Bristling with weaponry
A year afloat: to the Caribbean and back
Sam and Alex Fortescue
Fri 10 Jun 2011 13:54
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37:18.30N
76:34.28W
Summer Song is anchored up off Langley, Virginia.
It's low and leafy and quite pretty. And although it shares the same name,
it's not the home of the CIA. All the same, there's probably
someone with six degrees watching me writing about him, via some sort of
infra-red satellite imaging system.
It's a strange part of the world. America's
Atlantic Fleet is based at Norfolk, so all day you hear warships over the VHF
radio warning yachts and fishermen to get out of their way. Sleek grey
helicopters circle endlessly and there is a boom as jets take off from the naval
airfield. The whole place bristles with bellicosity - it seems as if everyone
has a stake in it. You can imagine bombers setting off for Afghanistan from
here, and the pilots being back in time for a jar and some wings at Hooters
before bed.
We're heading north now. We'd planned to make it to
a pretty, deserted creek tonight, but we left too late and the sun set while we
were still out in the bay. It's another of the oily flat calms that we've seen
so much of lately, so we've just dropped the hook behind a mud flat at the side
of the bay. The spot would be no shelter in any weather, but it's fine for a
still night. It feels as if we would wake up in the same place if we had just
switched off the engine and gone below, so calm is it.
Meanwhile, we met a potential crew member today.
She's a young Swede called Elise with many years of sailing behind her and a
passion to cross the Atlantic. She got in touch through a crewing website and
happened to be in norfolk at the same time as us. She was very enthusiastic and
friendly, and we've agreed to put to sea together. It means we've at last
assembled a full crew of four.
Biffle's fish
 Summer Song moored up in Norfolk
  Norfolk centre
 Battleship Wisconsin - now a museum
  Note: big guns
 The more modern version: less impressive, but more
things that go 'bang'
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