Norfolk, Virginia- Home of the World's Largest Naval Base

 Finally, the water receded enough that the swing bridges would open and we could fit under the fixed bridge!!  The ICW takes you right through the Naval Shipyard.  The Naval shipyard is huge and right across the river is huge commercial shipping yard.  Massive ships go in that harbor.  

Coming in you have to go under a series of bridges.  The first is a combination railroad bridge and then a lift bridge right behind it.  These waters are very heavily patrolled.  You can see the Coast Guard boat coming under the bridge.  

Needless to say the Naval shipyard has been around for a long, long time.

There is also a heavy commercial presence - this is just a small sampling of the containers and cranes to lift them onto the container ships that come in and out of this port.

 As we were heading out of Norfolk we were following a "warship" - there was an aircraft carrier out there also as we heard them all talking on the radio.  

 We had a slip all the way out at the harbor entrance so as to position ourselves for an outside run to Cape May, NJ.  We saw this in the water and not knowing what it was decided to stay away from it.  Michael radioed the ship that was coming the opposite direction to notify him of our intention and he said "that is a submerged pipeline and I am heading to it."  

 And so this is the boat heading to the pipeline - you can see where he latches on to suck oil out of the pipe.

 The marina we stayed at before our run on the outside was in Little Creek which is the major operating base for the Amphibious Forces in the US Navy's Atlantic Fleet.  It is the largest base of its kind in the world.  And we were looking at them from across the creek!!  Heavily patrolled area.  These little boats had guns on the front and back.  We felt pretty safe there!

 The trip through Norfolk was a highlight for us - really amazing to see.