April 28,29,30 and May 1, 2007

April 28 to May 1 - I pretty much just sit around and go a few places locally or spend my time at the library. The charts for the next part of the trip are in the mail and once I get them I can start and do a little preplanning which will pretty much go out the window once I get started back because for me an exact schedule just does not work. I will miss a lot if I just do what is necessary.

Yesterday I did go over to Norfolk to the Nauticus museum and then took the Navy base tour on the harbor tour boat. The narrative was really good as they told about all of the things along the river and just not the Navy stuff which is better than half of the shoreline. He pointed out where the traffic tunnels go under the river and how you could tell where they were. The big kind of odd looking Navy shipping in drydock just down from me is a new type of ship called an L which performs landings of marines in addition to the helicopter carrier across from me. There were quite a few destroyers in the Navy yard north of Norfolk City as well as some submarines of the Los Angeles class which were in the piers with white floats across in front of them. He said if you cross the float line at any navy pier you are pretty much a dead man as the orders are shoot to kill and ask later. And I believe what he says. There was a number of what is called RORO ships in the piers and they are know as Roll on/Roll off as the equipment can be driven on right from the piers or floats if they are in a landing zone. Another neat ship the marines can use for an amphibious landing goes in as far as it can to the beach and then it takes on water and the amphibious landing craft emerge from the body of the ship already in the water and loaded. A lot of you may know all of this but I did not know some of this existed. We also saw the carrier, Harry S. Truman, in its pier location which is super impressive but I will also tell you that we did not get close enough that any photos will give away anything but close enough to give you a perspective of the size of things. After the last Navy pier if you go right you enter Chesapeake Bay and to the left you would go past Newport News ship yard and on up the James River which leads you on to Richmond if I am correct and do not have a chart here to prove it. If anyone goes to Norfolk I would certainly recommend this tour so you can see where your tax dollars are going when the Navy gets their appropriations. Of course the only part of the fleet that was in came in because of needed repairs or restocking.

I did not go into the Nauticus Museum yesterday and have saved it for another day. I have to go back to Norfolk again and do the walking tour they have laid out in the old section of town. Of course that means another ferry ride and I like doing it. Saw a couple more ships come in to town in the last couple of days but nothing spectacular. I did see a beautiful yacht even if it was power that was bronze in color and all the rest handrails and other equipment were all painted black. A super nice paint job and it did not seem to be in a hurry like most of those people are. That is all I have for now and the photos will come later.
I did notice one thing though and that is the water police which enforce the NO WAKE areas of Norfolk seem to only stop the boats that are under forty feet or that are easy to board so in some cases bigger is better. I think it shows a lot of prejudice on their part to do it that way, the little guy gets the ticket and then the big ones slow a little bit. The locks from the Dismal Swamp open each day at a certain time and there is always a group of boats from there which arrive in Norfolk at about one in the afternoon and the police always gear up to meet them in the channel and after going at idle speed through the swamp they know every one is itchy on the throttle and here is this big river and you still must idle along at the swamp speeds and most miss the signs because they are way over on the sides of the river and not where you would see them