Friday 4/27/2018
No Boat Travel.
I had a
to-do list for today with grocery shopping at the top of the list. None of my
planned activities happened. We called our friends we met them while doing the
Loop that live here in New Bern. Pat from Dream
Catcher offered me a ride to the grocery store as nothing in New Bern is
within walking distance of the marina. We planned our trip for tomorrow morning,
so I put that one on hold. The next item on my to-do list involved cleaning the
stainless rails on the boat. Given that I was in the middle of yet another
murder mystery, I just could not muster up any interest in cleaning the boat.
Clark had
several tasks that kept him on the computer and occupied for the bulk of the
day. Part of his work involved research into determining how to fix the tilt
mechanism on our outboard. After he finally completed his computer work, he
went out to work on the boat. I just dealt with my guilt and kept reading my
novel.
During the wee
hours of the morning, I heard a train. One went by this afternoon, so I understood
fully why I had heard the train. The tracks run very close to the marina, and
we are docked at the end of the marina near the railroad bridge. As the train
passed by, I could see the train by looking between the boats in their
slips. It almost looked like the train
was coming in to dock in one of the slips.
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| Train crossing railroad bridge close to the marina |
Clark worked
on the boat until late. Shortly after he stopped, he took the sunset picture of
the day.
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| Cloudy sunset in New Bern |
Saturday 4/28/2018
No Boat Travel.
As promised,
Pat came and picked us up for a trip to Publix to stock up. Just to be sure we
did not miss out on any local specialties, we walked over to the farmers market
to check it out. Pat had warned me that the market is more like a craft fair.
Given the lack of vegetable booths I would agree except it reminded me of a bake
sale. Many booths sold home-baked goods. Sadly, I could not resist the
temptation and brought home a scone and some cookies.
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| Farmers Market |
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| Booths inside (as well as out) |
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| Carved Bears at New Bern Market |
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| Hand-Carved Bear |
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| Driftwood Art |
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| New Bern Bear |
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| Complete with Deed in Pocket and Home Inspection Checklist |
We spent the
remainder of the day on the boat doing chores. Clark changed the oil filters on
the port engine that had the seal work done in Beaufort.
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| Sunset Picture of the Day |
Sunday 4/29/2018
No Boat Travel.
Quite by
accident, we planned our visit to New Bern well. Pat and Dick held a “Quiche
and Croquet” party at their home this morning, and being here in town, we got
to attend. Pat asked her friend, Barb, that lives aboard a boat here at the New
Bern Grand Marina to give us a ride to the party. Almost as soon as we got there, Pat had seven
of us out back at the croquet course.
The course
had a lot of unusual obstacles to overcome. Aiming straight at a wicket, I
could end up way off as the ball jumped over roots, got blocked by pine cones,
or followed the slope of the land to end up well off from the planned target. I
had a slow start to the game and, at the half-way point, found myself in
position 6 of 7. One person, Barb, had zoomed ahead of everyone else and looked
like she would finish before the majority of us even hit the halfway point. She
stalled out, and I gained speed. To everyone’s surprise, I won the game as the
first person to complete all the wickets. Everyone wanted to know, “How did
that happen!?”
After our round
of croquet, we went indoors for the quiche portion of the party. Pat had made
three varieties – Bacon/Mushroom, Vegetarian, and Crab/Avocado. Some folks brought snacks and desserts, so we
had a lovely luncheon.
We got back
to the boat around 2:00 with plenty of time to do boat chores for the rest of
the day. Clark got busy on varnish-prep work on the boat’s outdoor trim. Given
the cold weather, I decided that there was no time like the present to do that stainless-railing
polishing that I put off on Friday. I figured that cleaning the boat with a
chill in the air is far superior to cleaning the boat when it is hot and humid.
It took four hours of scrubbing, but when I was done, the stainless sparkled.
Having eaten
a larger than usual lunch, we had a simple meal on board and relaxed after
dinner. I had no energy left to do more than lounge around watching television
for the rest of the day.
Clark snuck
out and took a few pictures.
The sea gulls here are a randy and noisy bunch. It must be mating season on the docks. It is downright embarrassing to see the sea gulls in action.
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| Sea Gulls Sizing Each Other Up |
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| Unusual Sunset |
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| Walking our very long dock at night |
Monday 4/30/2018
No Boat Travel.
Hoping that
I would find the laundry room available, I dragged my two loads the length of
the marina to the laundry room. I brought my Kindle with me to read while I
waited for the washer and dryer to “do their thing”. The marina has a Captain’s
Lounge. I had trouble finding it. I thought I knew where it was located, but
the door to the room I tried was locked, and I could not get in. I found a boater
who told me the room I picked was right, but the combination I used was incorrect.
With his help, I got in and got comfortable with my book. With me off the boat,
Clark added a coat of varnish to the prepped boat trim.
When I got
back to the boat almost two hours later, I found Clark loaning out our kayaks. The
man and his wife on the boat next to ours wanted to go for a kayak ride with their
daughter, so Clark accommodated them by letting them use ours.
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| Loaned Kayaks |
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| Sunset Picture of the Day |
Tuesday 5/1/2018
No Boat Travel.
With the
batteries we came to New Bern to collect scheduled to arrive today, Clark
stayed close to the boat awaiting the phone call to tell us they had arrived. I
decided to go to the “Tuesday-version” Farmers Market in town.
Primarily, I
wanted to buy more lettuce for salads. The farmers market was only one-third
the size of Saturday’s and had only one booth selling vegetables. Although they
had kale and cabbage, they had no lettuce. I left disappointed.
I found a
market via Google Maps called “Family Market” and decided to walk there. I had
a nice walk through town seeing many historical houses.
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| Attmore – Oliver House c. 1790 Historical House in New Bern |
When I
reached the Family Market, I discovered a liquor store – not a food store. No
lettuce! I left disappointed once more and decided to head back to the boat.
Shortly
after I got back, Clark got the word that the batteries had arrived. He raced
up to the marina office to collect them. He had to bring them to the boat one
battery at a time due to each one weighing 160 pounds. The cart could not handle
the weight of more than one.
When he got
all three on board, he recruited the man from the boat next door, Chris, to
help remove the old batteries and insert the new ones in the hold under our
salon. Unfortunately, after helping remove two of the three, Chris complained
that lifting the weight aggravated an injury to his arm and had to stop.
That left me
as the stand in. I put on my work gloves, rolled up my sleeves, and prepared to
lift my half of these 160-pound batteries. As Clark pointed out, we had gravity
on our side as we lowered the two new batteries into the hold. We used a rope
attached to each end of the battery to do the job. I got a nice long rest while
Clark wired in these two.
Then we had
the hard part – pulling the third battery out of the hold and lowering the new
replacement into its place. The whole procedure went surprisingly well. Clark
said he was amazed that the two of us could do the replacement. He said, “I
guess you’ve got some muscles!”
When we had
the transfer of old-for-new batteries completed, Clark called our friends, Pat
and Dick, who came and picked up Clark and the batteries for a ride to recycle
to dispose of them. Yay! I hope we do not have to repeat this process any time
soon. I am so tired of batteries!
By the time
we finished the “fun with batteries”, it was time for Taco Tuesday at the Prohibition
restaurant. We decided to walk up there to socialize. As we started our trek to
the restaurant, Clark got a call from our other local friends who invited us to
join them for dinner at Morgan’s Tavern & Grill. Given that
we did not eat tacos at Taco Tuesday. We held off on food until we changed
venues.
We walked
back to the boat just as the sun was setting.
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| Sunset at New Bern Grand Marina |
When we
reached our boat, we found the woman from the neighboring boat with her oil
paints out on the dock.
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| Oil Painting at Twilight |
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