Day Six - Friday, 23 November

Today was a non-travel day. We were up at 0800 to find a 15-20 knot wind from the north and temperature in the mid 40s with no improvement forecast until tomorrow. So we remained at the Bluewater Yachting Center (http://www.bluewateryachtsales.com/main/marina.asp) for the day.

We took advantage of Allan and Marily's offer to take us to the Mariners Museum (http://www.mariner.org/) in Newport News. We specifically went to visit the USS Monitor Center (http://www.monitorcenter.org/) where the recovered remains of the USS Monitor are being restored. The location of this exhibit is particularly suitable since the famous battle between the two ironclad warships, the Monitor and the Merrimack...or CSS Virginia...took place only a few miles away. The Monitor Center has doubled the size of the Mariners Museum and is astonishingly well done. There is a full size model of the Monitor just outside the main building positioned as a mirror image of the restored Monitor. Inside the main building the restoration is a long-term process due to the need to stop the deterioration of 140 years of being in the ocean off Cape Hatteras. Each section of the Monitor will be placed in the main building in its original position as the artifacts are removed from the restoration tanks...a process expected to take many years.


After the trip to the Mariners Museum, we returned to Allan and Marily's for Thanksgiving leftovers...almost always better than the real thing. This time was no exception. Afterwards, we returned to Windreka to get ready for a departure tomorrow...hopefully with better weather and less wind.

Either way, we'll be at mile 0 of the ICW on the Elizabeth River in Norfolk in the morning.