Setting sail from Krentz.

 

 

Swiftwing ready to go after five years in the Chesapeake.

 

 

 

 

 

On the first day of our sail back south to Indiantown, Florida, about one thousand one hundred miles, we stopped and anchored in Fishing Bay, Deltaville. We had anchored here for a night on the way north to New York and thought that we would like to spend a few days here. On the three hundred ton marine railway ashore, lay the presidential yacht ‘Sequoia‘, built in the twenties for the president but sold off in 1977. The government have recently tried to buy her back but she appears not to be for sale and in the middle of some legal dispute.  However, she appears to be in good condition and well wrapped up against the elements.

 

 

Following four days in Deltaville, we sailed to Norfolk, Virginia, the largest naval base in the world with more aircraft carriers than you can shake a stick at, dozens of ultra modern destroyers and huge commercial container ports. We also saw bulk carrier ships loading coal and oil tankers anchored at the entrance to await their turn into the huge port.

The first ship we met on the Elizabeth River, Norfolk.

 

 

We motored our way down the Elizabeth River and anchored at Hospital Point, in the centre of Norfolk, in an anchorage which in the holiday season will be full with twenty yachts. On this occasion we were one of two. Directly opposite us was moored the mighty battleship, the USS Wisconsin, the last battleship ever built and which only came into service in the last year of the second world war. Her last major action was in the gulf war when she launched the first strike of the war, aiming her Tomahawk missiles at Saddam Husain’s, Bagdad. Wisconsin was only de-commissioned in 1990

It was a rainy day when we visited the USS Wisconsin.

 

 

We rowed ashore and walked to the ferry dock to cross from Portsmouth to Norfolk, only to find moored there the Colin Archer yacht ‘Hanna’, which I first met in Bayona in Spain twenty years ago, when it was owned by our friends Martin and Roma Morris. Readers of the blog will remember that we met up with them on their new boat ‘Apple’ in Antigua and again in St.Thomas and then later in Florida before they sailed home to the Isle of Wight. I had fancied the idea of buying ‘Hanna’ when Martin and Roma put here up for sale but it wasn’t to be.  We met up with her new owners Mick and Bee, whom Martin and Roma had told us to look out for as they were cruising the same area of the Chesapeake as us. On spending a very enjoyable couple of days with them, we realised that they are way more ambitious than us and had twice sailed to Greenland via Labrador and Baffin Bay and rather than fly home they had sailed back to the UK from Greenland, twice, and crossed the Atlantic five times. We understood right away that they were cold weather sailors, when we saw the ‘Morso Squirrel’ stove fitted to the inside of the boat along with a two hundred kilo capacity, coal scuttle built under the starboard berth.

Built of Ferro by our friends Martin and Roma,  ‘Hannah’ has now been cruising almost non-stop for thirty years. As I type this she is on her way back to Labrador and Greenland for the ....summer!!! As can be seen from the photo, Martin and Roma, who both worked in Martins Dad’s bespoke furniture business, are exquisite carpenters/cabinet makers. Hannah, below, is just a riot of solid teak, iroko, oak and a dozen other beautiful hardwoods.

 

Bee on the foredeck of  ‘Hannah’ as they leave Norfolk for Labrador. No sign of Mick behind the solar panels.

 

After a few very enjoyable days in Norfolk we waved goodbye to the crew of ‘Hannah’ as they set sail once again for Labrador and we wimps left an hour or so later for Florida and all ports South.

 

If you would like to read more about the adventures of ‘Hannah’ then Google  ‘Gaffer Hannah’ or ‘All who wander are not lost’

 

 

 

That’s all for now from Oriental, North Carolina, where we are sitting out the first tropical storm of the season.