July 2006 Vacation Cruising in Coastal North Carolina
Sunday, July 16th

Journey: Beaufort to Oriental (View Map)
Nautical Miles: 23.2
Sailing Hours: 1.5
Motoring Hours: 4.5

As we slept, the winds fell and shifted direction, leaving us hanging out into the channel for the marina. Since our plans were to leave this morning anyway, we decided to quickly stow and go. We enjoyed our coffee as we were motoring up Gallants Channel on our way to the ICW. It took us 4 hours to finally emerge from the ICW into the Neuse River. We put up the sails and tacked our way upwind to Oriental. It was a beautiful day for sailing, with about 10 knots from the north. We put the engine back on and dropped the sails when we arrived at Oriental, and were happy to find that one side of the town dock was open; however, we had to slip into the small space left as two large shrimp boats were rafted up together. I was proud of Sheryl, as I slowly brought us toward the dock, she managed to jump from the bow with a line and guide us in. I grabbed pilings from the boat and we quickly had her tied off.

It was very hot on land, and we made certain that everything was secure, then quickly retreated to the air conditioning of the Bean. We enjoyed a cool treat while I spent time typing this blog entry. After cooling down a bit, we walked to the grocery store to get some more bottled water, a little over two miles round trip, the second mile with two gallons of water in my backpack. Hopefully, this will be enough to last the rest of our vacation.

In the evening, we hung around the town dock on Ashiya, and talked with two couples who were in the process of circumnavigation. One couple was from Turkey, and they were making the voyage on Vagabond, a handsome ketch. They were anchored out and had come in on their dinghy with some nice folding bicycles. A very practical couple. The second couple we met had started their voyage once, made it to the Panama Canal, but returned when they realized that their boat was not large enough. When I asked how big a boat they had, he responded with a sheepish grin, "It was a 51-foot monohull. We just sold it and got a 54-foot catamaran." I will let you figure out which of the two couples was more practical in their approach to circumnavigation.

In an effort to escape the bugs, we went over to the Tucan Grill for a few drinks and conversation with the Sunday night bar crowd. We had a nice time and returned to the boat for a very good night's sleep.