Oct. 24-27, 2017 - New Bern (MTOA Rendezvous)

After a night filled with heavy winds and rain, we left our anchorage around 9:00 for a quick one hour trip to New Bern. New Bern is the second oldest city in North Carolina.  This was our first visit and we weren't disappointed.  We walked to Baker's Kitchen for brunch and then wandered around the very lively town for a while.  Since the storms kept us awake the night before, we took a quick nap before our first MTOA docktails followed by taco Tuesday at Prohibition Restaurant.  Wednesday started the rendezvous with a day of speakers and lunch at the Chelsea Restaurant.  We had numerous speakers including the mayor of New Bern, a guy from NOAA who talked about various websites to find weather/water conditions, and a man who talked about the Lost Colony.  The Lost Colony was a group of settlers from England who came to North Carolina around 1590, before Jamestown.  These people disappeared and there are many theories about what happened to them.  The talk was very interesting since it happened in this general area.

Thursday was the tour of the Hatteras plant.  It was a lot of fun walking through all the buildings watching boats being made from bottom to top.  There are huge molds that form the hull of the boat.  We watched workers putting wiring into the boats, building the cabinets, and doing all the finish work.  Most of the boats we saw were huge and expensive (over $1 million).  All we came away with were t-shirts.  We finished the day with lunch at Baker's Kitchen with Mary and Scott (Mascot), and David and Shelia (Mary Jo), then, of course, docktails later in the afternoon.

Friday we took a very interesting trolley tour around New Bern.  There are many large, old homes with the wealthy building their homes on the corner lots.  After that, it was another lunch at The Chelsea and then a very successful trip to WalMart.  There were no formal docktails that night, so we had a small group aboard Satisfaction for docktails and then tours of the four boats.  A nice end to the week.

Finally a little blue sky after a windy, rainy night

New Bern is the second oldest city in North Carolina

Our meeting spot for the day

Our conference room 

New Bern is also the birthplace of Pepsi Cola

(in other words, you can't buy a Coke anywhere)

An entire store of Pepsi souvenirs

Looking down one of the main streets

Another main street

Our party area for docktails

Getting ready to tour the Hatteras plant

(no pictures were allowed to be taken inside)

Lunch with David, Jack, me, Mary, Scott and Shelia

Since North Carolina is known for its black bear population, 

there are painted bears all over town - some are standing

Some are on all fours 

(this is the Learning Bear - they all have specific names)

The original governor's house built in 1790

A beautiful Episcopal Church

Our restaurant for Taco Tuesday

One of several old cemeteries in New Bern

Another beautiful old church

This house belonged to the inventor of Pepsi Cola

Docktails with Tom and Brenda (Kissed Some Frogs), Steve (Satisfaction),

Sam and Jerry (Tanuki), Susan (Satisfaction), and Jack

Our last sunset over New Bern

It was like meeting an old friend when I saw this at

WalMart.  This is the farthest north we have been

able to find Blue Bell

The marina is part of a Hilton Hotel

Oct. 18-23, 2017 - South to Oriental, Goose Creek

We left Plymouth around 8:30 Wednesday for a nice, calm ride down the Roanoke River.  When we hit the Albemarle Sound, the wind and waves picked up and we had a chilly, bumpy ride most of the day.  We anchored south of the Alligator River Bridge at Cypress Point.  Thursday the weather was greatly improved.  We left our anchorage around 8:00 and had a nice warm, smooth ride through the Alligator River-Pungo River Canal, which is a pretty narrow but beautiful canal that cuts through North Carolina.  We stopped at the Dowry Creek Marina for fuel (where we had stayed on our way north) and then anchored in a beautiful spot on Pungo Creek.  Wednesday we were in sweats all day; Thursday we were back to shorts.

Friday we left our anchorage around 7:45 and docked at the Whittaker Point Marina around 12:30.  We took advantage of their courtesy car and went into Oriental for lunch at the Toucan Grill.  While eating, Jeff and Izzy (Izzy R) pulled into a slip at the marina.  We had docked behind them in Deltaville in June and passed them going into Dowry Creek the day before.  After lunch we stopped by and talked with them for a while.  Saturday we took the courtesy car into Oriental again.  They were supposed to have a farmer's market, but there wasn't much there so we headed to Food Lion to stock up.  That evening we had our boat neighbors Jessica and Dave (S/V Kianda) over for docktails.  They are Canadians who are taking a year off from work and sailing south to ultimately end up in Cuba (because they are allowed there).  After that, we actually went to dinner by ourselves for a change.

We left Oriental Sunday around 10:30 and dropped the anchor at Goose Creek.  It was a beautiful, calm day on the water and the anchorage was nice and peaceful.  We stayed there Sunday and Monday and got caught up on a lot of projects.

A little frosty when we pulled away from Plymouth

Very calm Roanoke River

Never get tired of beautiful sunsets

The Alligator River-Pungo River Canal

Our anchorage for the night on Pungo River

And another one

We let this 100 ft. boat pass us

Jeff and Izzy, Izzy R

Area where the marina is located

Beautiful houses overlooking the water

Beautiful view of the water from the marina office

Another view

Dave and Jessica

The Silos - our dinner destination

We actually went out to dinner by ourselves

Very quaint décor inside - lots of records and album covers

A look back at the Whittaker Point Marina office as we were leaving

Beautiful, calm day on the Neuse River

And another one

Good night!

One of our projects - making fruit cocktail

Oct. 15-17, 2017 - Albemarle Loop - Plymouth

We left Columbia around 8:30 for a beautiful trip up the Roanoke River to the city docks at Plymouth, the next stop on our Albemarle Loop.  The town docks and the surrounding park were really nice (free power, water and pumpout), but there wasn't a lot to the downtown area.  We walked up and down the streets, but since it was Sunday, most everything was closed.  The weather Monday turned a little chilly and rainy.  Rob and Tricia stopped on their way to their boat in Myrtle Beach to spend the day with us.  We started with lunch, then a trip to the Maritime Museum and Bear-Ology.  North Carolina has the largest black bear population and the museum was quite interesting.  Our contact here in Plymouth was Leslie, who worked at the Maritime Museum, and her mother, Beth, worked at Bear-Ology.  Both museums were very interesting.  By the time we finished, it was raining a little so we headed back to the boat and had a very enjoyable evening.  We hadn't seen them since they left us at Fernandino Beach in April.  After a light breakfast Monday morning, they took off to Myrtle Beach to get their boat ready for their winter travels.  We had a great time with them and we will see them in a few weeks in Myrtle Beach.  The weather Monday was greatly improved - sunny and just a little chilly. After they left, we had lunch at the Garden Spot and then later walked through the Roanoke River Lighthouse and looked at some antique cars that were in Plymouth.

Leaving Columbia town docks

Beautiful Roanoke River

More of the Roanoke River

Sunset over the Roanoke River

Welcome Tricia and Rob!

The first of many back deck gatherings

Exploring the Maritime Museum - this boat carried 4 men from

Plymouth, NC to Miami, FL from July 1-5, 1958

Looking at the old boats and motors

Leslie - our guide through the museum and contact in Plymouth for the docks

Entering the Bear Museum

780 lb. Black Bear - 4th largest in North Carolina

(Our guide through the Bear Museum was Beth, Leslie's mother)

The museum had several rooms of animals
(the owner of the building was quite a hunter)

If you look through the antlers, you will see a circle which is said to be

a direct view to heaven

Another sunset showing the smoke from the paper factory

The Garden Spot - cute little lunch place

A pretty gingerbread house in the town

The Roanoke River Lighthouse established in 1865

View of the boat and the Roanoke River from the top of the lighthouse

A 1931 Model T

An old Studebaker