Almost Ready to Leave

It’s been a week mostly spent working. If this was one of the blogs we follow about sailing, they’d show you lots of video about how we work and what is getting done. But most of the work we do isn’t that much fun to watch, or it’s research about batteries and inverters and sizes of shower sumps and fuel filters and such. I get bored just talking about it. So no work videos for you! We have accomplished many upgrades and some that aren’t quite as done as I’d like… but we can do those some other time. It’s about time to leave this yard and head up into the Chesapeake bay.

We did manage a couple fun outings… One was to the Douglas MacArthur Memorial in Norfolk. It is housed in the old City Hall building, built in 1849, and site of some interesting history. On May 10, 1862 Union General John Wool marched into Norfolk, and the mayor, William Wilson Lamb (I’m only giving his whole name because my dad’s name was Wilson and I think it’s cool) met with the general on the city hall steps and announced the surrender of Norfolk to the Union.

So roughly 100 years later it was remodeled into the MacArthur Memorial. It has MacArthur’s grave and that of his wife, Jean. The museum is huge, housing lots of interesting artifacts and a wealth of information. MacArthur served an amazing length of time, in theaters all over the world. Not always admired, in fact sometimes feared, he was always respected. He defiantly had a major impact on the world.

The USS Wisconsin is right down the street from the MacArthur Memorial. Again, a great museum, and then the ability to roam around a HUGE battleship on a self guided tour. Self guided means I have to read every sign, and Cherryl eventually wears out and patiently reads while waiting for me. They even had a two chair dental clinic on board.

Those huge guns fire projectiles about the same weight as a VW.

One poster had an interesting philosophy…

With the water rising so much, there is far more debris in the water – mostly logs and tree branches. The Army Corps of Engineers is supposed to keep the waterway safe and clear. We saw this barge mounted crane, and evidence that it had plucked a lot of junk out of the water, but never actually saw it working.

Tuesday we went back to Colonial Williamsburg. We thought maybe we could spend an afternoon there, and see most of what we’d missed last time. Wrong! The museum itself could fill two days. But we watched the wheelwright making a wheel hub with a hand chisel. We learned that those old wagon wheels were far more complicated and sophisticated than I’d ever imagined. We also spent time in the Joinery building, seeing cabinetry being created. So really, the only trades they offer that we haven’t seen yet are blacksmiths, bindery, brick making, printing, leather working, tailor, weaver, milliner and gunsmith. Ha! You need a week in this place!

We did manage a nice dinner, and then a concert of classical music on period instruments. Two violins were 17th century, which is pretty impressive that they can still play them. More impressive was a viola from the late 1500’s! These instruments are part of the museum collection, and only come out of safe storage once a year for this series of six concerts. The concerts are held in the Palace Ballroom, and lit by electric simulated candles, showing how dimly lit places were when candlelight was the only real option. Photography was not allowed, so you just have to imagine how gorgeous it looked and awesome it sounded!

We heard “Thomas Jefferson” give a tremendous talk about his life, what shaped him, and how things are going in his day. It was spoken as if we were in Colonial times, and he did an amazing job of staying in the period. It was also very interesting that these influential early Americans gave so much to create a land of freedom, and how we today seem to value it so lightly. He also stressed the importance of good manners, and the art of compromise. We could do well to listen to him!

The wheelwright:

The joiner using a hand plane:

A kit to experiment with garden layouts…

Ok, so I took a quick shot after the concert was over…

We have been at this dock so long we feel we are pretty good friends with some of the other boats. We are all feeling the need to get moving… the two other boats we have spent the most time with are leaving this weekend, and we are too. It’s been fun. Here is a picture of our friends on Worknot leaving.

We have tried to get out on the kayak at least once a day. One day I was busy so Cherryl took the kayak out by herself. She made out like she was nervous about it, but as she zoomed off her body language said otherwise…