We had about a week ... and still hoping that Connecticut might warm up just enough for us to set up our tent there.

But no, even down here the weather was getting cooler than forecasted.

We enjoyed places we had been before, by car, during conference meetings, but laso by boat. We had a great day to reconnect to Baltimore and Annapolis, strolling down streets we had been on before, looking at all the major changes in downtown Balitmore (should now be called Condo-City, expensive condos that is!!!!), and the unchanging character of Annapolis, with our favoured place (the ice cream shop in the harbour) still in place.

It was a good day to wind down and to distance us from the office back home.

We told the Park Ranger that we aere moving on to Virginia, to a place on the James River - and were told to ensure we had reservations!

Reservations???? At this time of the year?

We were doubtfull, but with a weekend coing up, we thought of better playing safe ... and indeed, it was a wise decision. When we booked, the place had only 4 places left, everything else was booked for the weekend. And in our first effort to book a site for three days, we were told that there was nothing left for us - but why not trying again ... just to make sure. Oh well, it worked. We got it - a very nice plantation grounds opposite of Jamestown Landing (the very first english settlement in the land of what is now called U.S.A.

And we shared the place with Boy Scouts, Legion 806, who had taken over the camping site for the weekend (50% of the available sites went to their tents). They were great, having fun, and surprisingly quite ?!

From here we took excursions - Norfolk, Portsmouth, Smithfield, Williamsburg ... and other small places. We had been in Norfolg/Portsmouth before, back in 1991 with the boat, and many other times later, but then we passed through, not spending mucht time in town.

Hence, a good reason to have a new look at these locations.

Norfolk has a large Naval Museum, one which hosts the battleship USS Wisconsin. The visit was free - and security high .... as if anyone wants to steal that ship, or bomb it ...?

We were getting curious and had a closer look at the ship. The interior is not accessible by the public. Inside environmental conditions are maintained at controlled settings to ensure that the ship can be re-comissioned in a short time for another engagement. Initially built for WWII action in the Pacific, it also served in the Golf War after it was re-commissioned.

And yes, it is a large ship .... with very big guns. Marleyne is waving at me ....

On our boat, we carry a lot of heavy chain: 240 feet of 3/8" (10mm). Hard work to get the chain up, and yes, we have a (manual) windlass to help us with this.

Now this ship .... no way I could pull up these 1100' feet of chain (330m), but I tried!

... it must have been tied down ...? It never happend to me before!

We had a good time in Norfolk and Portsmouth and picked up 2 pounds of large shrimps we were going to cook tonight over our barbeque!