Norfolk, VA Ready to go
Harmonie
Don and Anne Myers
Mon 12 Nov 2007 13:38
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36:50.662N 76:17.579W
We arrived in Norfolk on Saturday (11/10) after a
lovely downwind sail in 25 knot winds. Yes, it was a bit chilly (again),
but once we arrived at the marina the heaters were turned on and the boat became
toasty in a hurry. The marina we are in is located at the downtown center
and is extremely picturesque. See the mermaid in picture 1 (Norfolk
displays mermaids like Buffalo displayed buffalos - personally I think the
mermaids are a little more fun). There is a second mermaid nearby,
which is situated such that she is looking directly at our boat. A good
sign perhaps. Picture 2 shows the tall ship American Rover, which is also
docked here at the Waterside Marina. The gazebo in the foreground is the
marina office - very cute.
That's as much of Norfolk as we've seen. We
won't get to spend much time here, so perhaps a visit in the future will be
possible. In the meantime, the final preparations for the trip have been
completed. The laundry is done, the boat is washed, the engine has
fresh oil, the grab bag has been filled (but hopefully will not be needed), the
satellite phone has been set up so emails can be sent and received while
underway, the fruit and vegetables have been purchased and stowed (picture 3),
the freezer is full, and most importantly, our third crewmember has been safely
delivered to us by his parents (Bill's parents live here in the Norfolk
area).
Tomorrow (Monday 11/12) we will leave here
about 11am, stop to fuel up, and head out to sea. The weather reports are
good. We plan to head southeast and will hopefully cross the gulf
stream on Tuesday. After that, we should be able to relax and enjoy
the ride. [Non-boater explanation: Crossing the gulf stream
is often challenging. In some parts this notorious ocean current
runs at a speed of 4 knots, and if a strong wind is blowing
in the opposite direction of the current flow, the results are nasty - mainly
big waves, very big waves. The weather forecast says the winds will
be light to medium and blowing in a direction not contrary to the
current flow on Tuesday, so it should be fine.]
One note about communications....we plan to cancel
our cell phone service tomorrow (it will be useless or too expensive to
use in just about all of the countries we will be visiting). Because
of this, email will be the best way to communicate with us (aside from
snail mail....but that could take up to a month or more to find us). The
good news is that the satellite phone will allow us to send and receive email
daily so we won't really be out of touch. This is a very good thing.
Assuming all goes well, the next blog update should be from the
Atlantic!
Anne
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