Mark and Vicki Hills Great Loop Adventure Blog: Norfolk

Mark n Vicki and Daisy
Out front.
(I have a remote Controlled
Auto Pilot)

Free dock, Portsmith Next to Norfolk

We departed the Dismal Swamp and made our way to a free dock in Portsmith for the evening. Along the way we saw many Naval ships being maintained and or retrofitted (who knows?).

But, It was Awesome to see the many ships up close (kind of). The security was clearly evident and in water fences kept a perimeter around the ship. Two aircraft carriers were most impressive.

Wooden deck (Teak?)

We made a trip to the Nauticas Maritime Museum (highly recommended). The museum is simply world class. Our main objective was to tour theretired battleship Wisconsin. We toured the entire ship that was open to the public (several areas below deck were recently just opened to the public). We saw the decks in their entirety. Below deck we saw the mess hall, doctors area, infirmary, dentist, sleeping areas, captains areas, officers areas, communications, etc etc. The nine 16" guns were unreal, and the process and size of everything related to them was impressive.
Of note, was that the upper decks were made of wood either teak or mahogany. That surprised me. The overall size of anchor chain and the anchors too were, well, big.

The Nauticus Museum was most impressive. The interactive areas (including the children's area, (which I spent time there too) was fun. Click for more information

Nice, long awaited live view of a carrier.

Awesome!!!!

Dry Docked!

We signed up for a boat tour of the Naval Yards. While it was fun and informative, we could have done well with google and a naval ship identifies card, and our own boat while exiting the Norfolk areas.

One particular ship that intrigued me was the ship number 87 (I think). It is a destroyer that cost over a trillion dollars to build.