Nor"folks"

Nor"folks" -- Visiting friends and relatives around Norfolk, VA.  October 30 - November 6, 2013

Norfolk as seen from our slip at Tidewater Marina across the Elizabeth River, in Portsmouth.  

Below, Navy aircraft carriers being built /refurbished right across from where we were.  The one on the left is in a huge floating drydock.

Below, our boat (with green canvas), with Norfolk in the background -- this slip was generously made available to us for a week by our new friends Steve and Luanne Ormsbee, whose boat was up in Annapolis at this time. We had met them in Seattle at a cruising seminar last March, and were pleased to see them again by chance this fall at the US Boat Shows in Annapolis.  We had a lovely dinner with Steve and Luanne on board Aviva, and Steve was really helpful during our visit, especially in fabricating a fishing pole holder that we installed on the stern rail -- for future ocean fishing-while-cruising!  Thanks, Steve -- and Luanne -- hope we can cruise with you in the future! -- and somehow return the great favors...

Next to our slip was a Navy dive boat, being finally commissioned by private contractors for delivery to the Navy -- the contractors were our 'dock neighbors' for the week.  

Sailboats in the picture below are in Portsmouth preparing for the ARC Caribbean 1500 rally, which left the next day for an offshore passage of about 1500 miles to the British Virgin Islands.  We checked this rally out and met the organizers, as we are thinking about participating in this event next year.

A highlight of our visit to Norfolk was a visit with Fred's relatives, Gordon & Maria Dunnington and Gordon, Sr., & Babbie Dunnington.  Gordon & Maria live in Norfolk with their daughters Babbie Florinda and Lucilla (with Jack, Lucilla's enthusiastic dog).  We also enjoyed meeting Maria's sister Aura, an amazing cook, who prepared a tasty sugar cane drink from her native Venezuela.  Sweet! 

Maria and Gordon were kind, as always, to pick us up and take us around to stores for various grocery / provision items.  Local knowledge and a vehicle really helps!  And hurray for Costco!!  On the weekend, we travelled with Gordon and Maria up to the Eastern Shore to visit Gordon's mother and father, 'Big Gordon' and Babbie.  They have a beautiful family home where they have lived for many years.  We also visited here in May, and several years ago for a Dunnington family reunion. 

  

Warehouse Creek, Nassawadox, on the eastern shore of Virginia

Gordon and Babbie's house

Left, Fred's aunt Babbie Dunnington, a talented and locally well-known artist.  In her house Babbie has painted, besides countless paintings of her family, almost all of the tables, walls, kitchen cabinets, banisters, even ceilings -- the entire place is a family art gallery of her work.  Next, left to right, Maria Dunnington,  Fred,  Maria's sister Aura, and Fred's cousin Gordon Dunnington, Jr.  We had a very nice dinner with them all, including grandchildren Babbie and Lucilla, and grand dog Jack, who drove up separately.  We spent the night, the only night we have been off the boat in 2 months!  Maria and Aura cooked marvelous meals -- a terrific family visit!

Babbie's art studio, with her latest grandchild portrait on the easel

A sample of Babbie's painting, throughout the house

Fred's uncle Gordon Dunnington, Sr.

Also while in Norfolk, Fred visited Nauticus, the waterfront museum: 

 Nauticus' Green Moray eel, below, smiling for the the camera shot...

Part of the museum, the battleship USS Wisconsin

The USS Wisconsin, a battleship, is dwarfed next to a cruise ship...
See those big16" guns....aim 30 degrees left, down 20 degrees, ready, fire...

The Wisconsin was a WW II ship, taken out of service in the 1990's -- it was mostly original WW II and massively built, though there were some more recent upgrades (such as missile launchers) ...

540 dozen eggs a day! 

The statistics are probably more staggering for the cruise ship

Back at Gordon and Maria's house in Norfolk, we visited with  Gordon and Maria's lovely daughters, who are both in graduate studies at Old Dominion University, which is right next door to their neighborhood.  This was election night in Virginia (and fortunately Cucinelli was defeated -- the reason for the big smiles! ) 

Lucilla

Babbie Florinda

An incredibly tasty flan, among other yummy dishes, cooked by Maria's sister Aura 

Back on the boat, preparing to leave on our next cruising leg: 

A smaller, huge cruise ship comes in ... we watched this ship "turn on a dime," 180 degrees in place, its length occupying very close to the entire width of the Elizabeth River where it turned

One day Dorothy was on board below decks, and suddenly heard a shout of "man overboard!"  She ran up the companionway, prepared to launch the dinghy and help as needed, to find that all was OK:

The Portsmouth - Norfolk ferry conducts a "man overboard" drill in the harbor

The wrecks below have been in the harbor next to the marina for a couple months now, we were told, and the story was the boat on the right was sinking and boat on the left tied up to it as its captain tried to save or salvage the sinking boat, but in haste he allegedly tied it up in a manner that could not be untied and the sinking boat dragged the other one down ... no lines give evidence of that ... besides it seems hard to imagine that a line could not be uncleated, or couldn't  be cut ... probably an insurance mess besides a harbor cleanup mess!

Movie night with Gordon!
We saw a great film Following the Ninth, about inspiration provided around the world by Beethoven's 9th Symphony...
 Dorothy orders the "medium" popcorn... 

the large size must come with a shoulder harness ...

Fred's cousin, Gordon Dunnington:

Norfolk at night, from our (the Ormsbee's) wonderful slip in Portsmouth:

Picture taken for our new 'boat cards,' which we ordered for delivery to the Beaufort, NC, Post Office