11/15/2011 MOVING ON TO WATERSIDE MARINA IN NORFOLK, VIRGINIA

TUESDAY

TOTAL MILES TRAVELED TODAY: 53 NM

DOCKED AT: WATERSIDE MARINA IN NORFOLK, VIRGINIA (Free thanks to Garth and Kathy)

SUNRISE: 6:45 AM      SUNSET: 4:55 PM

HIGH: 76                       LOW: 63

It was looking good this morning so the Quest crew scurried around, making haste to cast off and be on our way south again. Once we cleared the Rappahannock River and merged into the Chesapeake Bay the Quest and her trailering tended were getting whipped around quite a bit and we were thankful when things calmed down as we approached Norfolk.

CLOUDY SKIES OVER THE BAY

Holy cow! I think I will never get used to seeing the mammoth military ships housed in the Norfolk Harbor. We found the Enterprise, the Dwight D. Eisenhower and the Cole. The USS Cole is the destroyer in Yemen that was attacked in 2000 when a small craft approached her port side and exploded. This resulted in a 40’X40’ gash in the hull and the death of 17 sailors.

THE ENTERPRISE

THE COLE

Tugs, barges and freighters zipped around us as we ogled at the spectacular sights.

TINY TUGS AND BIG TUGS BOTH HAVE THEIR USES HERE IN THE HARBOR

As we approached Waterside Marina we gasped at the 321’ Norwegian three masted Baroque docked right by our marina.

STNTSRAAD LEHMKUHL

WE HEARD THAT SHE COMES IN WITH HER MASTS LITTERED WITH SEAMEN

The HNoMS Statsraad Lehmkuhl is being sailed by Royal Norwegian Naval Academy first year officer cadets and based in Bergen, Norway. She was built in 1914 as a German merchant marine training ship, taken by the United Kingdom after World War I, recaptured by the Germans in WWII and finally owned by Norwegian Bergens Skoleskib who donated her to the Statsraad Lehmkuhl Foundation in 1978. The foundation contracts her out, right now to the Royal Norwegian Navy. This is the7th consecutive year that she has visited Norfolk.

By the way, thanks to Garth and Kathy on Algonquin for tonight’s stay at Waterside Marina. They had gotten a certificate for a free night but, due to the closure of the Erie Canal, had a change of plans and are now knee-deep into the “Great Loop”. THANKS!