Naval Nirvana

We are so excited to be back on The Latitude Adjustment!  We arrived into Norfolk, VA late in the evening and summoned a Lyft driver (we chose Lyft over Uber as I have been hearing nebulous negatives about Uber) to take us to the boat in Zimmerman’s Marina at Heron’s Point an hour and a half away. Our driver was originally from Jamaica but had been in the U.S. for over 12 years. He drives for Uber and Lyft so he explained his take on why people are upset with Uber. He says that it’s because Uber charges crazy surge prices and once he drove someone 20 minutes and the bill was over $200. He told her only to pay $40 as he didn’t think it was a fair fare. I was impressed that he would cut his paycheck by so much due to principle. Yay!! People with ethics still drive among us.

We arrived around 11 p.m. so called it a night. The next morning the birds were singing, the green cove was calm, lush and sweetly quiet. A tall heron slowly waded in the shallow water nearby. John  scurried around folding canvas, checking the route on his Simrad chart plotter and generally making sure all was working. Then it was engines on (so much for the bird song!) as the tide was high so we needed to move on. Our first voyage of the year was a short two hour cruise back to Norfolk where we’d meet Kelly and Karol. The sky and water were calm and we had a good opportunity to remember how to tie knots, navigate and just be boaters. We had an easy cruise passing by dozens of giant navy ships on our way to Waterside Marina in Norfolk.

The marina is lined by a waterfront walk right in the middle of downtown Norfolk. A block away is the Nauticus Naval Museum which is on the to do list for tomorrow. After settling in, John and I walked to the Chrysler Museum for lunch and then through their collection of paintings. The Chrysler's collection of European painting and sculpture ranges from works by Renaissance masters to early modernists, American works from the colonial portraiture of John Singleton Copley to contemporary art.  We enjoyed our afternoon and then went back to meet our guests.

 

Karol and Kelly arrived about 6:00 and after a tour of the boat a cocktails we walked downtown to the Freemason Abbey Restaurant and Tavern is in a building that was originally dedicated as a church in 1873 by the congregation of the Second Presbyterian Church and converted to a restaurant in 1988.  We enjoyed our meal and retired for the night shortly thereafter.