July 16,2008 Hampton, VA

Some of the Navy ships we passed as we headed from Portsmouth, Va. across the bay to Hampton. Some of the ships had very angular shapes as this picture demonstrates. Yesterday we visted a small museum that told the history of the Portsmouth navy yards which date back to the 18th centry and walked around "Old Town" with many historical houses. We also toured the Portsmouth Lightship which not only protected ships along the coast of Virginia but also served time as a temporary "lightship" off the coast of New England around the island of Nantucket.

We crossed over the bay from Portsmouth , VA to Hampton, VA after a 2 day stay at the Tidewater Marina at Portsmouth, VA for some routine maintenance on the new engine. The weather is warm but has a nice northeast breeze to keep the humidity down. We took a lot of pictures of the navy boats as well as the busy traffic of barges, container ships, pleasure craft and tourist sloops as we traveled on the edge of the shipping channel. A large container ship passed us as we headed up the channel.

One of the railroad bridges that lifted as we and other craft passed under the bridge. There are several bridges along the inter coastal waterway close to the city of Norfolk that boats try to "time their way" along the river so you can get through the bridge without "waiting" for the next half hour or hourly "lift". The bridge engineer usually radios the next bridge to alert the bridge tender that a group of boats is headed their way. One of these sail boats has a "French Flag" flying and I watched them taking a lot of pictures from their bow as they approached the busy port of Norfolk.

One of many Navy ships we passed along the Norfolk Navy Yards. We also saw aircraft carriers and submarines not far from these ship docks.

This "tourist sloop" was full of people enjoying the sail in the busy Norfolk Harbor.

Another Navy ship.