End of the ICW & into the Chesapeake

Finally, the last of the ICW bridges! We came northward a slightly diferrent route, taking the Virginia Cut route, rather than the Dismal Swamp for the last 70 miles of the ICW. Ed and Tina had to stop overnight at a marina to take delivery of a part so we continued through the lock & final 5 bridges with just us & this group of 5 mega yachts. These bridges are all tightly spaced & timed so the group travels together which meant that these guys all reached the bridges 10-15 minutes ahead of us then had to try & hold their positions in the 25 kt winds while waiting for us to chug our way slowly into position. It was rather entertaining having $75MM worth of boats wait for our humble home to putter up behind them.
The Norfolk naval base runs for several miles along the shore of the harbour and we passed along right beside dozens of varied warships like this sub and the carrier below. Those things are unbelievably huge! In addition to being a large base they it is also the main east coast yard for refits & repairs so many ships are in drydock or covered in tarps & cranes in varoius states of repair.

Solomon Islands part way up the Chesapeake Bay. This is the beach near the Calvert Cliffs, an archeological site with literally hundreds of thousands of fossils dating from 3-28million years ago. The cliffs themselves are protected & also unstable so digging there is prohibited but along this shoreline you can pick up thousands of ancient shell fragements and fossils including the kid's favourite, sharks teeth. Pictured here is Carol, from Cheers, one of the 3 boats we crossed back from the Bahamas with. We had met Carol & her husband Palmer briefly in the Bahamas & then bumped into them again on and off coming north. They live in a beautiful condo right on the water in Solomons (they can see their boat slip from their balcony!) and Carol generously drove us around to the museum and then to the cliffs & then they had us over for dinner at their condo. I'm not sure if it's just boat people in general or we've been unusually lucky or what, but since we set out we have been amazed at the generosity, friendliness and hospitality of the people we have met.
The U.S naval air team the Blue Angels. By sheer fluke we arrived in Annapolis harbour 15 minutes before the start of a rehearsal for the airshow that is put on for graduation day (today) for this year's class of cadets. When we came into the outer harbour it was jammed with over 200 anchored boats with naval & coast guard patrol boats buzzing around trying to keep a channel clear. We yelled over to another boat to find out what was happenning and they told us about the airshow rehearsal starting in 15 minutes so we quickly anchored and a few minutes later F18's were screaming by a few hundred feet over our heads. After the show we pulled anchor & headed into the inner harbour & lucked into a mooring ball so today we will be in a great spot for the actual show. Yesterday was amazing & the harbour was a zoo for the rehearsal so today's show should be lots of fun.