Log 133; Day 362; May 18, 2009; Oriental Marina & Inn; Oriental, NC

The waterway from Beaufort has a lot of places like this, with lots of homes and docks on both sides

Then the waterway opens up, with little residental property

And finally dumps into the Neuse River, and Pamlico Sound

About 4 miles across the Neuse River you come to the entrance to the town of Oriental, NC


Upon arriving, we saw John and Barb, from "Emery el"...who we have not seen since Fort Myers

Right behind our boat they were having a BBQ for a local charity

They also have a Tiki Bar

And across the street they have a coffee house (this picture was taken from our boat)

The docks at Oriental Marina are not large...but nice

A shot from the back of our boat...it's like looking at a campground

Log 133

Day 362

Monday, May 18, 2009

7:30 AM EDT

Location: Oriental Marina & Inn; Oriental, NC

Weather: 56 degrees and rain; Rain and strong NE winds forecasted

It’s cold, windy, and raining this morning...sitting on the back deck, in Oriental, NC. If you want to see our location on Google Maps...click here. (you need to put your cursor on it and then hit control, and left click). I’m not sure if we are in the middle of a Nor’easter...but gale force winds are predicted on the Pamlico Sound (if you look at our location on Google Maps, that’s the large body of water to the NE of us). When I chose this marina, I did so because these winds were forecasted, and I wanted a marina protected from any winds north and east, and this one is great. I thought we’d be here for 2 to 3 days...but it now looks like we will not be able to leave until Thursday, which means we will have been here for 5 nights.

Getting here...is an easy 27 mile run from Beaufort. When you leave Beaufort Town Docks, the channel is well marked, and takes you east, back toward the Atlantic, and the main ship channel. Once there, you go back NW up the ship channel, and rejoin the ICW. In a very short time, you are back in narrow waterways, and rivers, but they are well marked, and for the most part there are no shallow spots. After about 20 miles, the waterway really starts to open up, and finally dumps you into the Neuse River (at the lower end of the Pamlico Sound). Straight across the Neuse River is Oriental.

Deb explains our arrival, and the town of Oriental, in her 2 cents...

Well, it’s only been a week since I last wrote, but don’t get used to this. It’s raining, BK’s napping, and I just wanted to tell you about our stop in Oriental, NC. I love this town!

We were in Beaufort, NC for 2 days and as much as we like to say that we are just ‘floating with the tides’, there is certain amount of planning necessary and BK is always on the job, watching weather, checking for slip availabilities and keeping us moving. He found that there was some nasty weather forecast for the upcoming week. Our next stop (Oriental Marina) was only about 25 miles north but is tucked in a good (safe) spot for the north east winds that were predicted. He determined that we had about a 4 hr window of good weather and in an effort to get us a little farther north, we pulled our lines early Saturday morning and headed to Oriental, NC.

The trip was uneventful, a little spitting rain occasionally, and just a little windy, (at least it was uneventful from my point of view…BK may have been puckered the whole time!) After a little less than 3 hours of cruising, he pulled Headquarters in past the break wall of the inlet where our marina was and waited for instructions from the dock master. We were asked to “stand down” for a bit as 3 sailboats made ready to leave, and 10 minutes later we were backing into our assigned slip. Headquarters has a 15’4” beam and I think the slips here must be 16’ wide! It was a tight squeeze, but BK got ‘er in. After we were all secured…our side fenders were pretty much touching the docks on both sides at the same time! The good news was we ended up docking right next to John and Barbra on EMERY EL...someone we have not seen since we were together in Fort Myers, back in December.

As it happened, there was a “Block Party” planned at the Marina for 1 – 4 pm that same day and they were serving BBQ pork sandwiches in a tent about 20 feet from our stern! Oriental Marina is small and situated at the end of a little cove-like inlet that butts right up to the streets of town. The marina slips at the waterfront, along with The Oriental Inn and a restaurant called Toucans, all enclose a little grassy area that has a Tiki bar, a swimming pool and a deck where with tables and chairs. On the deck, as part of the “Block Party”, there was a guy singing and playing his guitar...GREAT music…John Fogherty, Eric Clapton, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Joe Cocker…even some Ides of March! When he played Stagger Lee I had to call Annie to let her listen…it’s one of her “all time favorite songs”! This guy was pretty good, but very LOUD! So loud that at one point, a policeman showed up with a sound meter and had him back it down a bit. I know this will confirm the fact that we are indeed old, but it was much better after that. We sat on Headquarters and listened from our back deck while drinking our own beer! Perfect! The best part? It was over at 4:00 pm! Did I mention we were old?

With all this activity for some reason, to me it felt like a camp ground! People were all around…at the tiki bar…at the tables on the patio…in Adirondack chairs on the lawn…standing in line for BBQ sandwiches…and walking around with beers in their hands visiting with everyone, all while this great music was blasting through the trees. This morning it was again, a little like a camp ground (after a party!) It had rained, so everything was damp (if there had been campfires, they would have been doused!), there were a few empty cups scattered around, the BBQ tent was still up (sagging a bit) and it was very quiet…not many people around, and those that were up had funky morning hair, wrinkled shirts, and that bleary-eyed “what time is it?” look in their eyes as they carried their coffee around while surveying the damage.

Today, after Sunday morning pancakes and bacon for breakfast, BK got down to some serious work on some projects he had on his list and I got on my walking shoes and headed out to explore the town. It’s such a great place…I Googled Oriental, NC and found some interesting facts. Some people call it Mayberry with a river next to it. Small and friendly…no Floyd’s barbershop, but there is “The Bean”…a coffee shop where people gather to talk on the front porch. The town has 37 historic houses and along the waterfront are some beautiful homes – all of which have porches with swings, rockers, wicker chairs, or Adirondack chairs. The people of Oriental have certainly raised “porch sitting” to an art form! And why not – with those beautiful views of Pamlico Sound. According to banners hanging all around town, this is called “The Sailing Capital of NC”. I read that there are more boats in Oriental than people…2700 boats! About 3 times the estimated number of people living here! This is definitely a boating community!

I got back to the boat just in time…the rain came at about 12:30 and drove everyone into their rooms or onto their boats. As I’m writing this log, Bob made some popcorn and is watching the race that he recorded last night. It’s a nice quiet Sunday afternoon on the boat. We’ll stay here in Oriental till this weather goes through…probably Wednesday. Until then, we’re going to enjoy Oriental and its slow pace.

To fair skies & calm waters. First Mate----Deb

I’m not really sure what the next few days will be like here in Oriental. The rain is forecasted to end late today, but the cold and winds will continue for a couple more days. The harbor water is up over 2 feet since we got here on Saturday, and with NE winds they say it will come up even more. It’s only a few inches from going on the street as I write this. Living on a boat, there is always something going on.

I’ll keep you posted.

Bob