Back through Norfolk, one of my favorite places to sit and watch the traffic go by. Yes, Chris, I know you think it sucks, but I love all the different types of boats and the commercial aspect of it all. The loading and unloading of the big container ships is fascinating to me. I want to know how they know which conex to put on which ship and in what order. I realize there's a computer program for it all, but there are thousands of conexes and dozens of little worker bees trundling around moving them, loading more than one ship at a time.The ones getting off last have to go on first, but don't the heaviest ones have to go on the bottom? I know they fall off at sea, because we hear the warnings to look out for them on occasion, but how many are actually reported as 'lost'?



Container ships being loaded.



'Worker bees' hauling conex's to load on board.





L to R: Sandy, Steve, Allen, Judy, Laura, John and Bill

Last night we were tied to the free dock in Great Bridge, which is a bulkhead where boaters can stop for the night and get off the boat. There's a little park with tables and grills. There were 5 or 6 boats there last night. We did laundry up the street and managed to spend $100 at the grocery, but we resisted going to El Toro Loco for great Mexican food as we're saving ourselves for M&M's in Oriental. We did, as usual, though, manage to have a great meal.  One of our dock mates had caught a tuna offshore on the way into Norfolk and offered to share and it turned into a potluck.  We had tuna, grilled chicken, Caesar salad, potato salad, green beans, cheesy potatoes, fresh apple pie and eclairs and maybe a little wine. No one in the picture is standing next to their spouse, but the different boats involved were Luna Sea, Second Wind and Discovery II.



Buzz Kill. Just when we thought we'd solved that age old problem of, "I need
a shower but I also need to do laundry".