44. The end of the ICW

Norfolk and Portsmouth were as busy as we remembered -one ship after another. Below you can see the tug boats beside one of the container ships. The tugboats were much larger than either of our boats. In the second picture you can see Blessed Spirit. That gives you an idea of their size.With its proximity to the Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic Ocean, Norfolk has a long history as a vital centre of commerce and industry as well as a strategic military location. Today, Norfolk is home to the largest naval base in the world. Norfolk is a city with a rich historic past and a very positive forward momentum and progress. It offers museums, botanical gardens, parks, miles of waterfront, boutiques, entertaintment and even a beach.
We spent two days anchoring off Hospital Point at Portsmouth, opposite Norfolk, as both the winds and wave forecast were unfavourable in the Chesapeake Bay where we were headed.
The anchorage is called Hospital Point because it really is in front of a hospital. Last time we anchored in this harbour, we stayed on our boat. We didn't have the opportunity to take advantage of many of the things we would have liked to see but this time, Corning, Tita, Roman and I crossed the harbour in their dinghy and went ashore in Norfolk and walked through the downtown area, had lunch at the Brazilian Bistro and people watched for some time, one of our favourite passtimes. The downtown area has undergone a major renaissance is the past few years and is vibrant and bustling. The mermaid is Norfolk’s cultural icon and we saw them everywhere posing gracefully near the waterfront, storefronts and street corners. There are more than 130 on display and are designed and decorated by local artists and many of them represent a theme related to their location.This one was in front of Nauticus, Norfolk’s hands-on interactive science centre and the Naval Museum. Located near Nauticus, Roman and Corning were fascinated with one of the most famous battleships the Wisconsin, a veteran of World War 11, the Korean War and the war in the Persian Gulf. I went with the guys to see the battleship while Tita relaxed and watched all our purchases. I had never been on a battleship and it is huge! 887 feet long and once home to a crew of 2,900 sailors, it is the largest and the last battleship built by the U.S. Navy. Today it is part of the Navy’s Inactive Fleet, out of commission but in reserve.It even has a helicopter pad the size of a football field.When we got back to the boat we watched footage of the devastation of the tornado. Our T.V. reception is poor with our rabbit ear antennae but we did not have to see clearly to appreciate how very lucky we were to have been just out of its path.

That night we had dinner on Blessed Spirit with Jack and Beverly from Chessie, another 47 ft. Passport. Beverly baked a cake to celebrate the end of the ICW. After motoring mainly at a snail's pace for over 1200 miles along the ICW, it was wonderful to look forward to sailing across a large expanse of water. Now the Chesapeake, the Delaware River, Cape May and the Atlantic Ocean awaited us.