Oriental, NC

Weather: Started sunny but changed to partly sunny, partly cloudy, then cloudy before we pulled into the marina. The wind was less than 5 knots primarily from the northwest. The wind increased in the evening and we had a few drops of rain. A cold front is moving through and the weather is predicted to deteriorate for the next two days.

Comment: We enjoyed another easy run today! It was a pleasure to be on the waterway. We were able to motor-sail with the jib for an hour of so. It helped as we motored against the current the entire way from Morehead City to Oriental.

Colorful House with PDQ Morotcat on lift

The weather has caused us to modify our trip. We planned to travel up the Neuse River to visit folks who moved from the Barnegat Bay area about 10 years ago but we don’t want to be on the Neuse River in 25+ knots of wind on our nose. Besides visiting friends, we have heard great things about visiting New Bern. I hope we can do it on a future trip. So far, we have only passed through on the occasions when we take Route 17 to Myrtle Beach to visit Sandi and Matt, and Josh and Rose.

We chose the Oriental Harbor Marina for dockage. The crew of “SUNSHINE” was directed to slip A-11. As we made our way into the slip, we found that the reported 20 foot beam was a bit inaccurate. We made it through the first set of pilings with inches to spare. We could only get about 3 feet of the nose past the mid-slip pilings before wedging the boat tight between them. This wouldn’t do for sitting out a blow from the south. SUNSHINE would be beaten against the pilings all day and night.

Since there was no other beamier slip available, we chose to pull the boat back so the dinghy was sticking most of the way out into the fairway. This wouldn’t be a problem for several reasons:

• Slip A-11 is near the end of the fairway;



• A boat five slips from us was sticking even further out into the fairway;



• Given the weather conditions, there wouldn’t be any boat traffic for the next two days.
  

Squeezed in

Our strategy was sound, but it still left us precariously close to the starboard side finger pier and pilings as well as the two port side pilings. We used three fenders to protect “SUNSHINE” from the port side pilings and another five fenders on the starboard side. Even in the relative calm conditions we had while tying up, all the fenders were “squished” between their respective hull and the pilings/finger pier. We hoped they would stay put during the blow.

Once “SUNSHINE” and “KALLISTA” were securely tied up, Anna Marie and I used the marina’s loaner bikes to pedal around Oriental a bit. We really like the town. Anna Marie read that the population is about 850 people and the average age is 59. The number of boats in the town is about three times the population, causing Oriental to be billed as the Sailing Capital of North Carolina.

Oriental scene