We drove to the boat on Thursday June 10 in advance of Friday's Sail Virginia 2007 Parade of Sail event that would kick off early Friday morning at 0800 hours. Dave cleaned out the cockpit table locker and cleaned and organized both engine rooms. He stitched up another hole in the trampoline and went under water to scrape/clean the props. He also rehabilitated the transom shower. Donna cleaned the adhesive residue from the port side of the sail bag and rearranged storage in preparation for stocking the spare parts in the more readily accessible salon settee. Dave measured the cockpit casement window for a portable screen and air conditioner setup.

We fished from the boat at the dock, catching a few croaker (cut up one for bait-threw the others back) . Dave replaced the striping tape on the port hull and installed rubber feet on the two teak deck chairs we had purchased. He installed a wireless remote auto-pilot control that would allow us to steer the boat from anywhere on board via a hand-held device.

We were selected as an escort ship to the Tall Ships that would sail into the Norfolk Waterfront. John and Joan were also selected to do the same on their Catalina Sutra. Our boarding party included Dave's son Erek, Danny and Gail V, Robin M, Claire P, Keith, Kathy and Colleen P, Diane D and Megan D. We took up a position near Sutra in the area of  Thimble Shoals from where we then motored into Waterside having taking up our assigned escort position near the Tall Ship Picton Castle, a 180' sailing vessel from Canada.

The parade was fabulous--the largest vessel was the Cisne Branco, a 254' sailing vessel from Brazil. Others included the Capitan Miranda, 205' from Uruguay; our personal favorite the Tarangini, 177' from India whose crew stood high above on top of the vessel's rigging for the parade; the 170' Pride of Baltimore; the 126' Rara Avis and Bel Espoir II both from France, and several others. 

We passed alongside the reviewing stand positioned on the USS Wasp which fired saluting cannons and whose crew stood at attention to salute as each Tall Ship passed.  We continued toward the Norfolk Waterside--the destination for the parade.  

After the Tall Ships had largely passed the reviewing stand we found an opportunity to turn around and raise the spinnaker for a return to Willoughby Bay. It was a beautiful clear and hot day with WSW winds 10-12 kt.

We captured some fabulous video of the Tall Ships on parade and our Navy in all its glory! We hope to show it to you soon!