”Hooray! Hooray! Hooray! We’re finally in the Bay!!” by Karen Posey - June 20, 2015

Dismal Swamp Canal to Norfolk Harbor to the Chesapeake Bay

The Norfolk Harbor is an amazing 15-mile stretch of maritime commerce and operations.  The photos below, all taken in the Norfolk Harbor, show…

The aircraft carrier “Ike”, which was one of 4-5 aircraft carriers in the harbor (more than most countries own);

Aircraft carrier “Ike”

the battleship “Wisconsin” (a celebrated battleship that served in World War II and the Korean War) alongside the schooner “Virginia” (a replica of the original schooner “Virginia” that served as a pilot vessel during World War I);

Battleship “Wisconsin”

the Portsmouth skyline;

Portsmouth skyline

and the Norfolk skyline.

Norfolk skyline

We saw huge and colorful container cranes (depicted below) loading cargo on the barges.  The second photo below gives you some sense of their enormous size.  The “small” boat in the foreground is actually a US Coast Guard security boat, capable of mounting a 50-caliber machine gun on its bow…looks like a toy boat in the photo!

Cranes loading cargo on the barges

US Coast Guard security boat

The afternoon provided the title for this report…”Hooray! Hooray! Hooray! We’re finally in the Bay!!”  We entered the Chesapeake Bay by noon. What a sight to see the water open up with nothing but the horizon and an occasional boat in view. With wind speeds of 15-20 knots and 3ft waves, we had 3-4 hours of “boisterous” sailing (read that: stuff flying all over the cockpit!).  Murph was at the wheel for most of it because it took great force to keep the boat at its proper heading. Murph later admitted that he probably had too much sail up…I wonder if that explains why the books in the cabin flew over the 2” lip and off the shelf :-).  We ended the day tired but exhilarated.

Sailing on the Chesapeake Bay

We anchored in the East River of Mobjack Bay.

Mobjack Bay Anchorage