Passing through Norfolk we enjoyed the broad fairway and although plenty of traffic it was easy to navigate.

Tall ships race was ongoing and the beach side of Norfolk looked beautiful. We found both the Spanish (Sebastian del Cano) and the Swedish (Falken) ships participating in the race.

On the east margin of the city is the biggest naval base on the US east coast located. Moored in the naval base were also both French, Dutch and Spanish warships telling us that on a military level NATO runs business as usual.

On the way out of Norfolk you pass buoy Nr 1 which is the last buoy you pass on the ICW being north bound. For us that was sort of relief and we turned to port to reach our first waypoint in the Chesapeake Bay.