Day 28 - Fri 24 Apr 2015
Docked - Oriental, NC

[photo: Diva Di (left) with Ariel on the Oriental free dock]

The wind piped up a few times over the night, but otherwise it was a peaceful sleep. The outside temp was in the low 50s, and a bit chilly in the cabin, so I put on the heater once I got up around 0600. It got toasty pretty quickly. We enjoyed hot coffee and the cherry strudel we bought at the bakery yesterday - yumm.

There was no hurry at all since the dockhands did not arrive until close to 0800 and we needed to move to the fuel dock. The timing was great as it was essentially slack tide with no appreciable current. After fuel, we set off to rejoin the ICW and motor into a stiff and cold N wind. The tidal current predictions were for us to have a fair (following) current much of the way up the narrow waterway to the Neuse River, but once in that waterway, the current was against us as much as 2 kts. Since it was a no wake zone most of the way, that meant we were making 5.8 kts over the ground, which is pretty slow.

The reason for the adverse current could only be one thing; the strong winds had been blowing water from Pamlico Sound into the head of the Neuse River for days. That raised the water levels (probably well over a foot) and that forced water at high speed down the narrow waterway we had to negotiate. It added to the time and fuel expense, but was only 15 miles. Once into the Neuse River proper, the wind made it extremely choppy. It wasn't that the waves were big, but they were very steep and close together. We actually slowed down a bit to make the ride more comfortable.

We had a brief discussion that the original plan was to hug the N shore of the river to minimize the wave height, and then tuck into an anchorage a few hours 'down the road' but we looked at each other and said, 'why not just pull into Oriental as see if the free dock is open.' Even better, I gave the helm to Diane and I used our cell phone hotspot to connect to the internet and view the webcam at the free dock. It was completely empty, so we headed there and tied up with the help of some locals.

We weren't tied up too long before we heard Ariel coming in; they area 39 foot flybridge Mainship trawler, so here we had two pretty big boats on this rather small dock. It is so well protected here that we should not be placing any undue strain on the structure.

As I am wont to do, I quickly helped them get secure and made introductions. We invited them, and another later arrival to the next door marina, Aunt Aggie, to cocktails later. Clyde got a little walk by Diane, but in his harness for the first time in a while.

After a nice lunch of leftovers, we went for a nice walk around the area. Diane was dressed for cool weather, but when you got out of the now-modest wind, the bright sun was almost hot to me. We stopped at a park overlooking the river and could see that the conditions had moderated on the water. A 30-something guy stopped to chat for quite a while and then we carried on back to the boat in a large circle.

The marina a stone's throw from our free dock had filled up considerably in just the hour or so we were gone. As some of the locals sitting on the porch of the famous Bean coffee shop remarked, 'the migration has begun yet again.' We met up with a few more boaters here for the night and invited a number of them over to Diva Di for cocktails later. Not setting a time was a bad idea, but it all worked out OK.

The first group (Kenny and Cathy from No Zip Code) came over about 1730 and then the rest dribbled over (Robert and Corrinne on Ariel, George and Martha on Aunt Aggie) on their own schedule, each bringing something to share although we already had plenty of snacks out. After they all left at 1945, I got to work heating the stew I had made the previous day when Steve and Kathy from Interstate 77 came over. We turned off the stove and chatted with them until almost 2030 when they left to get supper.

Our stew was very tasty and while we had enjoyed plenty of snacks (some healthy), it was nice to get some real food. Diane had enough revelry and food and went straight to bed. I read for a while and joined her not long after.

Tomorrow we might stick around for the Farmer's Market to open at 0800 and then shove off before 0830. The weather is supposed to have light winds with a decent chance of rain later in the day. We plan to go until we feel like stopping at one of several nice anchorages along the way.