Friday, June 8,2012
    I didn't mention in the Wednesday blog, that when I pulled into Willoughby Bay and anchored I noticed helicopters about a few hundred feet from me doing maneuvers over the water. They were dropping, I assume, Navy Seals , out of the helicopters on ropes and  into the water. Then a little while later they would pick them up. This went on for hours, and also into the following day. This bay was surrounded with helicopter hangers packed with helicopters. They were doing all sorts of maneuvers throughout the day and night. besides this there were war planes whizzing over head, the noise was tremendous. quite a show.Yesterday I took the day off and puttered around the boat.
   So anyway I awoke this morning feeling a need to move on. I had breakfast then raised the anchor. As I was moving out of the bay I noticed what seemed like hundreds of sailboats sailing up the river into the Chesapeake. At first I figured this must be a big group coming back form the Bahamas. As I got closer to the Elizabeth River I noticed these tremendous tall ships, square riggers, coming off the Chesapeake into the Elizabeth River. This was a parade and the sailboats were all going out to greet the tall ships.This, as I later found out, was an OP_Sail event. They have this every year , but this year was special. They were celebrating the war of 1812. Why I don't know. Anyway there way the fire boat with his fire hoses roaring. There was an Aircraft Carrier in full dress, in the middle of the river, saluting the ships. There were hundreds of anything that could float on the water watching the parade.
  I paraded alongside for a while, and then turned into the Lafayette River to a really nice quiet anchorage.
Once anchored I got into a pleasant conversation with a local sailor who told me slot of the ins and outs of the area. For instance , where a super market would be, restaurants, and also info about the anchorage. To get to the super market I had to take my dinghy around a bend into a little cove and tie it to a bush. From there I walked across a highway and caught a bus. The super market was about 5 miles away, I thought about my dinghy a lot, on this ride, hoping that it would still be there when I got back. Anyway I bought my groceries, and a Chinese dinner, caught another bus back, got in my dink which was still there, and motored  back to Sparrow.
   That was all yesterday. Today I am now in a Library, close to where my dinghy is tied to another bush, catching up on entering these blogs. I did mention that my wifi antenna was out of order, and so this is what I must do for now in order to post my blogs.