Wednesday October 30: Time to Leave

The sunset tonight is again wondrous - what a truly gorgeous day it was. Perfect for the night before we are finally leaving New Bern for the travels south, eventually to the Florida Keys. Rental car is turned in, boat is ready to leave tomorrow morning. Nice day.

But backtracking a bit: last Friday truly was the blitzkrieg of packing! It went well with the number of boxes in the box room rapidly depleted by all of the packing action. This room (when we started packing) was literally piled with boxes! Wendy and Matt have been through this enough times that they are well versed on getting enough packing materials to make the process easier. Good job to the box collectors!

I tackled the spare bedroom (with lots of pictures and other similar things that needed special packing attention) while Wendy took on the kitchen.

Steve spent his time in the box room itself packing and also took down Fozzie's fence.

Matt in the meantime spent his last day at work getting the last of the reports written up that needed to be completed before he left. All was finished by 6 pm!

Saturday was declared a play day so the driving range was in the plan as well as another infamous "9 holes" of golf :-)

Plus a bonus trip to Dick's Sporting Goods for their end of the season sale on dri-fit golf shirts. Matt and Steve both scored big time!

Sunday: another work day for Matt and Wendy - Steve and I joined only for an hour or so. Then it was time for a boat ride up the Neuse River. The evening was nice and it was very good for us to have a chance to run Yesterday's Dream before our anticipated departure later in the week. Watched part of the Browns game - not terrible but still no winning. Very sad :-(  We arrived back at the dock just before the dark - a great cruise, sunset and dinner (thanks, Steve!!) - what more could we ask for?

Monday we were up with the sun to head over for the last minute packing - movers were coming the next day.

Steve managed to make good use of Fozzie's old steps to cut the last of the wood he needed to fix the aft hatch.

In the meantime, Matt packed up all three cars with fragile items. And of course his paddleboard on the roof rack of his car.

Next stop: Camp Lejeune!! I missed the main sign but did get at least something .....

Matt and Wendy's new place isn't as big (3 bedrooms, 2 bath rather than 5 bedrooms, 3 baths) but it's very nice and is next door to a friend of Matt's so that's nice.

Their furniture will fit nicely and they still have a fireplace - good thing we packed up the firewood!

We weren't there on moving day but reports are it went well.

Our friends from East 55th St, Joe and Joy on High Spirits, were back to the area to pick up their car and spent Tuesday night with us - it was great to see them again! Euchre ended up tied: 2 games for the men and 2 games for the women.

The boat is cleaned up and we are actually ready to move on. Leave time tomorrow is 9 am with a long first day of 8 hours to Morehead City - an hour drive by car from here in New Bern :-)

Meanwhile, we've been picking up last minute stuff that has been deemed "necessary" - like the 10 flashlights for $10! How can you go wrong and for a 36' boat, there is never a flashlight right there when you need it. No more ....





Report of Rebecca's bedroom drapes: she hung them the same day received. The length was great! Nice job all around by all concerned parties :-)

Tomorrow: the first REAL travel day for us on Yesterday's Dream since May. Looking forward to it for sure.

Thursday October 24: The Battle Lines are Drawn!

So we've been fighting the ants ever since we moved back to the boat. Seems they liked the digs when we were at Wayfarer's Cove for 4 months.

I get that - we liked it there too but enough is enough. These are very small ants and are more annoying than anything but they need to move on or die.

Three different types of traps for many different type of ants. The green tape is upside down to keep them confined within a smaller area (probably they are nesting in the lower regions of the boat somewhere.

If this doesn't work - we pull out all of the stops and just ant bomb the boat for 24 hours. They have had enough of a warning!!

Meanwhile I'm making new hatch covers that will be truly waterproof. One thing you learn quickly on a boat is that leaks - of any kind - are just no fun. The sunbrella canvas is replaced with white marine vinyl. The picture is a bit fuzzy but you get the idea.

Snaps to be added ???

Steve and Matt have been getting some golf in during the nice afternoons. They actually play 18 holes (maybe even 27) in a nine hole round. You know, if the first ball you hit isn't what you wanted, just hit another or another ..... Nice that there is no one in front of you :-)

Steve actually made the put on the left and Matt came THIS CLOSE to a hole in one!!!! In all the years that Mom played golf, that is one thing she never achieved: a hole in hole. Nice job, Matt!!

You might have noticed the true Brown's fan in him :-) If not, check out the shirt!

The windlass work continues.  Now it's time to install the bow rollers. One on each side of the new anchor platform.

Next was to join the new 20 foot length of chain to the already being used 15 foot length of chain. This gives us the minimum suggested requirement of 1 foot of chain for each foot of boat length.


Basically a chain connecting link (made of 2 halves) was pounded together.

Ended up working GREAT - the windlass project at long last is FINISHED. It's amazing how much time has been spent on completing one project that seems like it should have taken - maybe a few hours.

It's fun to just look at it!!

The anchor on the left is a CQR and the one on the right is a Bruce. Different anchors for different bottoms. Both easily deployable - which was the goal of having both on the anchor platform. Good job Steve!

Tomorrow is the blitzkrieg of packing at Matt and Wendy's! Much has already been done by Matt (Wendy is still trying to finish up some of her work) but tomorrow - it's an all out attack on closets, cupboards and everything in between :-)

How long can this take, right?

Monday October 21: Check and Check ... Done

Since he is on leave, Matt and Wendy took us up on our offer to watch Fozzie over the weekend if they wanted to get out of town for a while.

Didn't stop us from continuing to make progress on our projects though! Nice being able to work at their house :-)

The bow cover for the trawler turned out really well so we can now be away from the boat and still leave the front hatch open and the fan running.

Moving air through the boat is a good thing - especially when it's humid.

So that project went so well, it seemed like I should just keep going and get the cover for Guppy made. I had started it on Thursday after the change of command so finishing it up Saturday was pretty easy.

Steve does the hammering to cut the holes for the grommets - thank you very much! No question I would have pounded my fingers trying to do that!



Next on the list of things to finish was Becky's drapes for her bedroom. She already had the rod up and now just needed the drapes.

The drapes were finished except for the hem. Time to hang them up and measure - hoping I had the correct measurements written down! A broomstick in the garage was the ticket. Steve used the level to ensure they would hang correctly. Let's hope they look as good in Becky's bedroom as they did hanging in the garage!


Done and done :-) Now I need to get them in the mail .......


The move day is now officially scheduled for the 29th of October so Steve got a jump on the packing.

He started in the garage on the shelves in the closet and then moved on to empty the bookcase.

He figures every little bit helps, right?







Meanwhile back at the boat, the sunsets continue to amaze ...

Friday October 18: A Bit of Work - Lots of Fun - Change of Command

Again another week has passed. Again where did it go? There was definitely progress made on the work list including making the replacement front cover for Yesterday's Dream.

The old one (made of a sport nylon) was in shreds due to the sun but it lasted 2 years so that was ok. Steve scrubbed the dinghy cover (we deflated the dinghy and stored it in the cover over the summer) so it could be put away nice and clean.

He also spent time cleaning up Matt and Wendy's tools which haven't seen much use since they have been living on base and essentially are just renters. Something broken? Call maintenance!! Gotta love that .....

Fozzie even helped with the last of the front shade cover - sadly he is limited by his lack of opposable thumbs but since he's so cute, we let him help anyway :-)

And then the fun began! Rebecca arrived on Friday morning after catching a red-eye from LA. A walking tour of downtown and then lunch at MJ's on the main drag of town.


New Bern is actually a neat town. It was established in 1710 as a Swiss immigrant settlement.

For some interesting history of New Bern, click here.


We spent Sunday afternoon on the boat watching a disappointing Browns game as we lost to Detroit. But the season is young, right? And we are ever hopeful :-)

 Yesterday (Thursday) was the Change of Command ceremony for Matt as he completed his first command position and will be moving to Camp LeJeune later this week for his new position.

There were lots of kudo's from his superior officers - it seems he did a WONDERFUL job in this command position (over 650 marines were in his care). Way to go Matt and Wendy!!

Linda (Matt's mom) made the trip from Cleveland to join in the celebration.

So there will be lots of packing stuff up to prepare for the move - it will go a lot faster with four so we're in for the long run. Can't wait to see our temporary digs at Camp Lejeune :-)

For more detail in pictures of the past week, check out the latest addition of pictures in Picasweb by clicking here.

Wednesday October 9: New Anchor Platform

The number one project is to put a new anchor platform on the front of the boat. This was a job we'd started before leaving for Canada and it was definitely now time to finish it.

The old teak board (with many holes from various windlasses) was removed along with the anchor roller.

The teak will be replaced with white oak - a bit longer and 12" wide instead of 7" wide. This will allow us to carry a second anchor in a more easily deployable position (as opposed to it being stored in the aft under deck storage area).

The challenge of course is to make sure everything is lined up, straight and the holes all in the right places!

We very strictly adhere to the rule (set up by Matt, the safety guy) of "no cutting after 5 pm". Too easy to make errors.

And of course we always measure twice and cut once ... except of course when we forget to do that :-)










The marina here at New Bern is very nice and is only about 20 minutes or so away from Matt and Wendy's home on base. So we keep stuff both place. Makes it easy then to stay either on the boat or at their place depending on what's going on.

Because it has rained the last two days, Steve moved the anchor platform to their garage. All holes are now drilled and the wood has one coat of cetol.

Meanwhile, I've been sewing drapes for Becky's bedroom. Didn't have time and no sewing machine in LA so it has worked out well being able to use Wendy's machine.

The sunsets are still quite nice (well, they were before the rains and winds started a couple of days ago) and we usually have a pretty good view from the flybridge!


Matt and Wendy both spend the days working - Matt at his office on base and Wendy in her office at home. Steve and I spend the time working on projects or running around the area for supplies.

Saturday is usually a 'play day' and Sunday is usually again a work day so it's easy to get projects done around this place - lots of work going on around us!

I did manage to sell an excess anchor on Ebay - now if I could just get the guy to pay me! He has until tomorrow and then I'll file a protest with Ebay. That usually works pretty quickly so we'll see if that happens.

Steve helped greatly by packing the anchor up in a self-made box. Nice that the anchor comes apart.

Tomorrow it's back to Matt and Wendy's for some more sewing. The material I ordered to use to make a new front rain cover for both this boat and Guppy came in today so hopefully I'll be able to get at least the one for this boat done.

This weekend - starting Friday noon? Becky is making quick trip east to spend a few days! Sounds like a party to me :-)

Friday October 4: New Bern, NC: It's a Boat, After all ....

Where does the time go? We left Wayfarer's Cove this past Monday morning having finally spent the night before on the boat instead of Matt and Wendy's place. We were fortunate enough to be able to have Joe and Joy from High Spirits join us for the evening (they had just returned to their boat after spending the summer in New Hampshire).

No sooner had we traveled the 300 yards to the entrance out of the marina and the engine died. Dead. No restart. Floating around with thankfully a mud bottom and little wind.

No problem. We know what to do. Diesel engines are amazing simple. Either it has fuel or not. If not, it has air in the system and we need to bleed the system (which we have not had to do for 5 years!).

Not sure why or how the air got into the system but we go to work. Steve entertains himself by taking pictures of the cool jellyfish while we wait for the guys from the marina to come and tow us back to a dock.

Safely secured, we spent the next couple of hours bleeding the fuel system and sitting at the dock running the engine to gain some confidence before heading off for the 2 1/2 hour trip up the Neuse River to New Bern - our home for the next month.

What have we been doing the last week and a half? Darned if I know. Seems like there was always work on the boat trying to get it ready to go back in the water or work at Matt and Wendy's to the same end.

Or spending time on the internet ordering things. It's so nice to have a place to send things that we have put off ordering for the boat - or things that we are just now finding out that we need to complete projects here on the boat.

And one thing always leads to another. Steve was just looking for one thing - next you know he's waist deep under the walkaround deck cleaning out everything and wanting to make a speadsheet to inventory what all is under there.

Meanwhile I continued to work away scanning papers for record keeping. Nice to have a very small scanner to help cut back on record keeping.

And of course there is always crazy dog Fozzie who decided to take a stroll out of the house Friday night ON OUR WATCH. Couldn't find him - spent 2 hours Friday night and more hours Saturday searching the neighborhood for him (remember: he's 13, deaf and doesn't see so well). It was awful. My hair is now really turning gray at a speed the kids never made it do. Must be because I was younger then. Anyway, he was saved by another dog who found him Saturday afternoon. I don't need this kind of stress in my life: he now has a gps collar and if he pulls this again, he's mine :-)

In the meantime, we've replace the front cabin TV when ours died (apparently it didn't like being idle for so long) and have just about finished hauling our stuff from Matt and Wendy's to the boat. They are so patient and accepting of providing a closet for us to store stuff :-)


The beautiful sunsets continue to come - weather is wonderful - I don't know what else we could ask for.

We'll be here until after Matt's change of command on Oct 17th and then we'll help them pack and move to Camp Lejeune (his next assignment) as best we can. I think packing is more my speed than the actual moving. Then we'll be heading south.

In the meantime, I did celebrate yet another birthday - amazing how quickly they come around these days. One fun thing about being at Matt and Wendy's around my birthday is I get a real card and brownies!!

Matt and Wendy found a GREAT card this year that I just have to share as I've had so much fun with it. Enjoy :-)

In fact, we liked it so well, that we recycled it to Steve's sister Terri who's birthday was just a few days ago!

Blogging will be irregular as we spend the next 3 weeks here - I will update if there is something the least bit 'fun' going on!