May 24

Sailing on the Chesapeake, yea!  With a deep sigh, finally we were able to shut off the monotonous iron jenny and sail in 10-13 knot SE winds after motoring out of Norfolk and arriving upon the world-renowned waterway.  Bestowed upon us was our absolute best sail of the forty-seven days, and confirming our reason for venturing so far from home.  It was a bit breezy when we got to the mooring field on the York River in Yorktown and the dock master suggested to try a quiet anchorage across the river.  But no, we instead tied to a mooring ball and rock-n-rolled.  The real fun was when we took Fritz to shore and the waves carried us quickly in.  Guess what, they don’t carry you out.  So much to learn about big water…we will try to avoid that situation in the future. 

A tour of Yorktown is on the list for tomorrow and probably trying that quieter anchorage on the North side of the York in the Sarah River.

This is the description of the massive aircraft carrier we passed by today as we left Norfolk.

USS George H.W. Bush (CVN-77) is the tenth and final Nimitz-class super carrier of the United States Navy.  She is named for the 41st President of the United States George W. Bush, who was a naval aviator during World War II. Bush's call sign is Avenger, after the TBM Avenger aircraft flown by then-Lieutenant George Bush in WWII. Construction began in 2001 at the Northrop Grumman Newport News shipyard and was completed in 2009 at a cost of $6.2 billion. She is home ported at Naval Station Norfolk, Virginia. 

Did we feel dwarfed and humbled as we glided by her, and this was just one of dozens of naval vessels lining the Hampton Roads water on the way out of Norfolk.  Of all the sites along the way this has been by far the most impressive and invoked a great sense of pride in our country’s strength.