Goodbye New Bern Hello Retirement

The day has finally arrived and we are leaving New Bern, NC for our big adventure.  New Bern is a great town and we became very enamored with her.  There is so much history with New Bern being the colonial capitol of North Carolina and having the first governor’s mansion to being the birthplace of Pepsi.  There is also a wonderful fireman’s museum with Fred the fire horse.  There are tons of small shops and many excellent restaurants in downtown.  For us it is a bit like a small Charleston.  I am sure we will be back to visit again but it is time to explore more destinations.

Our first stop is Ocracoke, NC.  We left New Bern on Sun. Oct. 15^th at dawn and pulled into Ocracoke around 2:30PM.  The cruise was wonderful with the sound as smooth as it could be.  You don’t often get days like that to cross the Pamlico Sound.  We are on the park service docks for two weeks.  The weather initially on Sunday and the beginning of Monday was beautiful, but a front came in Monday night and it rained sideways and blew like stink.  That did not bother us as we were nice and dry and toasty having heavy hors d’oeuvres on Southern Style’s fly bridge with our good friends from Sequel, Dave and Paula.

 
Weather should improve over next 24-48 hours and then the exploring really begins.

Cedar Island and Swan Quarter ferries crossing the sound.

View from our Flybridge at the National Park Service Docks

Ferry coming into the docks next to us.

I also wanted everyone following the blog to meet Pengi the pirate penguin (see picture below).  Pengi had an unfortunate accident and lost an eye but he will be our boat mascot and will be helping us to explore during our adventures.  Keep an "eye" out  for him.  - Gail