On
the road (water) again! Six and one half
months without moving the boat- a record for us. New Bern has proven to be an excellent place
to winter the boat. The dockage is
secure and inexpensive and the town is particularly enjoyable. New Bern was first settled in 1710 by a group
from Bern, Switzerland. Located at the
juncture of the Neuse and Trent rivers it grew rapidly and became the first
capital of North Carolina. The Old Town
section is contained in a 5 square block area with many well preserved homes
having their origin in the 18th and 19th century. For a small town (30,000 people ) it has
quite a few great restaurants all within an easy walk from our marina.
We
spent the first 3 weeks of November getting settled then rented a car and drove
to Florida. We spent Thanksgiving with
Debby’s family in Ponte Vedra Beach then went on to south Florida where we
enjoyed the Vintage Weekend at Ocean Reef in Key Largo on our friend’s boat and
participated in several Lauderdale Yacht Club parties before returning to Ponte
Vedra for Christmas.
We
returned to New Bern in time for New Year’s spending the rest of January in
North Carolina, including a ski weekend at Sugar Mountain. It just happened to be during the Blizzard of
’16. What was supposed to be a 3 day
trip turned to 5 as we were literally snowed in.
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| Jim at top of Sugar Mtn, NC |
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| Snowed In |
February
we returned to Stuart, FL to take care of annual physicals, etc . March was a month for travel as we ventured
to Phoenix for the ISTAT Conference and on to San Francisco to visit Jim’s sister
and family. At the end of the month we
worked our way back to New Bern, stopping in Ponte Vedra to visit Debby’s
family. The month of April was consumed
by preparing the boat for the next 6 months of travel and enjoying New Bern and
its surroundings.
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| Jim, Sister Pat, Debby San Rafael, CA |
