All Clear in New Bern

Well Sandy spared us much of the trouble that others further north suffered through. The National Weather Service had it pegged pretty well. Winds never rose above the predicted levels but it has remained a bit breezy into yesterday (Wednesday). The sun is shining now, but the last couple of days have been a bit chilly for this time of year here in North Carolina. Of course, it's been about the same temperatures all the way down to north Florida, so we can't complain much.

The visits with boating friends have been quite enjoyable. While we missed seeing one couple, we were surprised by the visit of Bo and Joyce on Dream Catcher that we met two years ago in Marathon and we were able spend an enjoyable day with long time friend Priscilla. The boating community is truly a mobile one with meetings taking place in some unlikely places like New Bern, a town we'd never been to before.

Maddie's always ready and waiting for us to take her out to meet new people.

And speaking of New Bern, it's a town worth a visit. Bern apparently means bear, so there's lots of them around the streets of New Bern. I've included one photo to give you an idea. The downtown area has lots of interesting shops and restaurants.  As an added bonus, one of the art/craft stores is now selling Sandra's pine needle baskets, so we have developed another connection with this cute town.  One unusual aspect of the downtown is the train track that runs down the middle of one of the streets. At first we thought it was an old trolly track, but the photo will clue you in that freight trains actually force cars off to the side as they come through town. I can't end my comments about the town without mentioning how friendly the people are throughout the town – really unusually so. This just adds to the attraction.

Note the car up on the right had to move over to the side to allow the train to
pass down the street.

We continue enjoy good fortune on many fronts. This hurricane we dodged was the sixth such storm we'd had to deal with in the last four years. We had to look out for half of those while we were in New England - a part of the country that doesn't usually get too many hurricanes. In each case we seemed to be in the right place to avoid big problems. It helps to convince me that we're not making these decisions on our own, but perhaps we're getting some extra help along the way. That's just one of the thoughts that comes my way along the Waterway.

It was difficult to leave our friends Dick and Libby, but today we left for Beaufort. Tomorrow we'll continue on down the ICW to Camp Lejeune. We've never been stopped at their firing range, but there's a first time for everything. After leaving Beaufort, we'll be more attuned to the water depth than concerned about the Marines. This next stretch has a few shallow areas we hope to pass at some point other than low tide. We'll see how that goes.

Till the next report, Carpe Diem!

Captain Bob