River Miscellany

On our drive to New Bern Thursday evening, the sky was a wonder.

For those who appreciate my fondness for fun boat names:

And one more:

Adam has been hard at work on the Nocturne. Hot coffee keeps him going.

Here's a spot on the boat called the mast tabernacle, where you 'step' the mast, or put it in and erect it. Adam found plenty of wet core here that needed replacing. He began to cut it out.

But he found deeper trouble -- a 2x4 beam beneath the fiberglass/core sandwich. This beam carries the load of the mast out to the edges of the cabin top, because this little boat doesn't have a compression post. The beam was wet and ruined. Adam dug it out.

 Since these photos, he's removed the rotten beam and replaced it (and all the core in this area). He employed some used teak from an old dinghy, laminating two thinner pieces with epoxy. It will be very strong. And here's the back deck, which he's fiberglassed, and since this photo he's begun the sanding process. In the end it will be smooth and the new paint job will make it impossible to tell that the repair ever occurred. We hope.

This past week Oriental's town dock was populated with three large sailing vessels, one on either side, and one on the end.

They displayed quite a cluster of masts against the sky!

The vessel on the left, the William Reed

The one at the end of the dock, Mysterious Ways. I couldn't help thinking of the lovely hymn, "God Moves a Mysterious Way, His Wonders to Perform." This boat has a Buddha on deck -- see?

And this is the largest boat -- three tall masts of its own! I don't often see a triple-masted boat, even in Oriental. That's a lot of sail.

The third boat was turned so that I could not see its name. It sported a cute dinghy alongside.

Thursday morning we experienced heavy fog, especially on the river. I could not see the other side. I couldn't see the water much. This was 9:30 AM.

By 11:30 AM, we saw this spooky half-and-half fog, wondering if it would lift or not.

By afternoon, our moody river was clear-headed and happy again.

One never knows about the Neuse. And this could teach us that when life is quite foggy, and we don't have a clue what's going on, just waiting can often clear things up for us too.