April 7, 8

Shannon had sent me the picture she took of us the previous day  so I’ve included it here.

In the morning at our Cedar Creek anchorage, a cold front along with rain, thunder and high winds passed through.  We were playing canasta at the time, and didn’t notice at first, but the wind had moved us about 50 feet further into the crab pot field.

We waited until the rain quit, and then slowly pulled up the anchor, so as not to catch on any of the pots that were surrounding us.  We decided it wasn’t safe to be here and since it was clearing we decided to move to a better anchorage closer to New Bern.  We entered the Neuse river at about 11:30, and traveled  north-west for about 2 hours,  the river was choppy due to the wind and shallowness of the river.

  At one point the GPS screen went blank—not sure if it was because of bad reception or jammed, as we saw 3 jets fly by. Once we got into the marked channel we turned east after marker 15 and sounded our way into Goose Creek, around several shoals.  At times we were in 7-8 feet of water, but were protected from the winds and waves.  We proceeded up the creek, past a house and dock to where it turned north and weighed anchor in 9 feet of water.

The GPS showed this as uncharted water.

We hardly moved, unlike the previous night’s anchorage.

In the morning we pulled up the anchor at 9:45, and reversed our route back to the marked channel, reaching it at 10:30.  We continue in a north-west direction to the city of New Bern.  We tied up at the Galley Marina at 11:30.

In the afternoon we ventured downtown.  Andy found a barbershop and made a 3:00 appointment, while we waited we went for ice cream.  Andy  went back for his appointment  and I went walking   farther  down  the street and found this church,

 

with amazing stained glass windows, as well as a  bell choir—took this picture for Susan  S.

I walked back to the barbershop and waited for Andy and talked to a couple of locals. Here’s the barbers- very  professional looking.

We then went over to the drugstore where Pepsi Cola was created, I’ve included the original formulation that was written on the wall.

We checked out some other stores  and saw several bears around town, with different painted costumes- similar to the polar bear exhibit in Winnipeg a few years ago—I’ve included a few…

Even a Pirate Bear standing with Andy.

We walked by the waterfront, where people were catching sea mullet.

At 5:30 we went up to the Galley store for wine and beer tasting.;  There were 5 wines ( 2 whites and 3 reds) and 3 beers as well as snacks that you could  try for $5, but because we were guests at the marina it was free.  We returned to the boat shortly after 7:00 and met Denise and Paul who are from Petoskey MI  loopers on Zephyr.

We saw ducks a few times today, this first  one was near our anchorage this morning and the second one  swam by the boat after we were tied up in New Bern

&  later  we saw this pair  in downtown New Bern disrupting traffic.

We plan to go to the Farmer’s Market in the morning and then borrow the courtesy car to go to pick up some groceries and do laundry.