S/V Betsy hosts Student from Romania and cruises to New Bern
Monday July 16, 2007Construction
Updates: Our bid packages are completed and the engineers will be sending them out later this week. The marina plans are coming out very nicely. We are really trying to take it up a notch. Over the last several years we’ve sailed into many marinas up and down the intercoastal waterway, learning what works and what doesn’t. I want Port Vandemere Yacht Club to be one of the best designed marina’s in Eastern North Carolina. Team Port Vandemere has its nose to the grindstone this week putting the finishing touches on the marina and recreation areas.On a lighter note, on Friday, Team Port Vandemere had the opportunity to have a very special person join our sailing crew. Alexandra Mitoi, 17, traveled all the way from Valcea, Romania on a 4-H club exchange. Proving that Vandemere is a truly international place, our friends the Harris’s suggested we take her sailing. Alex joined us at the Marina at 7am and we boarded ‘Betsy’ then headed out to New Bern in a morning so foggy I thought I was in Maine. She, having really never been on the water, instantly loved the experience. We saw several dolphins, osprey’s, and pelicans all exotic animals to a girl raised on a mountain farm. The wind was very light, so it was a good first sail for her. We even did a bit of racing against our neighbors in a Defour 31 and to her delight we passed them like they were sailing backwards. The experience of sailing is a wonderful thing and it felt rewarding to give that gift to someone for the first time. I’m sure Alex will remember our afternoon for a long time to come.A new update for our cruisers: Things in New Bern seem to be getting nicer every day. The Galley Store is a new gourmet grocery, marina, restaurant and the nicest BP station you’ve ever seen. We talked to Mark while filling up ‘Betsy’s’ Iron Jenny, about the waterfront restaurant opening up in the fall. They already have several transient slips on the fuel dock, but will have a full service marina for about 32 slips coming soon. Did I already say it was nice, they have wine, gourmet cheeses, chocolates, organic meets and produce. Actually he said they do all the provisioning for Hatteras Yachts, and he can order anything you could think of; lamb, wild boar, venison, a whole tuna? I know where to provision for Port Vandemere Yacht Club parties!
