# Greetings from North Carolina!



## MissNola (Aug 15, 2010)

Hi there! Gerri here. My husband Randy and I just brought our "new" 1978 VN23 home to North Carolina from Jacksonville, Fla. We pulled her up to the house just 3 hours ago 

Miss NOLA was originally in New York, and somehow made her way down to Louisiana, where my sister bought her several years back. She and a friend refurbished her and had her in a marina off Lake Ponchartrain. Miss NOLA made it through Hurricane Katrina there, with just one of her 16 lines snapped after the storm. A log jam of other boats at the edge of her slip kept any other boats or debris from damaging her.

My sister moved to Fla. after the storm, and then went back for her boat. She was towing it along I-10 and hadn't realized the trailer tongue was rusted underneath. She hit a bump and the trailer came loose. It rolled past the truck, leaving a scrape of light blue hull paint on the side. It rolled off the road, hit a ditch, went airborn and hit a tree. The trailer wedged between the trees, and the boat shot off, and busted the bow against some other trees.

The boat was towed out of the woods and brought to Fla., where my sister redid all the fiberglass and repainted her. She's been in the water several times since then, but has been dry docked for the past 2 years.

She's never had an 'official' name, but she will be Miss NOLA as we work on her... because we miss my home town of New Orleans, La. And because my sister's grandson calls her Nola instead of Grandma, and we miss her too  

We restored an old Ebbtide fishing boat last year and have been out on the local lakes a bunch. But we're completely new to sailing. We're in our early 40s and know we're in for quite an experience for the next 40 LOL


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## CapTim (Aug 18, 2009)

very cool! congratulations!


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## SecondWindNC (Dec 29, 2008)

Quite a story. Have fun out there!


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## night0wl (Mar 20, 2006)

need pics!


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## sterilecuckoo58 (Aug 4, 2010)

Congratulations on giving Miss NOLA a new loving home, and good luck on the open waters. 

We too are new owners but inflicted trauma on ours completely on our own (help from siblings or oxidation not required).


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## MissNola (Aug 15, 2010)

The only 'damage' we've done in the 24 hours we've actually had her was that one of the trailer tires shredded just 100 miles into our journey home, on I-95 in Georgia. Luckily the inner tube inside the tire held up! Apparently the rubber was severely dry-rotted, although it didn't look like it. We were keeping a heavy eye on the wheel bearings, though, and kept them greased. 

It was sooo sad to leave her on the side of the road to go get a new tire. But we did, and then took her back to the tire shop and replaced the other trailer tire. It was a really smooth ride the rest of the 7 hours it took to get home.

I'll get some pictures up when I get a chance.

Second Wind, maybe I'll see you 'round NC sometime! My inlaws have a place in Atlantic Beach, and hubby's family has lots of relatives in Morehead City. We'd probably put in at Anchorage Marina on Atlantic Beach, and wander around the Beaufort area.


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## MissNola (Aug 15, 2010)

I posted 2 pictures in my gallery, MissNola... not sure how to post them in this thread, but I'll try...


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## MissNola (Aug 15, 2010)

That's my captain, Randy... with our 'new' sailboat before we had an inkling it would be ours. The pic was taken in 2004 - just 9 months before Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans. She was in a marina in Slidell, La., just north off Lake Pontchartrain.


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## MissNola (Aug 15, 2010)

Miss NOLA arrives home just before sundown


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