Given that we have been having a quiet time of it, I don't know why I haven't found time to update this blog, but it has been five days! We left Clubfoot Creek on Wednesday morning, inching our way out of our anchorage with the depth sounder reading zero much of the time. But as the bottom was soupy mud, I figured we could just plow our way through at least six inches of it if necessary. In any case, we made it out and hoisted sail and reached up the 20 miles of the Neuse River to New Bern. Sailing through heavy rain squalls we made New Bern by mid-afternoon, and, after an exciting entry into the marina, got settled and went up to register for the Gam. For the next two days, we attended presentations by a variety of speakers on topics such as weather, new developments in communication and navigation, health and safety. We also met up with a number of friends and acquaintances from last year, so caught up on lots of news. Some sessions were given by friends we met, and others by people we had heard of. One of the most interesting was by Jennifer Clark, who does Gulf Stream routing for the major ocean races. She had a lot of interesting stories about the impact the Gulf Stream can have on both speed and safety. Chris Parker, our Bahamas weather forecaster was here, so it was nice to put a face to the voice we wake up to every day in winter. On Saturday morning, Jeannie went to a session on photography. The timing for the gam was great, as the weather was lousy! From the rain squalls on Wednesday until Saturday afternoon the heavens opened up. But for drought-stricken North Carolina, it was very well received. But we also had another appointment in New Bern. Last week, Jeannie broke a tooth, so we emailed friends we met last winter in the Bahamas who live in New Bern. They very kindly made an appointment for her at a dentist, and took her on Thursday. But she came home with a root canal, and needs to go back Tuesday for some more work, so we will be here a full week. Today we rented a car and will have a look around today and drive down to Oriental tomorrow for me to pick up yet more filters for the engine! But since the weather is still not great for moving south, there are still quite a few other cruisers still here, so we are not really losing time. Last night we had friends over from two boats. One boat, Seabird, we sailed with on the way south last year. We actually met them here last year, and have kept touch over the summer, and been chatting with on the way down, and Jim and Anne from Bees Knees. We met them in our favorite anchorage last winter, Joe's Sound. We had a great evening and were a bit hard on the red wine inventory, but all seem to have survived. And tonight we are invited over to Janet and Joe's for a BBQ. With all the time here, my job list is down to one item, locating a small air leak in the water maker. It is tiny, but results in a significant reduction in output. A project for tomorrow.
The photo is of Joe & Janet at their home in New Berne.