TG Sailing 7/15/25

Four Captains, Ellis, Ron, Barry, and Steve, formed a squadron to take the Tuesday Group Sailing from Ft. Monroe!

Tuesday 4 AM weather was very discouraging with lightning and rain in the Interior! Even though US Route 258 in Franklin goes directly to Ft. Monroe, the rain took some of the joy out of my drive.

In the gloomy weather at the Fort, we all waited apprehensively for the Captains to return from their "review of weather forecasts" meeting. As they approached the TG, Barry's broad smile gave their decision away, we were going!

I heard many positive comments after our sail about the quality of the safety briefing each crew received before we left the marina.

Besides pelicans, cormorants, dolphins, tunnel construction and navy ships, we saw an unworldly shape way off in the mist as we sailed quietly in the light breeze. Some huge, strange shape was apparently floating on the water. Even zooming 20X with my Fuji I could not be sure what type of object or ship we were straining to see.

As we got closer, we could see that it was an extremely odd ship. As it turned out, it was the Orion that we had learned about at our last TG tour of the Virginia International Gateway container shipping port. This ship was being specially built to carry huge wind turbines way off the coast and installing them onto the ocean floor! 

A big THANK YOU to Ellis, Ron, Barry, and especially Steve for treating the Tuesday Group to this awesome adventure out on the water (without having to paddle)!

Bill

Thanks Ellis for identifying Orion and its history.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/WukzY8ZGir3HxP866