Days 356 - 358

Norfolk VA - Yorktown VA

• Start 7:50 AM
• End 12:25 PM
• Underway 4:35 Hours
• Distance 36 Miles
• Total Miles on Trip 5772
• Av Speed 8.0 knots
• Weather Sunny, 65 Degrees, Wind 7 Knots ENE

WOW WOW WOW, that is all I can say. As we were leaving Norfolk, we heard a Sécurité radio call come over the VHF radio (A Sécurité radio call is normally a hazard to navigation) from the Navy announcing that an aircraft carrier was backing out of its slip, and all vessel were advise to stay clear, and keep 500 yards from the aircraft carrier. I decided to pick up the pace and see if we could meet up with it. Twenty minutes later, the Aircraft Carrier Gerald Ford appeared in front of us. While we have toured a retire aircraft carrier, it does not compare to running next to an active one. As we were running alongside of it, I realized all of a sudden we were passing it, and saw that as we came up on it, it had stopped and dropped its anchor. What am amazing sight, the pictures do not do it justice. The sailors and airman on the deck looked about the size of the plastic army men we use to play with as kids.

We left the James River and headed into the open water of the Chesapeake Bay. We were very happy to see the bay knowing we are only a couple hundred miles from home. The bay was calm and it was a beautiful day. It has been sometime since we have been in open water the size of the bay, and once again we have to pick our travel days based on the weather forecast. While we always watch the weather, it is even more important in the open water. In the river systems we only have to worry about wind and storms, now we have to take into account the waves both size and direction.

As we were going up the bay we heard another sécurité radio call from the navy. This time is was submarine coming into the bay up the Thimble Shoal Channel. I would have been nice to turn around and go see it, that would have added another hour or two to our trip, plus the extra fuel needed to do it.

It is sad to say but diesel cost is now a part of our planning. Our fuel cost have ranged from a low of $2.78 per gallon to a high of $5.81, we have seen prices as high as $6.50 and heard of it over $7.00. Part of the planning is checking for the best price of fuel before we fill up, we have always looked around for the best price when we fill up, but now we will call around and if need be go out of our way for a better price. We also will either wait longer to fill up or, get fuel sooner than we normally would have all based on price.

Yorktown was a great stop. If you enjoy American History it is definitely somewhere you must see. The marina was ok, nothing special but it is in a great location and the staff was great. It is a municipal marina, so the prices are good, and they are very flexible on how long you stay. At first we were not sure if we wanted to stay two or three nights. The dockmaster said pay for two, and if we decide to stay pay for the third night later. He warned us if we paid for three nights and decided to leave after two nights, they would refund the money, but it would takes several weeks or longer. One of the interesting things about the Yorktown Marina, is there are no pilings holding the docks in place. In fact if you look around the docks there does not appear to be anything holding them in place. The dockmaster told us the docks are held in place with chains connected to massive concrete blocks on the river bottom. It was an interesting setup but secure enough that they have a 300 foot cruise ship that docks there. Another thing I found out is that the cruise ship does not pay much more per foot to dock then we do, but they pay for water and trash removal, and that is how the county makes their money. They pay about $11,000 per trip for water and trash removal.

We enjoyed touring Yorktown. On the first day we took the free trolley to the Yorktown Battlefield Visitor Center. We only had about 45 minutes to explore it or we would have missed the last trolley back to town. Normally we would not have gone for such a short time, but we wanted to see where the trolley went, and with Angel's lifetime National Park Pass it was free. On Thursday we took our bikes back to the park and toured the battlefield The tour is setup as a driving tour but it was just as easy to do by bike, we rode over ten miles and saw the entire park. Looking over the park it just amazes me the logistics that the soldiers faced during the revolutionary war. How did they know where their other units were, how did they track the enemy, we get frustrated if someone does not answer a text or phone call in minutes, where it could take them days to communicate.

We also visited the American Revolution Museum of Yorktown. It is one of the best museums that we have toured on our trip. The dockmaster told us, we would probably need 3 or 4 hours to visit the museum. We ended up spending over five hours there and still did not see everything. Once again timing in life is everything it was ninety degrees and humid it was the perfect day to do an air-conditioned museum. Had we done the museum first, we never would have toured the battlefield by bike in this heat.

Yorktown is still active in protecting America, there is a Coastguard training base located there as well as the Navy's Naval Weapons Station Yorktown. Once again we just missed seeing a submarine underway. Two days before we arrived a submarine went past the marina to the ammunition dock.

Out next stop is Deltaville VA.