Robert Paschal Burns Auditorium

On Monday, August 27, the Robert Paschal Burns Auditorium at the NCSU College of Design was named in memory of my dear father, who died in a car accident on October 28, 2005. Dad was much loved, respected, and admired as a professor and administrator at the College of Design for many years. His legacy will live on in a new lecture series to be held this auditorium in his honor. Here are a few photos of the event, thanks to my brother Adam:

Uncle Norvel (Dad's youngest brother) and Adam's girlfriend Missy; I am in background in black pants talking to my Aunt Betsy, Dad's sister Paige with her children, Everet and Walker; I am in background with Aunt Betsy From left: my niece Everet, Norma (in white top), Uncles Norvel and Paul Burns Adam and me

Survey time!

Last Friday we went to New Bern for the survey, sea trial, and haulout of Logos. What an interesting new experience it was! We had a few mishaps on the sea trial, including the mounting bracket for the autopilot breaking off, and the headsail roller furler jamming when we tried to furl the sail after the sea trial. The furler was old and pretty close to end of life anyway, so after a rigger checked it out, we decided to split the cost of a nice new Harken furler with the seller, who is also repairing the autopilot and several other small items found on the survey. There were no deal breakers, fortunately. It was such fun to take a short sail on our soon-to-be first boat! Here are a few photos from the haulout in Sailcraft Boatyard in Oriental:

Our surveyor inspecting the rigging at the top of the mast Logos awaiting haulout Logos hauled out

We spent the late afternoon playing tourists on a very hot, humid, breezy day in New Bern, along the waterfront and in the historic downtown.

Female mallard

We discovered that New Bern has the moniker of "Bear City", which pleased Barry ("Bear") and provided a few additional photo ops.

On Saturday we visited with a friend from my work, John, and his wife at Blackbeard Sailing Club. We got to meet his wife Connie and boat-owner partner Doug, as well as a few other friendly folks at the club. They ended up taking us out for a sail on their own Catalina 30, which was great fun on a beautiful day, cooler and with less humidity. Barry and I both took the helm for quite awhile. It was fun to get a feel for what sailing Logos will be like. And soon!

Meet Logos

We have a contract on a boat! She's a Catalina 30 named Logos. We took a trip to Oriental and New Bern last weekend and looked at a variety of boats. Logos was the one we had been interested in from checking out listings on Yachtworld even before seeing her, and she didn't disappoint. Now we have a whirlwind month ahead of having a haulout, survey, and sea trial, closing, and then actually sailing her to her new home marina. We're excited but anxious too....hopefully it will all go as smoothly as possible, no hurricanes will come up the east coast this fall, and we'll have a successful delivery -- our first ever. After all our sailing classes, a new chapter in our life is beginning! Here are a couple of photos of the intrepid sailors in Oriental: