USA - Florida, Jacksonville

Sailing past Charleston, you can see the vast amount of Ships on AIS, at anchor waiting to go into Charleston to offload. One can easily see the backlog and how it’s affecting the Supply Chain of goods in stores and on order.

We had a fast sail from Beaufort, Georgia to Jacksonville, Florida, arriving at 10pm

I found it a little scary as we closed the entrance to the St Johns River in the pitch dark, the lights of the buoys competing with the lights on land until we were very close. Nicholas kept telling me to focus on the Navigation Chart, and ignore my eyes.

All went well and we motor sailed 3 miles up the river and anchored out of the channel for the night.

Next morning we waited for the Flood Tide to set in and then motored the 20 miles up the St Johns River to Jacksonville, anchoring opposite the Arlington Marina, and close to where the Volvo Agents, Fordham Marine are.

Some sights along the river

At anchor we were astounded at the sheer volume of Dolphins, many of them juveniles that were constantly swimming everywhere

Thursday was a dreary rainy day, all day long.

We had this crane come sit on our aft Solar Panels

Seeing it was raining, Nicholas said he’d attend to some indoor chores, the Kitchen basin tap had become loose. We unloaded and took out the drawers under the sink and he found that the original washer, was plastic and broken. So he had to fashion a new washer and base plate to stop the tap base from turning, and then he couldn’t find his box of O-rings. We searched for 2 hours going thru every maintenance storage locker. Eventually I said he should re-look where the O-rings are supposed to be kept, and empty everything out of that locker, and Yes we found the box. It had fallen to the very back, out of sight. 2 frustrating hours…

By the time Nicholas got the tap re-installed and pipes reconnected the entire day had passed, fixing one little item that should have taken less than an hour - that’s Boat Maintenance !!!

USA - Virginia, Portsmouth/Norfolk to Florida, Jacksonville

We left our anchorage at Hospital Point on Friday 21st at noon to make the Ebb Tide of the Elizabeth River and out the Chesapeake Bay

Some sights along the way.

This is the Vessel Comfort which was sent to Puerto Rico when the Hurricane came thru

A Huge Hospital Ship

Naval Vessels galore!

Not sure which are being repaired and which are on Stand-by for Action

 Elli-Pellies on the Buoys

Going thru the opening above the tunnel of the Chesapeake Bay. During daylight it’s easy, however we did this at midnight last year and it was not so much fun,

Big Ship coming

Big Ship

A great sunset on Friday night

Light winds almost all the way, we had to motor sail often.

Beautiful tranquil sea

A little tweety bird flew onto Meshugga on Saturday, tired. He found a spot and went to sleep. He then spent the next two days aboard with us, eating a few seeds and little insects he found around the boat.

He loved spending time in my herb plants either on the soil or up the bare Chillie Plant. He seemed to find bits to eat there.

Once we got close to land in Georgia where we went into the Beaufort inlet he flew off. Hopefully after his two day rest he made it the last couple of miles back to land.

On Monday late we sailed into the Beaufort Georgia inlet to anchor as a Southerly wind was predicted for the night. We anchored had dinner and a good nights rest.

Tuesday 8am its Up Anchor with a super NW wind, we’ll sail to Jacksonville Florida.

USA - Virginia, Portsmouth Naval Shipyard Museum and a Walk around Town

A walk through the Parks at Portsmouth had this interesting statue of a soldier that fought in the Spanish War of 1898

 

This arch reminded me of Lallybroch, (for all Outlander Fans)

Our first stop was at the Lightship Museum, only to find it closed.

This particular Lightship, the Portsmouth was stationed at the southern tip of Cape May, the inlet into the Delaware Bay. An area we’d sailed past just a couple of weeks earlier. 

I would have hated to be a Seaman aboard these vessels. They must have rolled like a Pig, in shallow water with breaking waves. I salute the Mariners who stood this amazing service to all Ships.

The Lightship Museum being closed, our next port of call was the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard Museum a few hundred meters away.

This is Cape Hatteras Lighthouse, one that we never see from sea, as we’re standing so far off-shore from the shoals and Gulf Current pushing one onto the Oracoke Bans

An interesting artifact, the Fresnel Lens that was used on Lightships and Lighthouses

The Museum was interesting, but very localized with information of the Shipyards of Norfolk and Portsmouth from the 1700 to present

Outside the Museum is a Town Dock, and we could have brought the dinghy right to the doorsteps. However we did not know of this and had enjoyed our walk through the parks and had been en-route to the Lightship Museum anyway

Walking back along the Promenade we could view this Huge Dry Dock with a Naval Vessel across the river at Norfolk

Overlooking the Elizabeth River on the Promenade from the Portsmouth Museum back to the Marina

Back at the Marina, Fish & Slips was calling

Good Craft Beer

Our dinghy tied up to the Restaurant Pier

Our selection of Craft Beers

A meal of Shrimp, Hot Wings and Fries with Craft Beers - it was Yum

Overlooking the anchorage from the Restaurant 

USA - Virginia, Norfolk, The USS Wisconsin

We are in the anchorage at Hospital Hill, which is the ICW 0 statute mile spot. Unfortunately Meshugga’s mast is too tall to fit under the bridges of the ICW so we’ll be heading back out to sea and not down the ICW. All the yachts around us going down the ICW.

We’re taking this chance to explore Norfolk as we wait for a weather window to allow us to sail comfortable around Cape Hatteras and further south.

We headed across the Elizabeth River and tied the dinghy to the boardwalk wall, crossing the Park with stunning walkways and statues to the Norfolk Naval Museum and Nauticus.

I must state that;

1    The Nauticus Science Museum is a waste of time unless you’re 8 years old

2    The Naval Museum is a waste of time, after visiting the Annapolis Naval Museum

3    The attending USS Wisconsin Naval Ship was Awesome!

Aboard the USS Wisconsin, at the bow, we were really impressed. Just look at the size of this chain..

How’s this for a Windlass, it’s HUGE

These are the Turret Guns, there are two Turrets. I had to have Nicholas stand at their base, just to get a perspective of how absolutely enormous these guns/missile launchers are

We were able to go inside the Turret to one floor where they showed a video of what happens on each of the 5 levels of the Turret to enable a Missile to be launched. It was SO interesting. I would have hated to be a Navie to be tasked with any of the jobs, I’m sure I would be of no use.

Photo from the stern, the ship is Huge!

The American Flag on the Stern of the USS Wisconsin 

Looking from the Stern over the anchorage with Meshugga in the centre of the photo 

A few photos from inside the Ship…. The Barbar shop, keeping the crew with Buzz Cuts

The ships Kitchen

The Crew Mess

The Brig

Outside the Museum in the Park, I enjoyed this Mermaid statue in a Fountain

The end to a Superb day, Full Moon over Norfolk