Today was another short day from Salt Ponds to Portsmouth, only around 20 nm. This would position us well to hit the first opening of the Gilmerton bridge after rush hour, and get to the 11:00am cycling of the Deep Creek lock into the Dismal Swamp Canal.
The trip through Norfolk harbor is always exciting, with lots of large military and commercial ships going every which way. You've really got to keep your eyes peeled. At one point, I looked up to notice that one of the shoreside cranes appeared to be growing. It turned to be a crane on a barge, headed directly towards us on a reciprocal course! I dodged without getting honked, but I truly doubt that he ever saw me before that!
Next, we were overtaken by a warship, a Littoral Combat Ship LCS-16, the USS Tulsa. This is a trimaran hulled ship, with large flat angular surfaces (stealth?) that looks quite unusual. It came up astern of us, was greeted by two large tugs, which spun it around and let it back up into a mooring.
 |
| USS Tulsa |
After that, it was tugs, ferries, more tugs...you get the idea.
As we passed Hospital point, mile marker 0 on the ICW, we looked over the anchorage in case we had to come back there if Portsmouth was full.
Our destination was one of the two basins in Portsmouth with free docks. The first one, the northern one, was a bust. The seawall was under construction and the free dock was closed.
The second smaller southern basin was open, and only had two other boats in it! Our strategy of getting here early paid off! We quickly tied up Dolce Vita and watched as other boats soon arrived.
 |
| Dolce Vita Tied Up at Portsmouth |
 |
| New Friends |
 |
| The Commodore Theater |
Life is good.
No comments:
Post a Comment