Oriental NC

 We left New Bern this morning for the first time in 3 weeks via boat and I have to say, it felt a bit strange to be underway again. We had sort of gotten out of the routine and had to be extra careful that we didn’t forget anything on our pre-departure list.

Steve and Kathy arrived back on their boat Wednesday evening and we spent yesterday grocery shopping, checking fluid levels, cleaning strainers, washing windows, hosing off dirt and salt water and Tom did some waxing on the bow. He and Steve ran a couple of errands, including Lowes (I can’t get away from Lowes even on a boat!) LOL! The guys were tired and hot from doing boat projects (Steve’s project involved new hoses to his black tank… Yuk!), so we walked up to MJ’s and had a nice dinner before retiring early to get a good start today.

We thought the first bridge opening was at 8:30 am because that’s what the website and signage said, so we were undocked and in position for that at 8:25 and the bridge tender said he wasn’t opening until 9 am.  Basically, they can do whatever the heck they want….. So, we cruised up the Trent River for a few minutes to look at an old marina where boats damaged from the 2018 hurricane have gone to die.  I took a couple picture of sunken, rotting boats - quite a sight to see.

Winds kicked up about halfway into our 5 hour trip and we had some pretty big waves on the Neuse River.  Boat took them like a champ - Madison, not so much.  Haha.

The marina here is probably the nicest one we’ve ever stayed at.  It’s a planned community with beautiful facilities and the 4 of us spent the afternoon at the pool.  Not too hard to take! Kathy had docktails and dinner on her boat and we leave in the morning to continue heading north to VA.







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