Norfolk/Portsmouth

Finally wind - and plenty of it to sail! We were greeted to another display of dolphins on the way out of the harbour, they seem to hang around the shallower areas, maybe more food there?

We were a little worried about how busy Norfolk would be on a Saturday afternoon but there were not too many pleasure boats due to the cloudy and cool weather. The one’s we did see going into the harbour all seem to motor faster than us and pass by throwing up a nice wake. The majority of them were huge power boats or trawler types. Where do people find the money for these huge craft? There is such an abundance of them down here that it is shocking.

I was expecting a large harbour but was not ready for the area that it encompasses, it makes Halifax look so tiny. The shear number US Navy ships was incredible; there were even four aircraft carriers in harbour! Here is a picture of a modern US ship, note the strange outer skin, I would think for reduced radar signal.

As we were coming in, a big container ship was catching up to us (of course – I think they like us…..), I had his callsign from the AIS so I radioed him numerous times to find out which of the two ways he was going to go, so we could stay out of the way.

He never answered, so much for vessels monitoring channel 16 when moving :(

I stayed away from the shipping channel until he made it obvious, which was a spot just off from where the channel divides, I figured he was going to hold for a pilot. 

We turned down our channel well behind him, then we noticed he was starting to back up, egads, we did a 180 degree turn and stayed away from him. Then he stopped and went forward, then back again! After finally getting a hold of the pilot  boat (because the ship was still not answering) they said he was setting anchor, but of course it was the one on the port side and we were on the starboard so we couldn’t tell :) Anyways we finally got around him and into an anchorage on the Portsmouth side in front of a marina at the mile “0” marker for the ICW, now only over 1000 or more to go!

For $12.00 you can use the laundry, showers, wi fi etc which we will take advantage of.

Tonight we went out and had a wonderful meal, both plates came with “collard greens” which neither of us had eaten, but were very good.

Today we attended the Zion Baptist church in Portsmouth, it was a very lively, energetic and powerful service. Sort of what you think about when you hear the words “Southern Baptist”. We had an opportunity to meet many wonderful people afterwards and chatted about our trip. We are looking forward to trying different churches as we go south.

We did our grocery shopping today but we are not finding that the prices here are that much better than home, certain things like milk and some meats but no big savings, especially when the exchange is taken into account.

We put the dinghy back up on the deck (it has been off since Gloucester) because we will be going through a lock and probably rafting up with other boats at the Dismal Swamp welcome center so putting it back on deck is the safest thing.