We are hanging out at the Grand Hotel Marina in New Bern. Sounds more ostentatious than it is. Best part is floating docks, which should handle the 7 ft of predicted storm surge. Worst part is that although there are many boats here, most are owned by local folks so there are few transients i.e. snowbirds, to pass the time with.
We arrived early and have the boat double-tied and heavily fendered. We are, unfortunately, on an outside dock, but the wind is supposed to be mostly from the north and we are hidden behind a couple of large hotels. We had hoped to visit the New Bern Yacht Club and had made arrangements to spend a night at their dock. However, on closer inspection of the charts, there is a 45ft fixed bridge between the club and us. Oh well. The commodore felt badly and actually came down to the marina to welcome us and see if we needed anything but our very first welcome on the dock was the Coast Guard Auxiliary, anxious to give us an inspection. We have always avoided those, but this time had little excuse, so we let them aboard to do their thing. It was painless and now Charm has one of those little 2012 stickers on her mast. Maybe it will keep the real Coast Guard from stopping us. We shall see.
Yesterday we toured the town of New Bern. It is a pretty little place and well worth the visit. I enjoyed the shops, Jim enjoyed a local tavern brew and we both enjoyed a tour of the Fireman’s Museum. Somehow this little museum has managed to hang onto pieces of their equipment from the mid-1800s on. They have original helmets, 2 steam engines, their first gas pumpers and an assortment of other equipment. The best part though was the guide. The museum was small and left to our own devices, we would have finished up in 10 minutes, but the guide took us around to each piece and explained some of the history and legend too. He lovingly touched each piece and pulled out pictures to show us the fire hall in past days. They even stuffed one of their early fire engine horses and he talks too. What a hoot. This town loved their firefighters. Almost 90 minutes later, the guide ran out of steam and let us do a bit of last exploring on our own. What a great little museum.
Today is rainy and blustery and we are just hanging out on the boat. Winds are starting to pipe upwards of 25kts and the water level is up a foot so far. We had to come through an opening bridge to get here and the bridge tender just called to tell the marina that they would be closing this evening until further notice. Guess we are good and stuck here for a while. That’s all for now….