062: Old Dominion Part 2

On April 20^th we took the rental car up to see Jamestown, site of the first permanent English settlement in North America.   I remember going there when I was young and even then thinking, “those ships are really small to cross an ocean.”   And they were.  

More or less exact replicas:

 

The museum at Jamestown is just phenomenal and I recommend it to anyone.   The history of the settlement, John Smith, fact vs. fiction on Pocahontas, artifacts from that era, and a recreation of the original fort.   It is amazing to me that the first English people landed in 1607 and just short time later we had major cities like Philadelphia, Boston, etc. and by 1776 we were declaring independence from Great Britian.

  https://www.jyfmuseums.org/visit/jamestown-settlement

 

Part of the fort:

 

Matchlock demonstration (note to the Supreme Court “originalists,” it took three tries for this experienced gunsmith to get the gun to fire.  The flintlock, state of the art in the time of the 2^nd Amendment, wasn't that much more advanced: a far cry from modern assault rifles with bump stocks, just saying):

 

 After Jamestown we headed to the Norfolk Botanical Gardens which was really nice.   I only got a few pictures (Nancy has “infinity pictures”) but I got this nice panoramic video of a small portion of the place:

 

I thought this story of an eagle who nested there for many years was pretty cool, and a bit sad.   It got hit by an airplane (Norfolk A/P is next door) and it was so beloved that they erected a statue in its honor:

 

The next day, the 22^nd, we had planned on heading north to Yorktown, but the weather was bad and we extended our stay at the marina.   We walked in the rain about a mile to take a ferry over to Portsmouth to check it out.   The weather wasn’t conducive to walking around, so we ducked into a German restaurant for a nice lunch and then visited the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard Museum which covers the naval history of the Norfolk and Portsmouth area.  Highly recommend a stop there as well. https://portsmouthnavalshipyardmuseum.com/

 The ferry:

A statue honoring sailors:

We took the ferry back to Norfolk and Nancy went exploring the town while I hung out at a coffee shop working on this blog.  

A few shots from Nancy's exploring:

Chrysler Museum:

On the 22^nd the weather still wasn’t great, but we decided to venture out none-the-less and head the thirty-six n/m up to Yorktown.   First we had to wait for this cruise ship to clear out in front of the marina:

 

The first twenty-four miles out to Hampton Roads and up the Chesapeake Bay were a bit “saucy:”

 

We made it into Yorktown only a bit shaken and stirred and had enough time to visit the battlefield but too late for the National Park Visitor Center. 

Monument that took approx. one hundred years for Congress to actually fund the construction:

The next day we spent the morning at the  American Revolution Museum at Yorktown, another really great museum. 

 https://www.visitwilliamsburg.com/listing/american-revolution-museum-at-yorktown/4752/

 Among the exhibits was a one about “The Midnight Ride.”  You’ll recall our friends who have the boat, “Willie Dawes” named after one of the two men who actually completed the ride, and none of them was named Paul Revere.  He was captured!   Everything you learned in grade school history is b/s.   Revere just had a better p/r man in Longfellow.  The REAL scoop:

https://www.history.com/news/the-midnight-ride-of-william-dawes

Yorktown sights.

Sunrise at Yorktown:

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The "Big Four:"

Windmill replica:

The small marina:

 After and excellent morning walking around and seeing the museum, we had lunch and then headed out for the thirty-one n/m trip up to Deltaville to reunite with the Murphy’s on Katmat who had gone on ahead at Beaufort, N.C. while I played golf and Nancy toured that area.  The anchoring area was small, so we rafted off to them and had a potluck dinner.  A  nice couple from Great Britain doing the G/L trip dinghied over and we enjoyed some cocktails with them on Hygge.   They have a sailboat in Greece which the use in the summer months, and they have a three-winter/spring plan to complete the G/L on a trawler that they bought here in the States.  

On the 23^rd, we headed across the Bay to Tangier Island, V.A. which is on every guidebook’s “must see” list.   Unfortunately, the place doesn’t really open up until Memorial Day, but it was a nice stop. Nancy and Kathy rode bikes around the area while Matt and I spent the afternoon troubleshooting our respective Garmin AIS transponders*.  Mine was brand new having had it shipped to Beaufort.  It would receive other vessel information, but not transmit Hygge’s info.  After troubleshooting it for three hours with info from the user manual and Garmin’s support page, I finally called Garmin Support.  The gal on the line simply asked me to read off the serial number, which I did, and she said, “yes, that is one of the defective units, we’ll ship you a replacement.”    That is three hours of my life I can’t get back!

 Tangier Island:

Sunset:

Dave

 

Odometer: 3,623

 

PS: how many times have I mentioned that dolphins are camera shy?  I’m not the only one.  From FB:

 

 

 

 *An AIS transponder is a device that uses GPS and VHF radio to automatically communicate with other ships and coastal authorities about a ship's position and identification. AIS stands for Automatic Identification System. The system uses a built-in GPS receiver to determine its own position, speed, and course, and then combines this information with other navigation information and automatically communicates it between AIS equipped vessels