What a lovely city…. Too bad we didn’t get to explore much beyond the waterfront.
Most of our time was spent with 300 other Loopers at AGLCA’s Spring Rendezvous.
The event was comprised of four days of topical seminars and training held in a hotel conference room. The information was invaluable, especially the route briefings, given by local experts, explaining where to go and what not to miss. But it was difficult to be in a windowless, air-conditioned indoor space all day after the breezy outdoor living we have been enjoying lately.
Thank goodness there were also boat tours, good food, and a lot of socializing!
Most of the folks we met were “first-timers”, couples about our age, with a sense of humor and a taste for trying new things. People were from all over the US, Canada, and even Australia. Many had been boating for most of their adult lives, but some were like us, brand new to the boating world. An amazing percentage were retired Navy and/or engineers. But there were also doctors, firefighters, accountants, teachers, homebuilders, millwrights, and You-Tube bloggers.
Many of the boats were open for others to tour, on a “Looper Crawl”. We agreed to let people crawl all over our boat. It was actually fun! We were definitely one of the smaller boats on the tour, but we were the largest of the 3 Ranger Tugs on the crawl. Even so, most folks were really interested in how such a “small boat” was working out for us. We told them it was great. Every feature is multi-functional. The Swiss Army Knife of boats.
Our time in Norfolk ended with a lovely evening on the docks. The views of commercial and military ships were amazing. The weather was gorgeous.
Until the next day. All Loopers were alerted to an ominous forecast for the Chesapeake Bay the next day. We decided to leave that moment and get as far north as possible.
A blustery storm came in on the day after the rendezvous. So windy that almost all of the boats decided to stay in Norfolk. They got stuck for almost a week. We made it halfway up the bay to Solomons, but that is another story…. We were fortunate.
that is awesome! what fun meeting all those crazy people.