the channel. The cargo ship passes with no problem.
We slowed the boat to a crawl just southeast of Old Comfort Point and wait for sunrise. We were glad we waited for the sunrise because it gave us the opportunity to see the world's largest naval fleet in one place. The ships are huge. They are seemingly everywhere you look. We entered Norfolk and proceeded to look for the anchorage just south of Hospital Point. As we motored along we had dolphins join us. They traveled in pairs and were headed in the same direction. There are 3 or 4 pairs, one is very small and must be a babe. We located the anchorage and made a sweep of the area where we planned to drop the anchor. We're checking the depth of the water so when the boat swings on the anchor we won't touch the bottom. All seemed good so we dropped anchor and sat back to take in the sights. The dolphins made a circle of the boat and then continued up the harbor. About a half an hour later we saw them traveling in the opposite direction headed back out to sea.
Deb begins schooling the kids while I clean the outside of the boat. Upon our arrival to Norfolk we were greeted by hundreds of flies. They were all over the rigging and in the cockpit too. I banged on the rigging with my hands to shake off the flies. The decks are spotted with fly poop which grosses me out! I wash everything and the flies give up and leave. The girls finish up their lessons and I go to my bunk for some sleep.
After I got a few hours of sleep we all got ready to go into town. We are in the dinghy and headed to town by 3:45PM. We tied up at the town marina, paid the small fee of $3.50 to tie up the dinghy, deposited our trash and we are off sightseeing. A tall ship was at dock next to the town marina. It was a naval training ship from Argentina. The crew was dressed in their white uniforms and offering people to tour their boat. I immediately wanted to take the tour but my crew was not interested so we trekked on. I got to tour this boat the next day by myself. It was awesome. We walked down to the Naval Museum "Nauticus", which exhibits the USS Wisconsin, the largest battle ship ever built. As we walk up to the doors we find the museum is closed on Mondays. We make a plan to come back tomorrow.
At the Nauticus building entrance we picked up a walking map. The index listed an arcade. The girls would enjoy playing some games so we head there next. The area around Norfolk is very clean and pretty. As we follow the route to the arcade we pass really nice looking brick condos. The traffic is heavy but doesn't appear to be as congested as Boston. We make our way to the arcade and enter the building. Deb noticed that it said "arcade" on the building and now we realize it is not a kids arcade. We enter anyhow to give it a look. We asked a lady if there is a kids arcade nearby. She told us that there may be a kids arcade two blocks away at the mall. This building houses numerous independent artist shops including painters, sculptors, and jewelers. This place was set up like a mall with each vendor working at his art in the front window. Very few people are here today as the shops are closed on Mondays. We headed off to the traditional mall only to learn there was no arcade there either. We were getting hungry, and since it was our anniversary, we decided to splurge and go out to eat. Deb saw an ad for a restaurant that was inside an old church. It looked interesting so we headed to the Freemason Abbey for dinner. We ate well and had wine with our dinner. Our waitress was really nice and we told her about our trip and how we enjoyed Norfolk. She brought over two postcards for the girls so they could send them to their friends. As we were leaving, Deb asked the waitress for another postcard for our scrapbook since it was our anniversary. She and two other workers said sure and we were also going to get a present. They give people celebrating a special occasion, pub style glasses with a picture of the restaurant on it. We were psyched and hope they make it home in one piece. We leave feeling full and enjoy the warm air as we walk back to the marina and then to our boat under clear moonlight skies.