36:51.129N 076:17.87W

We had a one day weather window to get down Chesapeake Bay to Norfolk before the wind, rain and cold worked against us. 

We left at first light (0620) and our friend Bill appeared to help us slip our lines.  Way beyond the call of duty to leave his warm boat in the yard and walk down to a very cold jetty but we were very appreciative.  We wiggled our way out through the very narrow channel (have a look at it on Google Earth) and set off properly with about 20 knots of wind behind us and a following sea.  We sailed nearly sixty miles in record time of eight and a half hours and loved it.  Surfing off the top of waves the boat speed occassionally went over 13 knots (we usually average about 5 knots) and the fastest we clocked was 13.6.  Weeeeeeeeee…..

To our delight we were able to berth again with our Ocean Cruising Club contacts Greta and Gary whose condo is in the picture below.  Again they were out there in the cold and rain to take our lines and settle us in.  There were three other OCC boats there and they invited us all for supper on our second night.  Incredible hospitality.

We stayed for a couple of days, mainly because we had missed visiting the battleship USS Wisconsin which is on permanent display next to where Gary and Greta live.  We booked a tour so that we could be shown round below decks.  But first a couple of shots to get the scale of her….

USS Wisconsin first fought in the Pacific in 1944 and since then has been mothballed and re-commissioned twice; most recently for the first Gulf War in 1991.  It was intriguing to see all the wiring and computers that had gone in for the Gulf War that already seem so dated.

Of particular interest to Carol was the surgical set up in the Ward Room (Officers Mess).  Sick Bay was too far, down too many stairs and passageways for it to take seriously injured sailors needing surgery so the Ward Room could be quickly adapted for two theatre table to run side by side.  We were shown how by a former Navy medic who had first served in the second world war. 

On the far left are the brackets for the oxygen cylinders, in the middle the trolley for the instruments and equipment with pull out shelf onto which the sterilizer would go to boil everything ready for re-use.  To the right the scrub sink.  The theatre tables were simply two of the Ward Room dining tables lined up behind.  It seemed scarily basic when compared to a contemporary operating theatre, but it would certainly have worked very well.

We were shown round by ex-servicemen some of whom had served on the Wisconsin and she was clearly held in huge affection by all concerned.  There is a great deal of work being done to make more of her accessible to visitors and to ensure that she stays well maintained so more and more of her will open up over time.  She is so big though that is must have seemed a daunting task.

We were taken into the Combat Control Room

Where, of course anything remotely secret has been removed but we were assured that somewhere on this panel behind Mikes head sat the nuclear weapons ‘Go’ button ….