Monday and Tuesday May 18 and 19, 2009

Cast off at 6:45AM. Took down our bimini's canvas and secured stanchions. Raining again this morning and 54°. Have a series of bridges (and one lock) to pass through all with openings that vary, either on the hour or on the half hour. Trick now is to hit them in some sort of progressive modulated speed and get through all before 3:30PM when they all close for two or three hours. 

Smoothed it. Hit everyone, all bridges and one lock, right on time and were able dock at our destination, The Waterside Marina in beautiful downtown Norfolk, VA. called the canvas company and had them pick up our torn bimini top.

36° 50' 62" N

76° 17' 48" W

Will be here till Wednesday morning. Using the time for laundry, workouts, haircut, movies, and West marine. Also attractive restaurants near our dock. 

Norfolk is a storied town which includes the world's largest naval base. The sheer volume of water traffic is surprisingly immense along with the industrial activity on all sides. Deep water all around and strategically important going back to before and during the Revolutionary war. Here is where ironclads, the Monitor and Virginia, battled it out before the city surrendered to the Union Army  in 1862. We toured the Nauticus, housing a museum and history of the oceans and America, and the battleship Wisconsin permanently berthed here. There are many, many attractions if we had the time to explore including the MacArthur Memorial and the Freemason Historic District.