On The Water

Baltimore & South

No, not our cruise ship but rather the USS Constellation. Built in 1854, it was the last "sail only" warship built by the Navy. During the Civil War, the Constellation spent much of it's time in European waters as a deterrent to Confederate raiders sent to hijack cargoes to the south. While I was there a contingent of midshipmen from nearby Annapolis were visiting the ship.

Our cruise ship, the American Star, is only partially visible as the bow area is peeking out from behind the old sailing ship

Not quite a view from the bridge, this is the lounge where we'll be spending a fair amount of time over the next few weeks. We have a historian/naturalist on board who will be giving multiple talks throughout our days on board. Every evening about 5:30 there is a forced march to this lounge for cocktail hour.

This is the dry bulk ship "Alpha" unloading raw sugar at the Domino sugar factory.

Upon reflection I shouldn't have been surprised by the industrial strength of Baltimore's spacious port but I was. Due to the extreme protection afforded from the tidal reach and winds of Chesapeake Bay, this is where our cruise ship took shelter during Hurricane Sandy. We heard there was lots of cutthroat bingo that went on during their forced layover. We're praying for better weather the next few weeks.

Though we are over 100 miles away from Norfolk and the navy base there, scattered throughout out the Chesapeake area are any number of the Navy's Merchant Marine Fleet. These two, with several others nearby, seemed semipermanently moored. Others down in Norfolk were in a more active area of docks. The two above are called "Roll On, Roll Off" freighters. The huge apparatus at the stern of each ship are ramps that can be positioned to load most any kind of mobile military vehicle from jeeps to tanks and anything in between.

The Chesapeake Bay Bridge has a longer, politically connected name but we aren't going to introduce any more politicians, dead or alive, to you especially so close to the election. Suffice it to say that this is one of the worlds longest over-water spans at almost 4.5 miles in length. When the original single span bridge was opened in 1952, heavy traffic was an almost immediate problem. Also suffice it to say that the politicians had to explain that they hadn't counted on so many people wanting to use it. The second span was added in 1973. Like the Golden Gate Bridge, this bridge is under constant upkeep, which accounts for all the scaffolding and shrouds on the original span at left as they maintain all that weather beaten steel.

Looking like heavy traffic of a different kind, this was the sight that greeted us as we exited the Baltimore sound area for the larger Chesapeake. Though several ships are underway, all the craft that are sitting with their bows pointed into the wind are anchored. The speculation was that Hurricane Sandy had so delayed the normal arrival and departure of these big behemoths in and out of Washington and Baltimore, that these ships had nowhere to go for awhile.