It has been a long time since I have written anything but I have been tied up in Norfolk, VA as you know since April 10th or so and have just been waiting for my friend to return from his vacation in Hawaii before we start on the trip north. It also needed to warm up considerably northward before we started again. Hence the month of not much activity for Shorty. I have not been bored but just doing normal household things around the boat but today I began preparing for the trip onward. I had to purchase a few things for the boat and then tomorrow when Bob gets here we will make our grocery trip and then hopefully on Monday the weather cooperating we will be out of Norfolk and on to more unknown waters by both of us. The last couple of days I did a few more little tourist type treks to Norfolk and Portsmouth.
Last night the Spanish Navy training ship the “Juan Sebastian de Elcano came into port for a visit on its trip around the world. They had tours of the ship today so I got over to the fifty cent ferry and rode across the river for a tour. The tour was given by one of the Spanish Navy midshipman who did not speak English to well but tried to answer our questions the best he could. They have a very rigorous day at sea every day working with the tall ships sails, learning navigation the old way and new, regular college courses in different fields and then they do sports also on board. When they graduate from their naval academy they are the equivalents to our Lieutenants in the navy. So it was a very worthwhile trip over. I took some photos and will post them tonight.
There is another ship about to come out of drydock sometime soon as they removed the canvas from the docks and then they were painting the bulbous nose which is usually the last thing done before it goes in the water. It is one of a new class of ship called the San Antonio class and it is a ship the size of a helicopter carrier but it is a destroyer plus other capabilities. The helicopter carrier next to it is also looking more ready to go but it is not in drydock as it is to large for that.
I will post photos tonight so look for anything with todays date on the file and those will be new.
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