This evening we went on a short kayaking trip, it was a little choppy to start but by the time we started back it had calmed down somewhat.
We went over to check out the bridge, it's coming along nicely. Heard from Danny Meadows the other night that it is right on schedule, in fact it might be a little ahead of schedule but that being said Danny said it would be finished in November 2009 as promised. We went on to check out SkySail and saw a couple sitting on a balcony, it's good to see people are moving in.
Some of the home ports we saw on the boats included many cities in North Carolina, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Florida, South Carolina, Washington State, Nova Scotia and the furthest away Australia!
When we came to New Bern in 1989 we lived on a boat for 3 years at the BridgePointe Marina. It was fun. We met a lot of interesting people. Some of whom we are still good friends with.
We met a couple from British Columbia that had sailed through the Panama Canal to New Bern, they were here for a couple of years then sailed up to Nova Scotia then back here. Then to Bermuda, the Azores then into the Mediterranean. This was in a 29 foot boat!!! They sailed the canals and rivers of Europe for 4 or 5 years then 3 years ago they had her brought back here on a ship then had it trucked back to British Columbia. What an adventure! I'll have to say I loved Bermuda, and would love to see the Azores, and of course would love to sail around Europe but I would have said I'll meet you there.
Another couple sailed in to see his doctor. It seems that they had been working in England and decided to retire. They bought a boat and sailed it to Bermuda and then to the US with their kids. Every year they would travel from their home in NY to Florida and then to the Carribbean and stop here on the way. They've been to South America and all the Islands between here and there. One favorite story of mine from them was when they were in the San Blas Islands. They got stuck on a sand bar as they were getting ready to leave. All these natives (Kuna Indians) came out in their canoes and climbed on the boat. Of course our friends couldn't speak the language so they just stood back and watched. The Indians rocked the boat until it finally came off the sandbar and started sailing away. But the Indians weren't getting off. My friend ran down below and came back with cookies for all. They still didn't get off. Finally after quite a ways they started jumping off one by one and swimming back to their canoes.
The last story I'll tell is another couple we met on Cinco De Mayo, 2000, we were standing on the Trent River Bridge watching boats race through the Bridge. They had been living on their boat for 6 or 7 years at that time. He worked for a large construction company and lived on their boat. They'd sail it as close to the job as possible and live on it. Or they would leave the boat here and go off to a job a year or two at a time. One time they did a circumnavigation of the Eastern US. They went up the Hudson, through the Erie Canal, Great Lakes, Down the Chicago River, down the Mississippi, then the TennTom (Tennessee River - Tom Bigbee Canal) to Mobile, around Florida, through the Ockachobie up the Intra Coastal and back to New Bern, I think they took 2 years to do that. Their newest adventure which they are on right now is up the Hudson to Lake Ontario, they are currently going up the Trent Severn Canal in Ontario, there are 44 locks on this canal. Their kids are in Chicago and they plan to spent next winter there with them. Don't know what their plans are after that.
Makes our story sound pretty boring.
I took the photo out my front window this morning. Pretty awesome.
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