Heather mending the dodger/visor connection...
We both love New Bern, NC. A great farmer's market with fresh veggies & bread, some of the friendliest people we've come across, and lots of room to walk and stretch our legs. Our only complaint is Bubba...
You know the type, I don't have to explain the concept of Bubba except to throw in the adjectives of disrespectful and impatient. The ones who go out of their way to cross the waterway to throw a wake...but considering they do it to each other without a second thought...I think they are just oblivious to anything around them 'cept the fishin pole and the beer in their hands. Bubba Basshole. To avoid it as much as possible, we re-located very close-in to shore and as far out of anyones way as we can.
The trip here was interesting...in Wrightsville Beach, NC we took a nap with a planned afternoon exit & overnight outside run. We woke up after an hour's snooze to see a boat dragging down on us. He had lost throttle coming in and threw out the anchor to let wind and current set it...it didn't work. He was drifting all around us and several other boats had fired up their engines in case they had to move to avoid being hit. We followed suit but went one step further; we hauled up the anchor and left.
Masonboro Inlet is not a Class A but it is much better than most Class A's... 4 sets of buoys, all in 30ft+ of water and well protected by jetties. I'm quite glad it was protected because we hit 6-8' seas with occasional 10's for the next many hours. Holding Pattern loves being at sea...you can feel her smile...she handled it like a pro. We set our course, lett KITT (autopilot) take over, and away we went. Winds at 15-20 on the nose meant little to no sail...and to be able to put canvas up we would have had to go at a very unfavorable/uncomfortable angle to the seas - no way, Jose. So we rode up the waves, surfed down, and occasionally hit a wall o' water...one of which knocked our bow navigation light out...not off, just out. I am re-wiring it today. (Insert shameless product review here: The ColdHeat soldering gun is simply amazing...for $20 you get a cordless, much easier way to solder connections...)
Beaufort Inlet was a piece of cake as was the trip to and up the Neuse River to New Bern.
We have no idea when we're leaving. Maybe tomorrow, maybe stay the weekend and leave Monday. Brian is getting a tremendous amount of work completed and writing done and is shopping several articles to various magazines/publications. Heather is loving the small-town atmosphere and as you can see by the picture, doing a lot of good work on HP...we've got to keep the old girl looking her best. She's 33 this year...Holding Pattern, not Heather...maybe that needed clarification, maybe not.
Otherwise, it's been fairly monotonous. OH, except for Saturday... there was a free Voce Allegre concert, three women who have toured internationally did a concert of old time Barbershop-style songs...if you closed your eyes you would have thought there were 20 of them, they made your skin crawl they were so good. We were both grinning ear to ear. Then we went up the road to see a one-man play Mark Twain, "The Trouble Begins at Eight." Half the audience left at intermission and we went with them. It was okay but 8:00 start and we were both nodding off by 9. Sad, but true.
The city is blooming with Magnolia trees and Honeysuckle so there is a perfume in the air that we can smell out here at anchor. Something else is blooming because half the town, Brian included, is stuffed up and sniffling.
I've written enough to be considered a tome, so an end will have to be inserted here.
Cheers. | 