Wednesday, June 22 - Yes, we are still in New Bern, North Carolina. Initially, our cruising plan called for a short stay in New Bern before heading north. But, as we have said many times, plans change.
On June 4, we received news that Carey's father, Jack, passed away suddenly. Jack lived with Carey's sister in Atlanta, Georgia. Jack was 84 years old and lived a full life. We draw comfort in the knowledge that when Jack passed away, he was doing what he loved - sitting in the sun at Stacy's (Carey's sister) tennis match and chatting with her friends. The friends walked away and just that fast Jack was gone. We made a trip to Atlanta for Jack's funeral which took place on June 11. As always, funerals are a sad time, but we were fortunate to see our son and daughter-in-law, Paul and Kristina, and their kids for a few days. And our younger son, Brian, flew in from Las Vegas. We also saw 3 of Carey's cousins that we had not seen for years. Since we retired and have been on the Loop, we were able to visit Jack often, including a two week visit last January - something that we were unable to do while we were working.
After we returned to Tug LeeLoo, we decided to spend more time in New Bern. As we have mentioned previously, New Bern is a lovely town. Our plan was originally to spend time around Washington, DC, but we have been delayed and that would put us there around the 4th of July holiday. Knowing that there would be no way to get a reservation at a marina close to Washington on the 4th, we decided to say in New Bern and spend the holiday here. The life of a Looper - plans change constantly! And, yes, the captain is ok with that!
Tug LeeLoo Docked in New Bern Grand Marina.
Notice the cockpit sun shade, a nice feature to have in the south.
Since we will be in New Bern until after the 4th of July, we are working on Tug LeeLoo. The new batteries were installed and the zincs in the engine and the generator have been replaced. Captain Carey has been working diligently to learn and understand all the systems on Tug LeeLoo. We have also spent some time on LeeLoo (who is still looking for a new owner). Earlier this week, we took LeeLoo out on the Neuse River and it felt great to be back cruising on LeeLoo, even if only for a little while! LeeLoo is for sale, but she will ALWAYS hold a special place in our hearts.
LeeLoo Docked at New Bern Grand Marina
Next week we are renting a car and plan to drive to the outer banks of North Carolina to explore. This will involve taking a car ferry which should be fun. We will stay overnight in Nags Head and enjoy being tourists. A little vacation for us! Yes, we are retired and every day is like a vacation, but this will be something special and fun!
Below are various pictures taken in New Bern. If you are ever looking for a vacation spot, this is a lovely place to visit! New Bern residents are very welcoming.
Friday, June 3 - Tug LeeLoo and crew are now in New Bern, North Carolina! It was an interesting 19 days to cruise from Ft. Pierce, Florida to New Bern. Seventeen of the 19 days were travel days. We did layover an extra day in Beaufort and Charleston, South Carolina. Two really cool places to visit.
There was always the threat of Tropical Storm Bonnie on the horizon so we kept going north to stay ahead of the bad weather. Our timing was perfect because we didn't have any major rain until we were docked safely at the New Bern Grand Marina on Memorial Day. Then the sky opened up and it poured!
Relaxed and Happy!
We were fortunate to be traveling for the last 19 days with our friends Vicki and Tom on Grand Baron. It is so much fun to cruise with another Looper boat. Vicki and Tom are Gold Loopers (they have already finished the Loop once) and are a wealth of knowledge for us. There is so much to learn with tides, currents, skinny water, great anchorages, hooking on a mooring ball, etc. The list goes on and on. Sadly, we will be separating from Vicki and Tom as they continue north to Norfolk, Virginia. We will stay in New Bern for a couple of weeks as we have some work done on Tug LeeLoo. We are also meeting with friends John and Linda Opfer for a couple of days. It feels good to stay in one spot for a while!
Here are some highlights of our trip north to New Bern on Tug LeeLoo:
Cumberland Island National Seashore in Georgia - Awesome is the only way to describe this beautiful island. It is known for the wild horses that inhabit the island and, yes, we saw a lot of them! We anchored for the night just off the island and went ashore by dinghy. We hiked through an amazing maritime forest with Live Oaks and Spanish Moss. There is also ruins of Dungeness Mansion, an estate that was built in the late 1800's by Thomas and Lucy Carnegie. A short hike across the island also brings you to a beach on the Atlantic Ocean.
Anchoring - We anchored for 9 nights on Tug LeeLoo as we traveled north. The anchor is much bigger (bigger boat) and while anchoring is pretty much the same as on LeeLoo, there are some differences. For one thing, we now have foot pedals by the anchor windless on the bow of the boat so we can drop the anchor from inside the boat or on the bow. The first time we put out the anchor, we realized the anchor was all tangled up in the anchor locker so Carey had to access the locker (through our master stateroom and pull the very dirty chain onto our bed. Nancy hurried and found an old blanket to put under the chain. Once the tangles were sorted out, we continued putting the anchor down. Another change in anchoring is we now have a washdown hose on the bow so it is much easier to wash the chain and anchor as it comes out of the water. Often, the anchor is full of mud. When we pull up the anchor in the morning, Nancy now stands at the helm station while Carey stands on the bow giving hand signals to Nancy to go forward, backward or whatever it takes to pull up the anchor.
Mooring Ball - We tied up to a mooring ball for the first time in Beaufort, South Carolina. It was a first for us and another skill to add to our list! The mooring field was pretty full and every time we positioned ourselves to catch a mooring ball, someone in a neighboring boat came out and "yelled" at us that we couldn't be there. We finally radioed the marina only to find out that when the mooring field was designed, it was not done correctly and about 1/2 of the mooring balls could not be used. The dockmaster directed us to the last mooring ball available. Our friends on Grand Baron came over by dinghy and supervised our successful capturing of the mooring ball. While being tied to a mooring ball is secure, anchoring is much easier! You pay to be on a mooring ball, so you have access to all of the marina's facilities.
We were sitting at an outside restaurant when a man with a macaw on his shoulder seated himself at a nearby table. The macaw was very tame - not something you see every day! Most people come in with their dogs!
Beautiful Sunset in Beaufort, South Carolina
Charleston - This beautiful city continues to be a favorite of ours. We spent 2 nights at the Maritime Center Marina and spent our time walking the city, going for a carriage ride, and re-provisioning our supplies. Having a grocery store within walking distance to the marina is a real plus. Nancy wanted to spend one more night, but with the threats of bad weather, we decided to move on.
Carriage Ride in Charleston
Captain Carey Working on Tug LeeLoo
Going Aground - Ok, so now we have gone aground on both LeeLoo and Tug LeeLoo. We were anchored in Swansboro and, when we set the anchor, we were only in 8 ft. of water. As we deployed more chain we drifted back to about 6 ft. of water (we didn't realize how shallow it was at the time), There was also a very strong current. Little did we know that by morning we would be hard aground as the current and wind took us into very shallow water; and then the tide went out. Tom, our Looper friend on Grand Baron, brought his dinghy over to push the bow while Carey stood at the wheel and used what little bow thruster we had. It turned out the bow thruster was working better than we thought because after about hour or so we were finally floating again! Whew!
Turtle Sunning Himself in Swansboro
Southport Marina - This continues to be one of our favorite stops. The marina, which is along the ICW, is very nice and it relatively easy to get in and out. We had scheduled to have Tug LeeLoo pulled out there so that her bow thruster could be inspected and zincs replaced. We also had a bottom wash so we could really get a good look at her. It turned out that the bow thruster was fine mechanically so that was a relief. Tug LeeLoo has such a deep hull compared to LeeLoo that the bow thruster responds differently than what we were used to.
Wrightsville Beach - A gem of a town that we passed up our first time around. This time we anchored with Grand Baron and they took us to shore in their dighy. There was a great beach along the Atlantic Ocean that was very crowded with tourists. We walked on the beach for a long time and really enjoyed being tourists! The anchorage was a good one, although there were a lot of boats going by so Tug LeeLoo was constantly in motion. When we got up the next morning, Tug LeeLoo was surrounded by paddle boarders - it was a sight to see!
Paddle Boarders Surrounding Tug LeeLoo Early in the Morning!
Free Town Dock in Oriental, North Carolina - We were going to anchor in Oriental, but the anchorage was very shallow and we didn't want to take a chance at going aground again. Instead, we went to a free town dock which was great - except there was no electricity so we couldn't plug into shore power. And, running of generators was not allowed. So, we sweated all night - and it was HOT and HUMID! Since we've been traveling on Tug LeeLoo, we have gotten used to running our generator at night when we anchor or do not have shore power. We were running everything off our batteries instead and that is when we realized that our batteries were not holding a charge. We literally turned everything off except for the refrigerator. We transferred our frozen food to Grand Baron's freezer and turned our freezer off. And sweated through the night - no air conditioning.
Tug LeeLoo (left) and Grand Baron (right) Docked at Oriental's Free Town Dock
Foliage - There were flowers everywhere we went! With the warm, humid air of the south, the flowers are gorgeous!
New Bern - We are now in New Bern Grand Marina and have been working on Tug LeeLoo. We had her batteries all checked and we indeed do need new house batteries. It is a shame because we put all new batteries in LeeLoo before we started on the Loop! The
new batteries have been purchased and will be installed on Monday.
Since we are hooked up to shore power, everything is running on the
boat. We plan to stay at least another week before we move north. This time we will be traveling by ourselves.
In the meantime, we are enjoying being in New Bern. The historic homes here date back to the 1800's and there are a lot of them. It is a delightful place to meander about and look at the old homes and the beautiful flowers. The town, complete with restaurants and small tourist shops, is a block away from the marina. We will rent a car next week and explore more of North Carolina.
One of the Historic Homes in New Bern Built in the Late 1800's
