Get to the Bottom of Things

April 11 2016



April 3, April 4, April 5, 2016
Oriental, NC
Mile Marker 180

April 6-11, 2016
Morehead City, NC (Again)
Mile Marker 205

April 4, 2016
New Bern, NC (for the day)
No Mile Marker, not on the ICW

April 11, 2016

We were in Oriental for 3 days and most of that with my nephew, Ken and his son Will.  I believe that we all had lots of fun.

Here is a town that is more than it appears to be on first docking.  Rob's cousin says she loves this nice little town. MMM.  I was not sure what she was talking about, but the longer we were there the “nicer” it looked.  Because we were on the dock, we met the town cast of characters and supporting actors.

This was a “free” dock that would not allow a boater to run their geneator.  No problem, I could live with that, until it was 47 degrees in the cabin and the only way to get heat was to run the generator.  Sometimes you just have to break the rules.

While Ken and Will were with us we played and some of us worked.  Ken fixed our Ubiquiti so we can have better access to the internet.  Ya Ken!!!! We took Ken and Will on a 4.5 hour trip up the Neuse River to New Bern and back the same day. Will was a pro at using Yelp to find the four of us a place to have lunch. The seas were great on the way up and a little rocky on the way back.  Docking was fairly difficult once back at the free dock, because the wind was so fierce. There was lots of drama on the dock. Boaters were arriving, dinghies were heading out to rescue someone’s boat and the town was there to help or watch. I asked someone if they had a boat and the answer was, “every one in Oriental has a boat”. 

The town was named for a boat that went down off the coast of North Carolina.  We walked to the museum in town to check out more of the history and there was Rob’s cousin Susan’s high school guidance counselor.  We find out the darnedest things because of our Maine accents, more mine than Rob’s.  As soon as the 90+ year old volunteer heard me talk he asked where we were from.  Our hailing port is Spruce Head, Maine and thus the connections were made with another person from Maine.

People in Oriental have to drive 12 miles for groceries. There is a great marine supply place that sells grocery basics as well as Gill clothing, Teva footwear and screws.  The Bean coffee shop, is across from the free dock and the gathering place for locals and visitors.  At night, off the bow of another free dock, is the Oriental Inn and night spot.

We walked through nice neighborhoods and saw people out walking their dogs.  Will and I stopped to talk to a woman with a golden retriever only to learn an exhausting list of activities this 92 year old woman is involved in, so much so that she was walking her dog from her golf cart!

We keep in touch through email, text and phone with some very nice people we have met along the way.  Two of the couples are headed north to Norfolk, VA for a rendezvous of Loopers. Great Loop Cruisers is one of the names for the people who travel from Florida up the East Coast to a point where they leave the coast and travel a route to the interior lakes and back down to Florida.  You can see on this map one of the routes Loopers can take but not the only route, there are variations on this.

Visiting with new friends on the waterway is priceless.  The weather was predicted to be high winds and rough seas so we took the opportunity to head back to Morehead City from Oriental to hunker down with our friends, Wally and Darcy. The four of us took a car ride to Seagate up Adams Creek to visit  with Larry and Shannon and, of course, Pearl.  I had such a good time with the three of them, Wally, Darcy and Rob.  We wished them luck on their adventure on the Great Loop with hopes they have a safe trip and we see them again soon.

We walked the streets of Morehead City, Beaufort and New Bern finding plenty of stores for poking around in, encouraging Wally to tease us about shopping.  Friendship, food, cocktails, fun and laughter doesn't say enough about our time with the Campbells.  They are a wealth of knowledge and vast experiences, they generously shared with us.

I will miss them.

Drama on the waterway

Don't use Sloop Creek anchorage!!

The day that we had the crab trap caught around the prop we continued on to Sloop Creek.  It was very late before we turned off the ICW.  We followed Active Captain and confusing markers, and ended up...well lets just say when I went out to drop the anchor I looked to starboard and saw a heron standing ankle deep in water.  I continued with my task and dropped several feet of chain only to look down and see the shank was still above water.  We left the Garmin chart plotter on and stayed up past our bedtime with our eyes glued to the screen watching for any movement of Linda Jean.  Finally, around midnight the tide was high enough to rock the boat into motion. The wind was strong and the marshes surrounded us. We only had to move the boat a short distance to drop the hook deep enough.  Adventure #1281

As usual I think the pictures are worth a thousands words and my readers have confirmed it.  I know that some of my followers scroll down to the picture first so here you are my dear friends. These first pictures are for you, Mary Ann.

Will makes bread for fried toast in the morning.

Will and Rob kibitz on the settee

Ken, Rob and Will Chow Down

 I don't think Rob and Ken got the memo about the photo shoot

Will takes control

Will and I did a good job picking out the place to eat.

The hunter's breakfast

Free dock in Oriental

Linda Jean

Chaz, this one is for you

Oriental has a webcam showing the free dock. We used the webcam to find out if there was a place at the dock. If you look closely in this picture you can see Rob playing with the webcam, once we arrived in Oriental

Just a pretty picture

Pelican carved from a post

Friends from the Waterway

Notice the smiles of fun on their faces

This is not Pearl but a smaller version of her, Maxwell is his name.

Sites in New Bern, Beaufort and Morehead City

Parting Shot

Tricia

Any errors in grammar or facts in this blog are unintended.