Setting Sail

More than 20 tall ships land in Norfolk June 7-12 for Sail Virginia 2007, the city's keystone event for the 400th anniversary of the Jamestown landing. More than 1,000 artists, actors, musicians, and other entertainers will help stage the commemoration.  Any day of the week, you can help hoist the sails on the American Rover. The three-masted passenger schooner sets sail for two-hour afternoon cruises and sunset cruises.

Seafaring Families
I enjoyed harbor and naval base tours on the Carrie B. and the Victory Rover. One morning, I drove to massive Naval Station Norfolk for a bus tour to get a closer look at the impressive array of aircraft carriers, guided missile destroyers, submarines, and fast frigates in port. Our guide was a newly enlisted, 20-year-old woman, hoping to chart the same course as her father and brother. They both served on the nuclear-powered carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt. Seafaring traditions run deep in Hampton Roads.

Left: Powerful 16-inch guns on the battleship USS Wisconsin thundered during the landing on Iwo Jima as well as the Korean War and Operation Desert Storm.

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