Oriental

 TRAVEL DAY 34 - Morehead City to Oriental

April 21, 2023

2.83 Hours/23.8 Miles

    To say we lost a week would be a lie. What we feared would be lost time turned into probably one of the most fun stops. With the repairs complete, we waived our short term home in Morehead City goodbye and set our sights for Oriental, NC. 

Oriental, NC

    The terrain and foliage constantly changes, the marshes again gave way to higher bank elevations and larger trees. We traversed Harlowe Creek to the Adam's Creek Cut and then across the broad Neuse River to Oriental. There was a heavy smoke from some sort of fire, so thick on the river, we could not see the other side.

    The town of Oriental was named after the Sailing Steamer Oriental, a Federal transport ship during the Civil War. The Oriental ran aground in May 1862 and wrecked off Bodie Island, 33 miles north of Cape Hatteras. Originally called Smith's Creek, the wife of the newly appointed Postmaster, Rebecca Midyette thought the town needed a better name. Inspired by the Steamer's name, she proposed it be renamed Oriental and in 1899 the name was changed.  This is a very quaint fishing village with large rigged Shrimp boats and Menhaden boats lining the docks. 

Seawall

    Dragons are a thing here and they can be seen in several places. The story goes that a part time resident Joe Cox thought the town needed a way to celebrate New Year's Eve. Since dragon's are used to celebrate the Chinese New Year, a town named Oriental could do the same. He created a dragon and with the help of some friends snaked through the town. So, every year between 8 pm & 11 pm the dragon emerges from a shed and wanders the streets of Oriental.

Dragons

Dragon's Lair

    Once in the harbor we made our way to Oriental Marina, spun the Camano around and backed into the assigned slip. Little wind and no current made it easy, as the area we had to work in was pretty tight and at the dead end of the marina.
 
Oriental Marina & Inn

    The message went out via NEBO that docktales were at 5 pm. We all gathered at the dock and 10 Loopers walked to The New Village Brewery for beer, a food truck and some great live music.

Docktales

Do these glasses make me look Loopy?

    Saturday morning we checked out the small farmer's market, grabbed some salad stuff and some baked goods, then went on a geocache adventure. We found 2 caches and explored more of Oriental.

Geocaching Fun

    Oriental was hosting  SailPack, an intercollegiate sailing competition.  Saturday evening there was a Pig Roast scheduled. We decided to walk over to it with the crew of RIVA (another Looper we met in Morehead City). We got some exercise and a good meal along with music and a lot of great folks.

SailPack "Pig Pickin"

More "Fun & Games"

 Oriental was great and we stayed here for 2 days mostly to miss the nasty weather that was predicted for early Saturday. We got the entire 2 days rain free and at about 9 pm Saturday a huge thunderstorm rolled in, but we were snug in our boat by then.
    
Morehead City to Oriental

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Bottom Line

Image
    H ere in the Crystal River area where we keep our boat, underwater fouling is minimal. This is due to the amount of fresh water we have. Our canal is "brackish" with not alot of salinity and the closer you are to King's Bay and the springs the salinity goes way down. Out to the Gulf and further south, hull bottom fouling becomes worse. Go to the Keys and the Bahamas and it is very aggressive.  Wintertime when the water is cold, the growth is minimal, but when the water warms it is alive with billions of tiny organisms ready to cling to something and start reproducing. Now that our boat is in Tampa Bay and the water temperature is moving into the 70's the growth is accelerating.  How do we combat this? The list of ways is endless but the basic method is to apply Anti-Fouling coatings. Bottom paint. There is a whole science and tons of info about anti-fouling coatings so I won't go into all of it but basically there are 2 types of paint. Hard & Ablative. Bot...
Read more

Pre Loop Madness and Monotony

Image
   The build up was huge, the anticipation was killing us. Now we're here, living on the boat in Bradenton, FL for the next 14 days before we "shove off". With everything we think we will need for the trip in the back of our car, we load it onto the boat. Where in the heck are we going to put all of this stuff? Organizing and storing in every nook & cranny, sorting and reprioritizing. Re-looking at something and saying, "Do we really need 3 of these?" "Put it back in the car." After two full days, Beth managed to get it all labeled and packed away, somewhere. This little boat has a lot more storage space than we thought. Now, to be able to find it when we want it. I looked for my work gloves for 20 minutes!  "Where is all this stuff going to fit?"     Meanwhile I'm doing the same for all of my tools and gear, gallons of oil, fluids and filters, spare parts and odd things that we just might need to get us out of a pinch.  A few last mi...
Read more

The "REAL" Journey Begins

Image
TRAVEL DAY 1 - Palmetto to Sarasota February 14, 2023 4.2 Hours/31.6 Miles     Today is "really" the day we start of the Great Loop, as opposed to the "Unofficial Start of the Great Loop" . We felt pretty confident that all the preparation and work would pay off . Well, feelings are one thing, realty is another.     We pulled out of our slip and headed for the fuel dock to top off the tanks with a few gallons of diesel and pump out the holding tank. Of course the predicted wind was not what we got, neither was the air temperature, still it was a decent day for a cruise. We're still in our home waters so we basically knew the way. Our destination was Sarasota and a free anchorage. We had planned to pick up an anchor ball at Marina Jack's but it was full. Free anchorages mean more money for food, snacks and drinks! Out of the Manatee River and around Ana Marie Island     Beth had planned some routes on her Navionics and Aqua Maps apps and was ready to assume ...
Read more