Touring Norfolk on the water

I saw the Norfolk Naval Base Boat Tour online, and thought it would be something that Dad would enjoy, as he’d be able to see lots of sights along the Elizabeth River, including downtown Norfolk and the Navy Base, without walking a ton of miles.

Nicolas had taken him onto the base for a quick tour on the day he arrived, but this would be a different viewpoint from the water.

The tour is 2 hours long, so we booked the 3 of us for the 2pm tour, and then planned to meet Nicolas for dinner afterwards, when he got off work.

We arrived a little early, and spent some time walking around the waterside district while we waited for our tour boat to arrive.

Harborfest was coming up on the weekend, and setup of stages and tents and demonstration areas was in full swing.

One of the Navy demonstrations planned for the weekend was by the Coastal Riverines, who are responsible for protecting the ships from terrorist attacks while they are in port.  The team pulled into the river while we were waiting , and parked briefly at the dock.

We stopped to talk to the Sailors for a few minutes, and a photo op!

Our boat arrived then,

and it was time to board.

It was a beautiful day, so we sat on the open upper deck to enjoy the view.

There are several options for touring Norfolk on the water, and the company that offers the Naval Base Tour also has a sailing ship tour of Norfolk, but it doesn’t go all the way to the Navy Base.  It’s a cool-looking ship, though.

We saw it again later under full sail.

The Riverines were getting ready to practice their maneuvers, but they were nice enough to let us get away from the dock first.

We went south on the Elizabeth River first, and Captain Mark pointed out several sights along the Portsmouth side of the river.

He explained that the reason Norfolk is mostly new buildings, whereas Portsmouth has a lot of historical buildings is that the British burned most of Norfolk during the Revolutionary War, but not Portsmouth, because that’s where their troops were located.

The Portsmouth Naval Hospital –

The white domed building is the original Navy Hospital, and it’s still in use today, mostly as administrative offices.  The room under the dome was the first operating room.

Portsmouth home to the Norfolk Naval Shipyard, where Nicolas’ ship is currently docked.  The large crane in this picture is the beginning of the Shipyard, and this is as close as we were allowed to get.  We have to wait until the Ike comes out of the Shipyard to be able to see it.

In addition to NNS, there are several commercial shipyards, and they work primarily on government contracts, so we saw many ships undergoing maintenance.

The Titan is a floating dry dock, which worked basically like a lock. 

The dry dock is flooded to sink it to the level necessary to accommodate the ship that is going to be worked on, and the ship is floated into the dock.  Once it’s in position, water is pumped out, raising the dry dock and the ship out of the water.  Pretty cool!

We were amazed at the number of shipyards along the Elizabeth River!

A Zumwalt class Destroyer in another floating drydock.

The white boat in the foreground is a barracks barge, where the Sailors assigned to this ship live while they are in dry dock.  Nicolas doesn’t have to stay in a barracks barge – they have access to their berthings even while they are in the shipyard.  He doesn’t stay there too often anyway – only on duty days.

We cruised back past the Waterside District, and ducked in to get a good view of the USS Wisconsin – one of the largest and most powerful battleships the Navy has ever had. 

It was originally commissioned during WW2, but was such a powerful ship, it was recommissioned for the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and the Gulf War.  Decommissioned for the final time, Norfolk is now its permanent home port.

As we began our travels north up the Elizabeth River towards Hampton Roads, the landscape transitioned from Shipyards to Commercial Cargo Ports.

There are several of them, too, and we can understand now why there is a constant lineup of cargo ships on the Chesapeake Bay as we look across the water from Kiptopeke State Park.

There are also several cargo ships that are operated on the authority of the Navy, but with a civilian crew.  They are identified as support ships by the gold and blue bands on their bridge.  They support the deployed fleet by bringing needed supplies and equipment to areas of engagement.

This was an interesting dock along the river – it’s a ship de-magnetizing port.  Every ship has to be de-magnetized once in its lifetime to ensure that its GPS and navigation systems work properly.  The Navy also offers this service to our US allies, and the ship currently undergoing this process is from the Canadian Navy.  Wires are wrapped vertically around the entire ship, and then electrified first in one direction and then the opposite direction, de-magnetizing the ship.  Cool!

On the other side of the river are several historic piers.

From these two piers, WW2 soldiers boarded ships which took them to Europe to fight in the war.

This also marked the beginning of Naval Station Norfolk.  On the open water of Hampton Roads, we had a little more wind and it got a little chilly, so Dad headed down to the lower level which was enclosed, and Tom and I went down to the bow of the boat for a better view.

The first ship we saw was the USS Comfort, the oil tanker turned hospital ship that provides support to the fleet as well as humanitarian aid.  The Comfort was deployed last fall to Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria.

The tour of the Navy Base was very interesting, and Captain Mark was extremely knowledgeable about the Navy ships.

We saw several replenishment ships, which he referred to as “floating Walmarts”!

We also got a glimpse of one submarine,

 and lots of Destroyers.

We saw both Ticonderoga class and Arleigh-Burke class Destroyers, but I can’t remember the differences between them.  Captain Mark also talked a lot about the missile systems, but all I remember is that if you see that light grey hexagon on the ship, it is equipped with the latest missile system.

We were idling in front of the Destroyers for quite a while, and I guess this guy wanted us to keep moving!

The last ship we saw was the USS Cole – this is the same ship that was attacked while refueling in port in Yemen in 2000.  The ship was repaired, and is still in service.

The last piers are for the big guys – the Aircraft Carriers, and although there are a half dozen carriers homeported at Naval Station Norfolk, not one of them was in port on the day of our tour!

Just an empty pier!

Our tour ended here, and we began our return trip up the river.  On the way back we got to see the USNS Maury as it got underway, escorted by two tugs.

USS Maury is a support ship (indicated by the gold & blue bands) – an oceanographic survey ship.  It is responsible for mapping the bottom of the Earth’s oceans, so that the Navy ships and submarines have accurate information.

We returned to the pier in downtown Norfolk right at 4pm, after a very enjoyable and informative tour.

Tom and I thought it was definitely worth the ticket price ($25/person), and Dad really enjoyed it, too.

Nick was off work then, so we met him at Doumar’s BBQ for dinner.  Joe had seen Doumar’s on “Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives”, and wanted us to take Dad there.

The minced pork sandwiches were pretty good (although no BBQ sauce – kindof strange), but it was definitely mostly a novelty kind of place that’s been around for a long time. 

Doumar’s is known as “Cones & BBQ” because Albert Doumar was the inventor of the sugar cone . . . so of course we had to finish our meal with ice cream!

We said good-bye to Nick after dinner, and stopped at Walmart to do some grocery shopping on the way back to the state park.  By the time we crossed the Bay Bridge-Tunnel, the sun was beginning to set.  We managed to catch a great picture from the scenic overlook as we reached the Eastern Shore.

A nice ending to a wonderful day!