Norfolk (Part 2) VA USA

We wanted to spend some time exploring Norfolk whilst we were in the city but we also had jobs on board that we needed to do.  Consequently, our plan for Halloween was to spend the morning working on BV and the afternoon at the Chrysler Museum of Art.  First up on the list of tasks was to check and remake the connections in the wind instrument’s cable run.  Since relaunching in October, periodically the wind instrument would read 99.9kts or would just shut down and then switch on again.  Clearly, there was a loose connection in the system which needed to be remade.  In addition, I wanted to make some changes to the wiring run as I have longer term plans to install an NMEA 2000 backbone to the instrument system.  This will, I think, help to stabilise several of the instruments’ displays and will also provide the basis of the instruments’ wiring loom when we come to have to replace some or all of our current instruments.

The wiring task, as they say, was a job well jobbed.  I found one very loose connection and a couple of other ones that needed remaking.  And I also managed to remove a small section of wiring to minutely reduce the snakes’ wedding hidden behind the headlining.  [Ed: 30cm removed, only another several tens of metres to go!]

Task number 2 was to check the rig tension.  We should have done this shortly after relaunching but hadn’t managed to do so and it was something we knew we needed to do before we hit bad weather and/or the open ocean.  It’s a tedious task because to make the adjustments to the rig we need to be able to access the bottlescrews at the base of the shrouds.  And for that we need to remove the boards that we’ve attached to the shrouds which we use to secure the jerry cans of diesel, the dive tanks and the petrol cans.  As ever, once all the gubbins had been removed, actually checking and, as necessary, retensioning the rig was really rather quick, particularly since the adjustments needed were relatively small.  Putting everything back on was another time-consuming and dull task which is why we hadn’t got around to checking the rig tension sooner.

We were so engrossed in the rig tension task that we didn’t notice, until Gary drew our attention to it, that Jennifer on Kailani could do with some help to rig additional lines.  By this stage the wind was blowing strongly from the south.  Kailani was moored side on to the wind and was now leaning heavily on the downwind piles of her slip (berth).  With only 13-year-old Sophie on board to provide additional muscle-power, Jennifer was unable to rig the lines needed to drag their 63ft heavy blue-water cruiser up against the wind.  Nicky and I happily provided the additional manpower required and Kailani’s power-winches did the rest of the job.  And with the forecast for the wind to go around to the northerly quadrant, we helped get extra lines on out to starboard as well.

By mid-afternoon we had finished our jobs and, on the recommendation of both Greta and Elsie (Ruby Tuesday), headed to the Chrysler Museum of Art.  Had we not had the gallery recommended we might well have returned to finish the McCarthy Memorial and missed it.  That, it turns out, would have been a great shame.

It’s an excellent art museum with all sorts of works from portraits to landscapes, sculpture, glass and metalwork.

Special exhibit on architecture featuring
Thomas Jefferson’s work.  This item shows the
 University of Virginia in Charlottesville, which
we visited in September with Bill and Lydia. 
Note Jefferson’s iconic wavy walls, which mean
that far fewer bricks are required to effect a
robust, free-standing structure

We’re not great art gallery aficionados but here we found lots to look at and enjoy rather than endure.  The only shame was that some of the galleries were closed for a Halloween ‘spooky tour’, which meant that most of the glasswork areas, for which the museum is particularly well-known, were not open.  One for next time – we’ll just have to return.

Halloween decorations abounded

We walked back to BV through residential roads that were all fully decorated for Halloween, meeting a few trick or treaters on the way.  It felt a little odd that it was still light at 1700 on 31 October but the clocks don’t go back here until the first weekend in November.  On our way to the dock we stopped off at Gary and Greta’s and enjoyed sundowners watching the sunset from their balcony and confirming a plan to help Gary with some jobs on their boat in a couple of days’ time.

View from Greta and Gary’s balcony

Norfolk, Virginia, USA

Norfolk (Part 1) VA USA

We wanted to get a rough picture of Norfolk so, almost as soon as BV was settled in her mooring, we set off on foot along the Cannonball Trail, a tourist path which runs along much of the waterfront and then led us in towards the town centre.

The impressive USS Wisconsin
[Ed: too big for the camera’s viewfinder and lens!] [Sub Ed: Maybe I need a new camera and lenses?]

On the way we walked past the impressive USS Wisconsin.  Launched on 7 December 1943, this huge Iowa-class battleship served in the Pacific Theatre during WWII and then the Korean War.

After that she was decommissioned only to be reactivated on 1 August 1986, entering modernisation programme which included fitting Harpoon anti-ship missiles, Tomahawk cruise missiles and remotely piloted drones for spotting targets and the fall of shot for her massive 16-inch guns.  Amazingly, her final active service was in the 1991 Gulf War during which she was one of the first ships to fire cruise missiles, as well as controlling all the cruise missile strikes and anti-surface warfare in the conflict.  [Ed: and she has wooden decks!!]  She is the last battleship to have actively participated in a war.

With such a long history of service we desperately wanted a look around her but there just wasn’t time for a proper visit that day.  Instead we added ‘a visit to the Navy Museum’ to our list of things to do whilst in Norfolk.

The MacArthur Memorial and the Town’s Zero Mile Stone

The next landmark that we saw on our afternoon whistle-stop tour was the MacArthur Memorial which is located in the former Norfolk City Hall.  The memorial houses the tombs of General Douglas MacArthur and his wife Jean in the rotunda, around which are 9 galleries with exhibits from his epic military career in WWI, WWII and the Korean War.

Knowing that we needed to be back for Greta and Gary’s party, we set our watch alarms and cantered around the museum trying to cover as many of the exhibits as we could.  We managed to cover a lot of the ground but, inevitably, there was just too much to see in the limited time available.  A revisit of the MacArthur Memorial museum was added to our list of things to do in Norfolk.

West Freemason Street historic district

Walking back to BV we entered the West Freemason Street historic district. It was one of the first areas of Norfolk to be developed outside the boundaries of the original 50 acres of the colonial town and today it is the only neighbourhood which still presents a visible chronology of the town’s architectural styles over the last 3 centuries.

They take decorating for Halloween very seriously in the USA

A sign on the street informed us that: “Beginning with the Federal style (c1791) the buildings in the area also contain examples of the Greek Revival, Italianate, Second Empire, Romanesque revival, Beaux Arts Classicism, Queen Anne and Georgian revival styles.  The street has cobblestone paving, granite curbs, cast iron fences and brick footpaths which were all characteristics of early Norfolk”.

Walking along West Freemason Street was like passing through a living museum of lovely houses, all with lots of character and interesting architectural features.

Through the 19^th and early 20^th centuries this was one of Norfolk’s finest residential neighbourhoods.  It then fell out of favour and many of the buildings were converted into multi-occupancy apartments for labourers.  Perhaps that was a blessing because without the pressure to keep up with the neighbours in following the latest ‘essential’ decoration fashions the area has retained its original architecture intact.  The district was entered in the National Register of Historic Places in 1972 and is once again a highly desirable residential area.

Having stretched our legs and got a feel for what Norfolk has to offer for visiting tourists [Ed: a lot!] it was time to get ready for our evening party with Greta and Gary.

Rosie

We were met at the door by a very excited Rosie (the dog) and then introduced to the other guests.  We already knew Lionel and Elsie from Ruby Tuesday, but also there were David and Roberta Hobbs from Pleione, as well as Harley, Jennifer and Sophie Earl from Kailani.  Sophie is 11 years old and has been brought up and schooled on Kailani and was fascinating to talk to.  Like many kids brought up on boats she was totally at ease conversing within a group of adults.  We discovered that during her 2 circumnavigations she has been an excellent ambassador for Kailani befriending the local kids and through them opening up all sorts of opportunities to meet the locals and be invited into their homes in a way that perhaps you might not normally experience as a cruiser.  On this year’s OCC Southern New England Rally she also jumped ship and went sailing with our friends Pauline and Maggie on Saorsa.  It’s a small world!

Greta and Gary had put together a grand array of pre-dinner nibbles.  Add in a delivery of huge pizzas and we were all fed and watered extremely well.  It was a superb evening and the conversation buzzed with people excited about heading south to warmer climes.  We are so lucky to have such excellent and generous OCC Port Officers who not only make these sorts of social gatherings happen, but also help out visiting yacht crews with transport, shopping and guidance on local technical support.  Greta and Gary are amongst the best of them and they are also full of interesting tales and tips from their own extensive cruising experiences.

Replete we retreated back to our floating homes hoping that in the near future our paths would cross again.  For us though, a few more days sightseeing in Norfolk was the immediate plan.

Norfolk, Virginia, USA

Sailing to Freemason Harbour Norfolk VA USA

Passing North End Point on our way out of Back River

We left Back River at 0800hrs for the 23mile passage to Freemason Harbour in Norfolk.  It took a little time to get out of the river and its approaches but as soon as we turned south we were able to sail which made a nice change from the previous day of solid motoring.

Thimble Shoal Light

We passed the entrance to the York River and sailed on south towards Thimble Shoal Light, a rather scruffy looking lighthouse marking the entrance to the Elizabeth River.

The whole area was busy with military activity.  The skies buzzed with jets in and out of Langley AFB behind us whilst, ahead of us, the main channel into the Elizabeth River was somewhat hogged by a huge aircraft carrier returning to the US Navy docks in Norfolk.

Just after we dropped our sails and turned into the Elizabeth River we got another low flypast from a USMC CH53 which was a fun bonus.

The carriers dock

Once past historic Fort Monroe, close to Hampton on the north coast, and Sewells Point to the south, we turned left to follow Elizabeth River southwards past the US Navy Dockyard.

There was no shortage of naval hardware.  We counted 3 carriers and then sailed past a host of destroyers, frigates, patrol vessels and Landing Platform Docks in their areas of the yard.  Lastly, there was huge array of logistics support vessels.

All the while the flypasts continued to add a fun element to the passage.

Top: Looking back at the US Navy Yard.  Below: Looking ahead towards the Norfolk container port

With the Navy dockyard behind us we still had a couple of miles to go to get to the centre of Norfolk and Freemason Harbour outside Greta and Gary’s apartment.

Blue Velvet moored next to Ruby Tuesday in Freemason Harbour

Greta and Gary are the OCC Port Officers for Norfolk and love to meet passing members.  Better still, they love to fill the dock area outside their apartment with OCC yachts and help them to enjoy their visit to the area.  When we arrived at 1230 they met us on the dock, allocating us a mooring right next to Lionel and Elsie on Ruby Tuesday, and told us about a drinks and pizza party that they had organised that evening for visiting OCC yachts in the area.  What a fabulous welcome!

Freemason Harbour, Norfolk, Virginia, USA

Back River nr Langley AFB VA USA

For some reason, Tuesday 29 October was a day of no photos.  We left Chris and Bill’s dock at 11am to head south towards Norfolk.  A passage which was spoilt to a degree by the complete lack of wind.

Norfolk is about 60 miles from the entrance to the Piankatank River and Queen Creek, which was a little far to go in the available daylight.  So, instead of arriving after dark, we elected to head into Back River close to Langley Air Force Base.

We knew that we were close to an Air Force base because we were constantly being overflown by fast jets. So, our only concern about the choice of anchorage was that we might be kept awake all night if the jets had a night flying programme.

North End Point on the southern entrance to Back River

To minimise any wasted transit time, Nicky had picked out an anchorage just behind North End Point on the southern entrance to Back River.  This looked a bit wild and rugged on the chart but as we rounded the point we saw that there was good shelter and it seemed perfect for what we needed for a night stop.

It was low water as we arrived so we watched the depth gauge very carefully as we turned into the marked channel.  Just as well as it turned out, because the channel had silted up more than the chart suggested so we gently ran aground on our way in.  Nicky motored us back and we tried another line but it was clear that we would have to wait for more of a tidal rise to get into the channel.  All the while we had jets that had just taken off from Langley AFB noisily zipping over our heads, but taking photographs didn’t really seem to be a priority with the depth gauge reading less than our draught!

Messick Point in the Back River

With the light failing fast and an early start planned we didn’t want to be trapped in the anchorage behind the point so instead we headed a mile further into Back River and anchored behind Messick Point.

Langley AFB was the nearest piece of land behind us

That put us even closer to the airfield but it turned out that we had a very quiet night there as there was no night flying.  Despite the mini drama it was actually a really pleasant anchorage and one worth remembering when we are next in this area.

Dawn anchored in the Back River behind Messick Point

Back River nr Langley AFB, Virginia, USA

Queen Creek VA USA

Our trip to Queen Creek, just 5 miles from Fishing Bay, was to see the Deltaville and Mathews OCC Port Officers, Chris & Bill Burry.  We had tried to meet up with them in June but that hadn’t worked out, but we had also just seen them at the excellent OCC Mathews Yacht Club Dinner, which they had organised, so why the need to see them again so soon?

Blue Velvet moored on Bill and Chris’ dock, head to head with Plover

Other than the fact that they are very good company, we had also agreed to get together so that we could learn a lot more about a computer-based navigation system called Open CPN.  This has been designed by cruisers and uses freely available electronic charts to replace commercially produced chart plotters.  It takes AIS and radar inputs and overlays them over the charts, exactly as the expensive commercial products do but it’s all free and is rapidly evolving with extra add-ons available written by the community of users and developers.  Bill and Chris use theirs on a Windows-based laptop as well as on a tiny Rasperry Pi computer that is barely the size of a cigarette packet.  They have it as their main navigation system and have configured their yacht’s radar and AIS around using it, so they seemed to be ideal people with whom to talk through the system.  So, having crept carefully over the shallow parts of the entrance to Queens Creek (we entered at high tide), at a little past 11am we found Bill and Chris on their lovely dock ready to take our lines.

We love the whole variety of waterside properties in the Chesapeake and Bill and Chris’ home is lovely home, the main body of which dates to the mid-nineteenth century, in a beautiful spot.

Having secured BV, we walked up to the house, trying not to walk over the swimming pool which was camouflaged with its winter cover over it.  Perfect hosts, the kettle was on for a nice cup of tea.  We then sat down in their front room Open CPN School with the picture from Chris’ laptop displayed on the large TV.  She ran through lots of helpful hints on setting it all up and how she organises her electronic charts.  There’s also a very clever way of using Google Maps satellite imagery to create charts; particularly useful in the Pacific where the sextant navigation derived island positions are often somewhat off the GPS WGS84 model of the world.  Fully getting our heads around how to do that will probably have to wait for Post Graduate Open CPN School lessons another day, but we left with a good understanding of what we needed to do to get it all up running. We’ll have a play with Open CPN over the next season and see how we get on.  If nothing else, it’s a completely stand-alone system we can use if our current fixed chartplotters fail.

Centre: Phil and Joan’s house and to its right the wooden bridge over the saltwater pond; a short cut to the neighbours’ home

School finished, Chris and Bill took us for a walk around their land and gave us a brief history of the place.  We walked through the wood that Bill and Chris let grow up over the old helicopter landing site used by the previous owner to fly to back and forth to Washington DC.  We also walked across the wooden bridge which spans the entrance to their saltwater pond.  Relations with Phil and Joan, their neighbours, are very good and we had already all been invited around there for dinner.  Having a wooden bridge over the pond as a short cut between the 2 properties (saving a long hike on the official driveways and track) seemed to be very friendly.  Over dinner we were told that the old rumours suggest that one of the previous owners of Chris and Bill’s home installed his mistress in Phil and Joan’s house and the wooden bridge was very much there to facilitate a ‘friendly relationship’ with the neighbour.

The view out from the huge windows in Phil and Joan’s home

Phil and Joan house is completely different in design being very modern in comparison with Bill and Chris’ more traditional Chesapeake home.  It was a great venue for a lovely meal and fascinating to compare 2 such different waterside properties.  The conversation flowed easily and we heard how busy they all are with local events and societies.  The photographic club, run by Phil, is a particular favourite of Chris and they both avidly provide pictures for the monthly assignments.  It was a lovely evening with great company and we left, having eaten very well, grateful for the short cut back across the bridge to Bill and Chris’ property.

In the morning Bill showed me his enviable collection of power tools in his workshop and used one of his circular saws to cut me a new shelf for our fridge whilst Nicky and Chris unloaded all of the cushions from Plover as part of getting her ready for her winter layup.  We were sad to say goodbye to Bill and Chris but high tide was approaching and it was time for us to be on our way towards Norfolk, so we said our farewells and headed off.  We’ll definitely see them again though, either when we are back in Chesapeake Bay or perhaps further north in Nova Scotia or Newfoundland.  Bill and Chris love cruising there and we have been comparing notes for our planned trip in that direction next summer.

Queen Creek, Virginia, USA

Fishing Bay Deltaville VA USA

Nursing the MPS along in light winds

The weather forecast remained troublesome; too little wind followed by too much wind and lots of rain. Factoring in that Alison also needed to be back at her car in Deltaville by lunchtime on Sunday, which was when the wind was forecast to be strongest and the rain heaviest, Jamie went for the least stressful option of everyone moving to Fishing Bay on the Saturday and just relaxing there.

Anna Lee and Twin Cove motoring past us

Once we were out in the bay there was just enough wind to fly our MPS so we hoisted that to add a bit of colour to the morning.  But that was relatively short-lived and an hour and a quarter later we had to admit defeat and revert to engine power.

For the hour that we ran the engine we set a variety of different power settings and experienced little or no vibration on the Aquadrive unit.  Clearly adding a little bit more grease had been beneficial [Ed: the instructions caution about adding too much grease, hence we’d built up the level in stages] which we guessed was predictable as we had just ordered a new one to be manufactured for us.

Once in Fishing Bay we rejoined the rest of the small flotilla.  After setting our anchor and reporting our arrival with CBP (Customs and Border Protection) we met up with the rest of the team on board Twin Cove for a lazy afternoon on the top deck, listening to the University of Virginia’s football team play an away match.  The view from the top deck is excellent and to laze on board a lovely motor yacht in the early evening sunshine is, quite frankly, the height of decadence.

Enjoying Twin Cove’s top deck

The theme of good company and good food continued throughout the afternoon and evening and into the next day.   Alison, Doug and Jamie produced even more pre-dinner nibbles.  Dinner on Saturday was cooked by George & Frances and then on Sunday it was our turn.  We pre-cooked dinner on board BV whilst the wind blew itself out and the rain poured down and then joined everyone later afternoon.  Sadly, however, without Alison because she had had to return home for work.  By mid-afternoon the weather had perked up considerably and we were joined for afternoon drinks and oysters, this time cooked in garlic butter, by Rick Farinholt, who runs Stingray Point Boatyard and who was out sailing a daykeelboat in the last of the autumnal sun.  And so a weekend of over-eating, gentle sailing and lots of fun with friends ended with our stroganoff followed by even more of Frances' excellent cake.

Monday began with boat admin: filling up with diesel, water and petrol, and pumping out the holding tanks.  We also collected from the boatyard the parcel containing my camera which had been delivered whilst we were in Matthews.  Twin Cove joined us on the fuel dock to drop off Bill and Lydia, so it was an emotional goodbye to everyone and to Deltaville for this year.  We needed to start the journey south but the first leg was not going to be a long one as we had arranged to pop the short distance back to the Mathews area to visit Chris and Bill Burry to talk computerized charting with them.

Fishing Bay, Deltaville, Virginia, USA