31 Norfolk

You come out of that tranquil lock, around the bend, and all of a sudden you are in Norfolk docks and the US Navy Base.

The sky is full of cranes and bridges and battleship towers. The air smells of oil and rust. A clanking mechanical digger on shore is attacking a mountain of gravel and throwing dusty armfuls onto a barge. From the Navy shipyards comes the shriek of grinders on steel and the smell of grey paint. A shuddering military helicopter keeps prowling about overhead What with all this and the howl of police cars and the piping of backing trucks, we have to shout to each other in the cockpit. The river is full of traffic. Stealthy barges creep up on you unawares. A tug is sliding sideways in the tide toward us. You feel the throbbing of the engines through your feet and smell warm diesel smoke from that hoarse funnel. And here comes an oil tanker escorted by two blue flashing police launches on either side and coastguard cutters in front and behind with guns on their foredecks.

At a US Navy base you take no chances.