svcharm: 2023-06-10 Derek's Visit and Norfolk Harborfest

We had a nice pizza dinner with Breathe at the Deep Creek Lock at the north end of the Dismal Swamp. Next morning, to our surprise, another Manta showed up. SeaQuell was also traversing the Dismal Swamp. We had a short but nice visit while waiting for the next lock opening.

Charm, Breathe and SeaQuell tied up waiting for the lock opening

Charm heading into the lock, a nice sunny day

Our buddy boat Breathe tied up behind us at the lock

Dean waiting for lock to start dropping water level to match the level seen behind him.

We made it into Norfolk with no issues, and found a nice spot to anchor.

Next day we cleaned the boat, and got ready for Derek, who got in late that evening.

We forced Derek out of bed sooner than he wanted, and walked to town, and McDonalds for lunch. Toured the town, and stopped at a few places, then back to boat to relax.

Derek and Kris Hanging out with Ronald

Dean and Derek

Next day we headed into town with our friends Ed and Cathy on What If, to see the Chrysler Glass Museum, and Art Museum. Both free and easy walk from Norfolk dinghy dock. Both the Glass making building and the Art museum were very nice, and well worth the trip.

We watched a glass blowing demonstration

Hard to imagine this is made from glass

So many striking glass pieces.

Quite the sculpture outside the museum - all aluminum

We walked through the largest display of glass artifacts you can imagine - did not take photos - sorry

Then the rest of the museum - which as a collection of items from many different cultures, and some modern as well.

Derek is too large to fit Japanese samurai outfit .

That's a lot of belts

Ed, Cathy, Derek and Dean

The Norfolk Harborfest started on Friday. It began with a parade of boats.

Parade start, impressive volume and height of the water spray

Like the old sailing ships

You can see the cruise ship in the background dwarfs even very large boats.

After the parade, we went to land to see the festivities. Lots of food vendors, street performers, shops, and live music. Spent some of the time with Ed and Cathy.

MightyMike the strong man juggling bowling balls

We also toured some of the sailing ships we saw in the parade

Cool carvings on the old ship stern

Every good trip to town involves ice cream

Woke the next morning, and Dean was outside, watching a boat that seemed too close, and sure enough around 8:00 it was close enough to hit us. We fended it off, and then Kris pounded on the hull to wake the people up, and after the guy stumbled up still looking sleepy, we asked them kindly to move. They didn't, and only pulled in some chain, but were further from us. Once the current and wind were inline, and we felt comfortable we would not be hit by them again we headed back for day two of Harborfest. We ate junk food, and saw some street performers.

Dean and Derek helping out the "Red Trousers" acrobatic show, by holding ropes

Watched the Coast Guard rescue demonstration with Ed and Cathy, and happened to sit and watch right next to a young lady, whose husband was flying the helicopter. Cathy and her had a good chat as Ed and Cathy's son Ben is in the Coast Guard down in Puerto Rico right now.

The helicopter can get quite low to the water

Lifting rescue diver back into helicopter

We met up with Breathe toward the end of our Harborfest visit, and Breathe and What If stayed to watch a street performer we had already seen.

We headed back to the boat to watch the final on water demonstration called a Tug Muster. Watched the large tugs have a pushing contest.

The red tug won hands down

We also stopped to visit with Ed and Cathy later, so Derek could see What If again.

Ed, Derek and Cathy, on What If, last time this happened was May of 2014

Back at boat we watched the craziness and people tried to anchor in an overfull anchorage around us. Kept an eye on What If, as the guy that hit us was close to them, and What If still at Harborfest.