Day 5: 10/15/07 Oriental – New Bern (28 miles)

We had originally planned to head directly to Beaufort form Oriental, but we decided to take a detour up the Neuse River to New Bern, since neither of us had ever approached it from the water. After breaking our fast with cereal and bananas (and a cinnamon bear-claw pastry for me), we backed out of our slip in a much more professional way than the last time we were here (of course I didn’t have a 20 knot onshore wind this time…but who’s counting anyway).

A pod of dolphins cavorted about 20 feet off the port side of the boat as we cleared the harbor.

We had a 5-7 knot wind from the east, so we hoisted sail as soon as we cleared the harbor and, since we were heading generally west/northwest, had a great sail with the winds behind us although they weren’t nearly as strong as those we had on the way to Manteo. The winds were enough to push us at 4+ knots all the way up the river.

Part of the way we were able to sail “wing-on-wing.” For you land-lubbers in the reading audience, that’s when the main sail is on one side of the boat and the jib is on the other side, giving the appearance that the boat has “wings.” I jury rigged my boathook to act as a whisker pole to hold out the jib. I also rigged a “preventer” on the boom to prevent accidental jibes.

When the channel narrowed before New Bern, we dropped our sails and motored under the highway bridges (65 ft clearance) and through the bascule bridge (draw-bridge) which is locked open and appears to be in the process of being demolished or redone.

Buck and I watched a huge crane pulling 50 ft pilings up like soda straws then stacking them on a barge like cord-wood.

Buck had called ahead to the Sheraton Hotel and Marina to book us a slip. This facility has now changed its name to the Skysail Marina, although they will still answer radio call for Sheraton Marina. This is a large marina with beautiful floating docks, although Buck and I were very surprised by the bathrooms. They have over 200 slips, but only one men’s toilet and no urinal.

Be advised that of 1 Dec 07, this marina is more than doubling its transient rates from $1.25 to $2.50 at foot with a 40 foot minimum. This means that my slip fee would go from $40. to $100 per night; I don’t think so! They are going to lose a lot of business.

The marina is very centrally located in downtown New Bern, and Buck and I spent a couple of hours meandering around downtown. They have really done a lot to spruce up the town since I was last here in 1997. It has a lot of nice shops and restaurants and a lot of condos are being built.

Given that we had eaten so heavily the night before, I decided to fix a light meal onboard tonight. We had a mixed grill of lamb chops and filet mignon with a cabernet pan sauce, garlic mashed potatoes and a tossed salad….cholesterol heaven….Amazingly enough we both slept like logs... after licking our plates.