Sitting in Norfolk, day 5...

Cory does a good job of demonstrating why we are stuck in port - it's too windy!

The water taxi that brought us from Norfolk to Portsmouth - across the river. It costs $1.00 per person each way. Cory was free.

A typical side street in Portsmouth - I like this city but Linda prefers Charleston.

This boat arrived at 9:00am with hovering helicopters, the pilot boat, and several tug boats. It is the Spanish gov't tall ship and the third largest in the world - 113 meters. Our slip is about 100 feet away (33 meters).

This swimming pool is at the marina that we are going to move to on Saturday. I think it is really neat that the pool is filled with Mountain Dew!

This boat blew its engine while at our marina dock. It was towed from the marina to make room for the tall ship. The boat is 92 feet long. It's comforting to me to know that TowBoat US is close by. This ship dumped a rather large amount of diesel fuel into the water in the marina. We were unable to flush the head for 24 hours because we didn't want to suck that stuff into the holding tank.

This proves we are really here.


We remain stuck in Norfolk, VA until, latest plan, Sunday morning. The waves on the Chesapeake are reported to be 4-6 ft. because of a storm front just off the coast. 5 miles up the river where we are, everything is pretty calm. We are moving tomorrow across the river to gas up and pumpout. Today, like yesterday, was sightseeing and minor chores. We hope to get moving soon. Just a little bit of trivia that we learned today - no visiting military ship is ever met at the pier upon arrival until it has completely docked and is secure in its berth. We were told that is because so many things can go wrong during docking that the host country does not want to embarass the Captain. I, on the other hand, need a greeting committee to catch the ropes and pull me to the dock. Tomorrow the tall ship is open to the public and we will be taking a look inside. Ken

I am reading a great book, "Memory Keeper's Daughter", that I picked up in a book swap at a marina along the way. Today is overcast, but we had the excitement of seeing the tall ship dock. There was a small band playing on board- playing what I guess to be the Spanish equivalent of John Philip Sousa. Everyone is "piped"onto the boat (the "two-whee" whistle you think of with old military boats). We have seen limos with "important" people get onto the boat, with "common" people like us boaters walking close by. It's a huge boat. None of the photos show the full length because we can't fit it all in the photo!! Love to all- Linda