Beaufort NC USA (Part 2)

Friday 8 November was a day of maintenance work.  I started by wiring the new NMEA 2000 cabling and connections into the hot-potch of NMEA 0183, NMEA 2000, SeaTalk 1 and SeaTalk NG cabling that connects our various instruments of multiple generations, in the process finding yet another loose connection on the wind instrument’s wiring.  The end result:  the loss of another foot or so of old wiring and, more importantly, instruments that ‘speak’ to each other better, so that we no longer have displays (eg distance to waypoint) that flash on and off.  For the longer term, we now also have a set-up that is increasingly future proof.  Most of our instruments are well and truly obsolete so, as and when they fail (and many of them are 20 years old so they’re doing well), their replacements will work on the NMEA 2000 instrument protocol, or Raymarine’s variation thereof, as opposed to any of the other older protocols we currently have whizzing information around between instrument heads.  The work I did today means that it will be a lot easier to ‘plug and play’ with any replacement instruments.

Taking my electrician’s hat off I put on my mechanic’s headgear and carried out a check on the generator oil level and adjusted the tell-tale flow from its cooling water system.  Whilst I was in the machinery space, we decided to do a double check that all is well with the new dive tank compressor, since the last time we operated it the generator decided to stop producing AC power.  Happily, all was well this time though – the new capacitor seems to be doing the trick for now.  And, wearing my plumber’s hat, I also took the opportunity to pour several litres of vinegar into the aft heads pipework as part of our routine preventative maintenance against their scaling up.  Meanwhile, Nicky continued work on updating the inventory and stowage plan in between handing me tools and generally acting as the electrician’s/mechanic’s/plumber’s gopher.  After a busy day of jobs, we spent the evening slobbed in front of the computer enjoying a film.

We’d worked hard on the Friday to free up the next day for fun.  Saturday 9 November was the day of Morehead City’s Veterans’ Day parade and Dianne had suggested that we might want to watch it.  As President of the local Republican Party women’s group, she was co-ordinating decorating their float, so we helped to attach flags and banners and chatted with her friends and colleagues before heading off to find a suitable vantage point from which to watch the parade.  We were offered a ride on the float but declined; we’d get a much better view of the parade as a whole from the roadside.

It was a huge parade, taking over an hour to go past.  It opened with a band from the US Marine Corps, shortly followed by a division of sailors from the US Navy Medical Unit at Cherry Point.

Bottom left:  the world’s slowest F18 but the parade’s most dangerous golf-cart (and it wins our vote for best in parade).  Bottom right:  local military museum volunteers ‘mortaring’ sweets onto those watching the parade

Then followed a remarkable number of local politicians and elected officials, waving and throwing sweets for the watching children, after which were entries from military affairs committees, military museums and many, many local veterans’ organisations.  I say ‘entries’ because Dianne told us that all the parade participants would go past a judging station towards the end of the route, and that there would be some kind of prize for the ‘best’ entry (entries?) in the parade.  She was vague about, in fact unsure of, the criteria for ‘best’ and we were certainly at a loss as to how one would choose between the golf cart decorated as an F18, any or all of the vehicles that drove past, the school bands (and flag wavers), the political parties’ floats and anything and everything inbetween.

When the long succession of veterans’ and vaguely military organisations had passed, community organisations marched through.  First up, a couple of school bands complete with their flag troops…..

……followed by the local car group showcasing their classic British and American sports cars, all polished chrome and gleaming bodywork.

There were vintage pickup trucks (anyone remember ‘The Waltons’?), with slightly popping engines.

And then Jeeps and a huge line-up of more modern muscle cars – more gleaming metalwork but this time with properly growling engines.

The parade rounded off with a small group of cowgirls and half a dozen firetrucks, old and new, with lights flashing and sirens wailing.  It was quite a spectacle and the breadth of organisations in the parade amazed us; the only link between them all being their declared support for their serving military and veterans.  And quite who ‘won’ the parade we never found out……..

View across Taylor Creek towards Beaufort from Shackleford Bank Island

BV in the anchorage – note the high tide

We followed up an All-American parade with an All-American lunch at a diner with Dianne and then she dropped us back at the dinghy dock after a really fun morning out.  It was still a beautiful day and, since we were already playing hooky from boat jobs, we decided to continue the theme for the rest of the day.  So we dinghied across to Shackleford Bank Island and took a walk.

🎵 Wild horses….

….couldn’t drag me away 🎵

We had a lovely walk around the island though the tide was high so we couldn’t take the outside loop around on the beach as there was no beach!  However, we did see a good number of the wild horses for which the island is well known…...

Lovely views across the Outer Banks

…….as well as some great views to seaward.

The horses are said to be descended from Spanish ponies that were brought over very early on in America’s colonial past but they are actually of more modern descent, the Spanish horses had died or been killed in, I think, the early 1900s.

The Back Street Pub

The Back Street Pub’s open fire was a delight
to stand next to with the chilly conditions outside

We finished our day of rest with drinks out with Carol & Steve (Innamorata II) and Matthew (Barfly), who had arrived in the anchorage that day.  We started at the microbrewery but it was very busy with a football game on the TV so we moved to the Back Street Pub.  This is a ‘proper’ pub with, best of all on a cold autumn evening, a roaring open fire.  We drank beer, toasted ourselves by the flames and talked boats, maintenance and future plans.  A fun end to a fun day.

Matthew (Barfly) and Steve (Innamorata II) deep in conversation

Beaufort, North Carolina, USA

Beaufort NC USA (Part 1)

We had arrived in the rain and dropped anchor in Taylor Creek at 1125hrs an hour or so before the tide changed.  Though Carol and Steve on Innamorata II assured us that the anchorage was a lot emptier that it had been the previous night, it was still rather full but we managed to shoehorn ourselves into a gap.

An hour or so later, when the tide changed, the gap closed up with us in it!  So we made a hurried departure from there and reanchored about 50m further up the creek in a space that seemed to remain clear of other anchored yachts whichever way the tide was flowing.

A little later, Carol and Steve returned from shopping with Dianne Tetreault, the OCC Port Officer for Beaufort, armed with parcels for us, the first of increasingly many for which Dianne would take delivery on our behalf.  The important items in these packets were a ‘hockey puck’ GPS unit with a USB connection to plug into the Raspberry Pi for running our new Open CPN navigation system and, more critical right now, a number of NMEA 2000 cables and connectors for trying to stabilise the information flow between our navigational instruments of various vintages.

The Black Sheep Bar (which also boasts a wood-fired pizza oven) – a haven from the rain

But all work and no play……  and we had rubbish to get rid of and legs that needed stretching.  Braving a gap in the rain we headed ashore and got as far as the Black Sheep Bar before the rain returned.  So we watched it hammer down from inside in the dry whilst enjoying an excellent Flounder EyePA each, brewed at the microbrewery a few hundred yards away.

Happily for our livers, though not for the microbrewery’s profits, the rain cleared through before we ordered a second round and we returned to BV without a soaking.  In the evening light Taylor Creek was a most attractive sight, particularly so as all the yachts swinging on the tide around us remained far enough clear of us for a peaceful night’s sleep.

The stanchion rebedding project in process

The following day (Wednesday 6 November) the weather was much improved so we attacked one of those jobs that needed doing and which we had tried to ignore for a while.  Back in late October, when we had had the MPS up whilst sailing from Jutland Creek, MD to Carter’s Creek, VA, the spinnaker guy had pressed too hard on one of the stanchions which, in turn, had resulted in 2 of its retaining bolts shearing.  We are in the process of replacing the retaining bolts for all the stanchions as it is clear that many of them are (or were) suffering from crevice corrosion, which is most likely why these ones broke, rather than the stanchion bending (so all in all actually quite a good result!).  Replacing the bolts was pretty much an all-day job due to the difficulty in reaching the retaining nuts and bolts and then in removing the sheared off units, though in relative terms these were quite easy to reach compared to some.  And anything that involves sealant takes longer to deal with than the time you budget and always involves gunge going everywhere.  But the end result looks smart enough and hopefully the bolts will be safe from the ravages of salt water for a few years now.

Views along Taylor Creek to the west (top) and east (bottom)

We celebrated our success with the stanchion with drinks at the Cru Bar and dinner out that evening with Steve and Cindy from Willow whom we had first met at the Sandy Hook anchorage.

Yacht Club ‘head chef’ with his grill

The next day I started on the wind instrument rewiring project whilst Nicky prepared our offering for the pot luck supper at Dianne’s yacht club to which we and the other OCCers had been invited.  This is a regular Thursday night event for the Moorhead and Beaufort Yacht Club and they very kindly allow visiting OCC crews to join in the fun.  We had a lovely evening out meeting many of Dianne’s friends and, of course, sampling a variety of local pot luck favourites.

The OCC crew.  Back row left to right: Nicky, Dianne Tetreault (OCC Port Officer for Beaufort and Morehead City), Reg, Carol and Steve (Innamorata II).  Front row: Cindy and Steve (Willow)

Beaufort, North Carolina, USA

Hampton to Beaufort NC USA

Views of Old Point Comfort.  Top: Fort Monroe.  Bottom: Old Point Light and historic buildings just outside Fort Monroe

We made a fairly early start on Sunday 3 November, not as early as the previous 2 days, admittedly, and we did benefit from the clocks having gone back the previous night too, so the sun was an hour up when we left, but we were clearly the lie-a-beds.  By the time we were raising anchor at 0700EST, the anchorage was virtually empty.

Leaving Hampton Roads.  BV (solid black arrowhead)
passing close in to Old Point Comfort with a fleet
of yachts all heading out of the Chesapeake Bay. 
The chartplotter picture with AIS…..

We motored out around Old Point Comfort, enjoying the views of Fort Monroe, the old lighthouse and the historic buildings and then raised full sail and made chase of the fleet of yachts all heading out of the Bay bound south.  And the fleet was really very sizeable for a couple of reasons: it was the first good weather window for moving south for a week, perhaps more; and many members of the Salty Dawgs Rally, which had been fragged to leave Hampton (just west of Old Point Comfort) on Saturday, had delayed for the better weather and smaller seas on the Sunday.  We were one of many, independents and ralliers alike, who were taking advantage of the good sailing conditions.

……and the picture for real

BV bowled along and we had a satisfying sail past a couple of yachts.  Even wrapped up against the cold we had grins on our faces – a beautiful sunny day, a good breeze and the open ocean ahead – what’s not to love?

Passing the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel and enjoying the sailing, even if it is darned chilly

Just past the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel we received a call from Caribbean Princess, a cruise ship inbound to the Bay in the main shipping channel.  They said that they were coming up astern of us, that the main channel was reserved for vessels drawing 25ft or more and would we get out of the way?  A blatant case of misidentification, which you’d have thought was quite difficult given the clarity of most AIS displays.  Nicky pointed out that we were a sailing yacht, under sail, outbound and outside the channel to the west.  Perhaps they’d care to call {Boat Name}, which was the vessel she thought they were interested in.  They did.  The motor yacht took one look at the behemoth bearing down on them from behind and moved.

Top left: impressively sized barge under tow

We continue to be surprised by the volume of barge traffic, hauled by enormous tugs, that we see going up and down the eastern seaboard and even through the ICW too.  Today’s offering was a fine example of the size of tow these tugs drag up and down the coast, day in, day out.  And it concentrates the mind wonderfully in learning light and sound signals for these big tows too!

Jackster under sail

One of the yachts we passed as we left the Bay was Jackster, another OCC yacht owned by Jackie and David Pemberton.  We chatted briefly on the VHF radio and I promised to send them any decent photos that we took.  I must do that!

Following the fun reach out of the Bay, we bore away to the south, poled out the genoa to port and poddled on much more gently towards Cape Hatteras.  By early afternoon the wind had died away too much, so the iron topsail was called into action and we motored from then until about 0400 the following morning.  We rounded Cape Hatteras’ Diamond Shoals buoy in flat seas with just 4kts of wind, in company with about 12 other yachts.  We then turned southwest towards Cape Lookout.  Some of the other yachts did the same but many continued down the coast towards Charleston or out offshore towards the Bahamas.

Approaching the entrance to Cape Lookout Bight.  The light was fading, as was the wind, but in the smooth seas there was still sufficient wind to sail

During the Monday we had lovely sailing conditions and Nicky noted in the log “Lovely Sailing.  Whizzing along effortlessly on a magic carpet!”, which says it all.  The wind lessened gradually during the day but even after rounding Cape Lookout, where the seas were relatively flat under the protection of the shoals and then the bight, we managed to keep sailing.  The 2 or 3 other yachts around us took the (perhaps) easier option of motoring the final 12nm or so but the peace of the gentle sail north was a delight [Ed: though the faff avoiding the fishing trawler, which seemed intent on intercepting our every avoiding action, was less so].

On that final leg up to the entrance of Cape Lookout Bight we took the opportunity to run the watermaker, just to prove it after its long summer lay-up.  It’s just as well that we did as, whilst everything operated, it couldn’t bring the TDS (Total Dissolved Solids, a measure of dissolved ions in the water) down below 1000ppm (the WHO approved standard for drinking water is 500ppm max).  It’s not that surprising since the membranes are the original ones, though it is more likely that the seals between the membranes and their housing have failed having been overheated and unused (though correctly pickled) over the long hot summer on the hard.  More parts to research and order and have delivered to Dianne, the OCC Port Officer in Beaufort.

Looking into Cape Lookout Bight over the top of the sand bar to the west.  Cape Lookout Light illuminated behind the anchored yachts – still plenty of space for us though!

We entered Cape Lookout Bight literally as the sun was setting on Monday 4 November.  We’d decided to spend the night here as we guessed that the anchorage in Taylor Creek off Beaufort would be pretty full and we didn’t fancy trying to find a space in a very tidal anchorage in the dark.  Cape Lookout Bight is very attractive, in a rather bleak and windswept sort of way, and there are acres and acres of potential anchorage to choose from.  We ended up, anchored down at the south end of the bight, away from the majority of the yachts and, coincidentally, close to Willow, another OCC yacht, one of the 13 rounding Diamond Shoal in the early hours of the morning.  It was a very peaceful night at anchor if surprisingly chilly for being so far south and the heater had yet another good workout as ate dinner and toasted a successful passage past an often tricky headland.

Continued below

Cape Lookout, North Carolina, USA

Nicky enjoying the motor after one of many bouts of rain on the short passage to Beaufort.  The full drowned rat look will follow shortly!

The following morning (Tuesday 5 November) after a quiet night, we picked up the anchor to leave Cape Lookout Bight at about 0900.  We wanted to get going reasonably promptly so that we would arrive in Taylor Creek relatively soon after the overnight stoppers had headed off south (perhaps down the ICW) and before too many of those who had spent the night in Cape Lookout Bight also thought it a great wheeze to move into Beaufort.  As we left, we stopped past Willow and discovered that Cindy and Steve too were planning on moving to Beaufort for a few days, though they intended to go into the Town Dock Marina.  We also saw that Jackster had arrived in the anchorage after us and so we had a chat with Jackie and David too.

The entrance to Beaufort/Moorhead City Inlet ahead.  The most obvious feature though is the apartment block on Radio Island

Fishermen taking advantage of the flooding tide
in the entrance channel up to Beaufort

As we motored into wind to the Beaufort/Moorhead City Inlet the rain poured down and it was 2 drowned rats and a freshly washed yacht that dropped anchor in Taylor Creek at 1130hrs.  We were disappointed to have just missed Nella and Bjorn on Think Twice, who had left to continue south down the ICW that morning.  But it was good to see that Steve and Carol on Innamorata II were still in the anchorage and probably for some time too.  Like us, they were awaiting spares and then a good weather window for heading south offshore.  It seemed likely that we’d be swapping stories and weather forecasts over a beer in a good pub for a week or so at least.

Apparently, it’s a lot emptier than it was the previous night!  We found a spot OK but had to do a shuffle as the tide changed for the first time

Beaufort, North Carolina, USA

Mill Creek Hampton VA USA

After our morning spent shopping and visiting the glass blowing display, we finally left Greta And Garry’s dock at 1355hrs.  We knew that it would be a motor to Mill Creek that afternoon in very light winds or a motor into stronger winds in the morning so we went for the easy option of lighter winds and an overnight at anchor in Mill Creek.

US Navy dockyard – an impressive array of ironmongery!

Of course, the motor up Elizabeth River gave us another chance to ogle at the US Navy’s ships.

Views around Mill Creek

Mill Creek is positioned on the north side of the entrance to Elizabeth River, just south of Hampton and on the west side of Fort Monroe.  It was a bit odd having the Hampton Roads Bridge Tunnel on our western side but the anchorage is surprisingly sheltered and was a perfect place to get ready for our overnight passage to Beaufort NC.  It’s also right by the relatively narrow river entrance by Fort Monroe, so timing a departure in the morning so that we wouldn’t be battling against the tidal flow would be easy.

Over the summer some bugs had taken up residence on our Hydrovane

Mill Creek was a popular place
the evening we visited

We had checked and adjusted the rig tension whilst we were at Greta and Gary’s but we hadn’t marked up the backstay.  So we set that up with maximum tension, put a sticker on the backstay tensioner and then wound it back to its normal setting.  I then stripped down to swimming trunks and climbed down the transom ladder to fit the Hydrovane rudder.  We then uncovered it ready for the morning only to find that over the summer some bugs had decided to build a nest on it.  We chipped the mud tubes off and disposed of them overboard in case they contained nasty stinging things and then we looked at starting to recommission the watermaker.  Nicky suggested that it “would be a good idea to do a leak check” and how right she was.  We fired it up only to find that there was a small fountain coming from the high pressure pump connection; I hadn’t tightened that up properly when I refitted the pump earlier in the summer.  Tightening the connection solved that problem so we moved on to changing the filters.  The rest of the test we left for when we were in cleaner water out at sea.

Sunset over the Hampton Roads Bridge Tunnel

We spent the rest of the afternoon cooking up a stew to make meal preparation easy on the overnight passage.  That brought us nicely to sundowners and whilst enjoying a glass of wine in the cockpit we were treated to a fantastic sunset with beautiful orange and red colours.  With BV all set, it was time for a quick dinner and an early night ready for a prompt start in the morning to catch the tide.

Mill Creek, Hampton, Virginia, USA

Norfolk (Part 4) VA USA

Saturday morning (2 November) brought another early start, this time for the Rugby World Cup Final: England vs South Africa.  After the England team’s performance against the Kiwis the previous week, we had high hopes of a good result but that was not to be the case – clearly they too had got out of bed too early.  However, the better team on the day won, which is only right and the joy on the winners’ faces was fabulous to see.

Rugby fix over, Greta took us out to Dollar Tree and Lidl to drown our sorrows in a shopping fix.  Dollar Tree first, to buy UHT milk, a commodity that is surprisingly hard to come by in the States – even if you know what to ask for.  Mostly Americans seem not to understand the terms ‘UHT milk’ or ‘long-life milk’.  Instead, it is variably called ‘shelf-stable milk’ or ‘boxed milk’ or sometimes just referred to as ‘Parmalat’ (a well-known brand name here, in much the same way that a ball-point pen is often referred to as a ‘Biro’ in the UK).  Unfortunately, with the rise in veganism and increasing awareness of lactose intolerance, most places that do sell ‘boxed milk’ actually sell almond milk or soya milk or something similar, not UHT dairy milk.  However, Dollar Tree can usually be relied upon to sell UHT milk and several, but not all, Walmarts we have visited sell a relatively small quantity of the Parmalat brand.

With the all-essential UHT milk purchased we headed on to Lidl for a fix of European style foodstuffs. Importantly, dried sausage and, because it’s nearly time to think about Christmas, Panettone; both of which are luxuries but then why not?  We filled the boot of Greta’s car with plenty of non-luxuries too and returned to try to fit it all into BV – not an easy task.

Glassblowing as I remember it from childhood trips to glassworks.  Here Peter demonstrates how large a bubble can be blown from a relatively small amount of molten glass

With BV sitting a little lower in the water we headed back ashore for one last ‘must do’ sightseeing trip.  This one highly recommended by Lionel and Elsie on Ruby Tuesday, who had just that morning left on their passage to Bermuda.  The ‘must do’ in this case being attending a glass blowing display at the Chrysler Museum’s glassworking studio adjacent to the museum itself.  We’ve seen glass blowing before.  Who hasn’t?  But we’ve seen nothing before like the display that we saw here.  Nicola (I can’t remember for sure that was her name), one of the studio’s permanent staff members led the demonstration, with Peter, one of the volunteers, assisting her.  Peter started off by blowing a glass bubble, with Nicola talking through the method, some of the equipment and also some other glass techniques (stained glass work, fused glass etc).  Then they got on to the technically tricky bit (as Nicola said, she never likes to do anything too simple on these demos): produce a decorative 3-layer glass bowl in under 40mins, all whilst giving a running commentary.

Top left: Peter’s red blob was drawn out into a rope and spiralled onto Nicola’s small white bubble.  Right: cutting the red rope.  Bottom left: shaping the bowl

We understood, of course, that glassblowing is a skilled art form but we’d not realised before how much teamwork goes into making such an item.  Nicola started by collecting a blob of molten glass (there is a proper name for this but I don’t remember it), shaping it, blowing it into a small bubble and colouring it white.  All of which was interspersed by additional heating, then shaping and a little more blowing.  Keeping the glass at the Goldilocks temperature is a real art.  Too hot and the blob/bubble will fall off the blow rod.  Too cool and it can’t be shaped.  Hold the rod stationary for too long and the blob becomes a run.  You get the picture.  Whilst Nicola was busy with her white bubble, Peter made a red blob.  More heating to get them both ‘just so’ and then, using a set of tongs that looked like they had come from a mediaeval torture chamber, Nicola drew out the red blob and laid a rope of red in a spiral over the white bubble.  More heating.  Then, using another instrument of torture, she dragged the red spiral into feathers, much as one would drag icing stripes on a cake or foamed milk on a latte.  And part way through, as the glasswork cooled, she thrust the part formed creation back into the working furnace to warm up and become malleable again.

Using the high-tech ‘damp newspaper-turn-and blow’ technique to inflate the glass into a regular bowl shape

With the decorative bit done, Nicola thrust the creation back into the molten glass in the furnace to cover it in a final layer of clear glass.  Then came a long period of teamwork, blowing the small bubble into something big enough to be a decent sized bowl, all the while turning and shaping the bubble using, firstly, damp newspaper and then something that looked like an oversized wooden salad server.

Working with furnaces at 1000degC and molten glass just a fraction cooler and the only safety equipment in use are safety specs!  Top right: forming the bubble into a bowl shape.  Bottom right:  the bowl, nearly complete.  Now no longer a blown blob but a squidgy dish on a stick

With the bubble an appropriate size, Peter got a small blob of molten glass on a rod and stuck it to the bottom of the bubble.  Nicola scored around the top of the bubble and they ended up with a squidgy dish on a stick rather than a bubble on a blow rod.  Then there was further warming and shaping (more teamwork) until the bowl was an acceptable, final shape and they could make the critical move of releasing the bowl from its stick and putting in the kiln.  Yes, they put it in a kiln.  If glass is very thin (like the bubble that Peter blew at the beginning of the demo) then the whole thickness cools quickly and evenly at room temperature.  However, if the glass has any reasonable thickness (like the bowl), at room temperature the outer layers of the glass cool much faster than the inner layers, which stresses the object and it is likely to crack and shatter.  Glass artists reduce the risk of this happening by putting their finished objects in a very hot kiln and then gradually reducing the temperature of the kiln so that the object cools evenly across its thickness.  A piece like the bowl will take several days to cool without risking cracking.  Really thick pieces can take months.

Glass artwork on display.  The hamburger, all of which is made in glass, was made by a famous glass artist when he visited the Chrysler Glass Studio.  Making the individual pieces took several days and required a whole team of glassworkers when it came to keeping everything hot enough to fuse together.  The cooling period in the kiln was of the order of a month, perhaps longer

It was a fabulous display and it’s only a shame that we couldn’t see the final end result properly.  The amount of hard work and the teamwork that went into making the bowl was impressive to watch and we will never look at an item of glass artwork again without thinking about the amount of effort it must have taken to make it.  In some ways we were only sorry that we weren’t staying in Norfolk longer as the studio runs short courses for members of the public and it would have been great to have tried our hand at making some really interesting shaped blobs, bubbles and runs!  But time and tide wait for no man and we had a weather window to catch to get around Cape Hatteras.  So we contented ourselves with looking at the glasswork on display in the studio, promised ourselves that we would return to the museum next year to view the glass on display there and high-tailed it back to BV to prep for sea.

Norfolk, Virginia, USA

Norfolk (Part 3) VA USA

Overnight the wind did indeed go round to the north and we had to get up to run additional lines to keep BV from being blown onto the dock.  After a midnight session of playing with mooring lines and fenders, the 0330 alarm to wake us for the Rugby World Cup bronze medal play-off on Friday 1 Nov was not a welcome sound.  And the result wasn’t a welcome one either, if not wholly unexpected.

Views from the masthead

It was still blowing quite hard at 0930 when, as agreed, we met up with Gary on his and Greta’s yacht William Barron.  The reason was that the wind indicator had stopped turning and Gary needed a hand to replace it.  Similarly, one of the electrical cables that should run up the inside of the mast had come out through the sail track on the aft edge of the mast.  That needed pushing back into its cable run and small pieces of foam inserting to keep it in its correct place.  I was very happy to go up the mast for Gary so he and Nicky winched me to the top and, after I had replaced the wind instrument (a very quick job, happily), they lowered me down in stages so that I could develop and perfect my wire-insertion-and-foam-plug-placement technique.  Since William Barron was built, Selden has changed the way they run cables up the inside of their masts and I can quite see why.  It took a couple of hours for me to reinsert the cable and replace all the foam plugs (albeit I had to learn the right technique), whereas with the modern conduits changing a cable should be the work of minutes.  But we completed the job comfortably before lunch and Gary no longer needs to search out a rigger to help him with the task.

We couldn’t visit Norfolk and not go aboard the USS Wisconsin, one of the last 2 battleships to see active service with the US Navy (the other being the USS Missouri, another Iowa Class battleship).  So, fresh from working on the mast, Nicky and I high-tailed it around to Nauticus, the National Maritime Centre off which theWisconsin is moored.

The mooring system itself is something of a work of art and was designed by the George Sadler’s firm (George Sadler as in Frances and the Fleming 55, Twin Cove).  He had told us (under firm prompting by Lydia) that the design spec was that the Wisconsin’s mooring system should be able to withstand a major tropical revolving storm and yet enable the ship to slip for sea within 24 hours should the Navy call upon her again, all whilst fulfilling the appropriate safety requirements for a vessel which will be visited by hundreds of members of the public each day, many of whom may have restricted mobility.  That’s quite some design spec.

Our tour around the Wisconsin was fascinating.  The ship was designed in 1938 but construction did not begin in Philadelphia until January 1941 and she was launched nearly 2 years later on 7 December 1943, the 3^rd of 4 Iowa Class battleships built.  In all, she saw just 14 years of active service but in that time served with distinction in the Japanese theatre of WWII, in the Korean War and, after nearly 40 years in the ‘mothball fleet’ followed by a major modernisation programme, in the First Gulf War.  She has been on display as a museum ship since April 2001, though she was maintained at a state of readiness for a further 8 years since, other than the Missouri (also a museum ship) the US no longer had any battleships.  In December 2009 she was formally transferred from the US Navy to the city of Norfolk.

The ship we toured was in many ways significantly different to that which served in the Far East in the middle of the 20^th century, primarily in terms of the weapons and communications systems on board and in terms of, for example, the medical facilities available on board and also in the number of personnel carried.  Amazingly, though the Wisconsin was designed to be manned by around 2000 personnel, in WWII, the number of additional guns on board meant that nearly 1000 more sailors were required!  It was clear that accommodating them and the food they required was a major logistical nightmare and many of the WWII sailors slept in bunks located in corridors.  However, by the time of the Gulf War, the ship’s complement was lower than originally planned, resulting in more space available for messdecks, recreation areas and, presumably, weapons stowage.

It goes without saying that this is a BIG ship.  As we walked around the foredeck, following the recommended route we couldn’t help but marvel at the size and length of the anchor chains.  One link in the chain weighs far more than BV’s anchor!  But the other thing that struck us was that a lot of the deck is still made of wood.  Apparently, a significant amount had been ripped up during the return to service modernisation and refit, primarily, one supposes, to enable the fitting of the cruise missile launchers and other more modern weaponry.  However, the majority of the deck is still covered in teak – though we can’t see the American sailors of the 1990s holystoning it each morning!

Unfortunately, the bridge and the command and control centres can only be viewed on guided tours.  We reckoned on there being enough to see without committing ourselves to an additional timing restriction and we were right, but it would certainly be something for another visit.

Below decks the accommodation area (including various messes, recreation areas etc) is a veritable maze and it is said that sailors new to the ship used to take days to learn their way around.  One level below the main accommodation deck, is the main machinery and technical deck.  Running through this is ‘Broadway’, a corridor that appears to run straight fore-aft, the length of the ship, interrupted only by tens of watertight doors, all of which are now kept open giving a striking view along the ship.

It’s really rather impressive how much of the ship we were able to see, and the museum staff are clearly continuing to work hard to open up new areas to the public.  When the Wisconsin first went on display, the only areas available to view were the weather decks.  Now there’s so much to see below decks that we spent most of our time walking the maze of corridors, workspaces and cabins.  And from none of them could we see out.  The only people with an outside view on the ship were the Admiral and his staff, those running the bridge and anyone working (or exercising) on deck.  Life in the Navy:  Join the Fleet, see the world – but mostly see the inside of a tin can.

Norfolk, Virginia, USA