April 20: to Belhaven, NC

April 20:

To Belhaven:

The adventure has begun. After worshiping at Trinity, we had a wonderful lunch with our family, Laurie and Brian having driven up from Atlanta to send us off. My fortune cookie at PeiWei said “Success is a journey, not a destination” – how appropriate. With the car well loaded, Julie Anna and Ben drove us to New Bern for the beginning of our “journey”.

As we shoved off from our home marina of the Bridge Pointe in New Bern, I noticed that there was more wave action than ever on the inside of the Trent River Bridge. We passed between the huge cranes constructing the bridge and headed into the wind. The ospreys have a new nest in the red channel marker just off Union Point. We came close by and saw the nest and the large brown and white bird with hooked beak and shiny eyes guarding the nest.

Getting diesel fuel at the new marina on Front Street turned out to be a very damp experience for Tom. With TNTY tied up to the floating dock, the stern faced into the rolling whitecaps. The waves breaking over the swim platform got Tom soaked filling the tanks. We took on 220 gallons and waved good-bye to Julie Anna and Ben and headed up the Neuse River. Notice that they are standing in the only dry spot on the dock while we filled up! More excitement - About 20 minutes beyond the New Bern bridge, we heard the tornado watch for Beaufort County on the coast guard radio. We checked into the radar on the NOAA website, and it looked like we had a safe path for navigation through to Belhaven and decided to go for it. We passed through both the Pamlico Sound and the mouth of the Pamlico River – both swelling like the ocean with the waves breaking over the windshield. Tom and I were both a little green as we pulled into the Belhaven Waterway Marina to tie up for the night.