THE MAGNETISM OF ISLANDS #2

All Ashore At Whidbey Island

Oak Harbor is not the county seat but it is the largest town on the island with 22,000 people, nearly a third of the total island residents. Whidbey is also the largest island in Washington State. Though Norwegians, Irish & other nationalities settled here first, it was the Dutch that put a cultural stamp on this area. There are other structures in town that emphasize this culture. The town takes its name from the Garry Oak (called the White Oak elsewhere).

Through out the entire coastal Northwest, oysters are a big business. Penn Cove is famous for its shellfish. They farm or store 27 different varieties of oysters as well as clams and mussels. This crew is harvesting "bags" or racks of oysters.

Mount Baker again but my eye was as much on the P-3 Orion overhead. This aircraft, along with "Prowlers" & "Growlers" and others are based at the Whidbey Island Naval Air Station. Until our son-in-law became posted to a small craft detail near the base, we knew little of this place.

The EA-6B "Prowler" & EA-18G "Growler" aircraft are medium range, carrier based, electronic warfare jets. Whidbey NAS is home to 17 active duty squadrons, search and rescue (both military and civilian) and a whole host of subcommands. Also included is a former pontoon seaplane base (PBY aircraft) several miles away where much of the ground has reconfigured to house the Navy's PX and supply buildings.

The military does not forget its own. 

What IS this? Seen along the road from Coupeville to Oak Harbor.

It is one man's idea of a privacy fence.

WILMINGTON, NC

Rising From Neglect

We are seeing reminders and monuments to the Confederacy in almost every town we've visited. "Pro Aris Et Focis" translates roughly: "For God And Country". Though many years have passed since the War of Southern Independence (as it is occasionally still called here in the South), Wilmington has been perhaps the slowest to find value in its core downtown as a tourist draw. 

Buildings like this are more and more the rarity in Wilmington. Note that someone has attempted to dress this building up and rather than tear it down. Fifteen years ago Wilmington's riverfront downtown area offered little for tourists and no cruise boats stopped here. Today the city is still going through a renaissance. The city's historic district encompasses over 300 blocks. 

The riverfront is a vibrant collection of restaurants and shops. A riverwalk runs for almost a mile along the Cape Fear River. The town is home to the largest complex of movie and tv production facilities outside of Hollywood and boasts the biggest special effects water tank in the western hemisphere.

This is a small section of "Keys With A View". Artist Dixon Stetler began this project several years ago when she took fancy to a construction fence that rimmed a vacant downtown lot. 20,000+ keys later this is but a small section of what has turned out to be a pretty cool yet subtle artwork.

One of those, "I didn't know that", moments occurs when you come across this glass and metal sculpture in the riverfront area. It resembles a Venus Flytrap for good reason: this is the only place in the US where that plant actually grows naturally. Outside a 60 mile radius, it isn't found.

Something else that the City had was mansions. As we walked around the edge of the old town we found too many to count. 

With a restored city hall like this, it is easy to see why Wilmington has pride in its history.

Every city with river or ocean access seems to have a Navy ship, new or old. This is the USS North Carolina which entered service just before WW II. The paint scheme replicates the way some Navy ships were camouflaged during that period.

HAMPTON ROADS 3

Connecting With Nature

This Brown Pelican came along side to check us out. We would later see flocks of them swooping and diving in the wake of our boat. Our passage over shallow waters would often kick up something they could nab.

Everything else of size has to sail back north to exit the city. Not us. The Intracoastal Waterway (ICW) allows us and smaller craft to avoid the Atlantic Ocean and stick to the backwaters. The transition from urban to rural was surprisingly swift.

Cormorant Clutter

Though Norfolk dropped behind us quickly there were isolated reminders that the Navy has many tendrils reaching out past the port. Best guess for this location is that the buildings are Navy ammunition bunkers.

Dead end? No, but it marked a short stop for us at the Great Bridge Lock, the only lock on the ICW.

The lock makes neighbors of us all for about 15 minutes. Captain Snyder has a feather touch on the controls as he snugs the edge of our ship up to the tie up bollards. Take a quick look at the powerboat on the right. Do you see the furry speck that caught my eye?

Emerging from around the starboard side comes the resident cat. Guess it makes more sense to keep a cat than a dog on board.

Not at all what we expected - this run of the ICW resembled a Louisiana swamp. Indeed this manmade canal runs through the appropriately named "Dismal Swamp. As foreboding as it looked, the swamp was once home for runaway slaves.

Our moorage for the night was at Coinjock, NC. The place is not on many maps and probably familiar only to those using the ICW. The little store there capitalized on its pint-sized reputation by selling T-shirts that read "What Happens In Coinjock, Stays In Coinjock." This flyspeck sized place is thought to get its name from the Indian name for mulberry.

HAMPTON ROADS 1

Norfolk: The Navy Owns It

Not much space for words but lots of room for big ships. Above and below is the retired battleship, the USS Wisconsin, now a museum in Norfolk. 

Looking straight on, its 108' beam gives no clue to its 887' length. It's sleekness contributed to a top speed of 28 knots (or 32 mph).

One of the first ships to be seen this day as we entered Norfolk just after dawn was being refitted: the USS Abraham Lincoln. They are prepping her for a nuclear reactor overhaul. As massive as this ship is, at the waterline it is only 26' wider and 156' longer than the much older Wisconsin.

At one point on our slow crawl along the Navy base's waterfront, it seemed that all you could see were Navy vessels .

Not every power unit at dockside is a boat. You have to wonder in the Navy's far flung kingdom where these shrink-wrapped locomotives are headed. Certainly the rail line code "EMBX" spray painted on the plastic should be a clue the name of the line but online I couldn't easily match those initials with a rail company.

This is the Arleigh Burke in dry dock. The keel was laid in 1988 and commissioned in 1991. Note the 4 turquoise colored objects being delivered to the ship. These are not high tech electronic devices. They are a gang of four, clean, porta-potties being delivered to the Burke. It makes sense that while in dry dock none of the ship's plumbing would be of use for those working on the ship - hence the periodic removal of the fouled heads with clean ones. I know, more than you ever wanted to know about this crap.

The last vessel is unnamed or at least no numbers have been painted on. The lines of the ship look like the same class of ship as the neighboring Arleigh Burke. This ship has several years ahead of it before it can be commissioned.