We first saw homes along one of the wider portions of the North Carolina ICW.
We left Dudley marina at the late hour of 8:00 for a good travel day with great weather. No drawbridges, no groundings, no excitement at all. The scenery was great. The marshes of Georgia are nice but we like the trees of North Carolina even better. We pulled into Oriental Marina on the Neuse river at 1:30. The Neuse averages over 3 miles wide with nearly all of its area at an even 20 foot depth. Just enough of the winds bleed over from the outer banks coastal area to make this the “sailboat capital of the world” according to the locals. We’ve been to Oriental once before, but that time we stayed at Whittaker Pointe marina.
Morehead City port. You take a hard left and go between Morehead City and Beaufort, leaving the coastal area.
Shortly after we pulled in at Oriental, Camelot pulled in with Ken and Lois. They had their looper flag up front like us, but have business to take care of along the way before New York and so will soon fall about a month behind us. It’s always interesting talking to other boaters because we have so much in common: our boats! These things take up a tremendous amount of time, thought and effort. Boats are always breaking and just getting from here to there, as we saw yesterday, can be challenge. It’s not just the travel. The women trade tips and tricks about living on a boat, which has a different set of challenges from our land based life.
Of course we look at each other’s boats. The thing I liked most on theirs was that it had a nice double bed into the front guest bedroom. This is something I wanted when we were looking for a boat. Ours has a lot of great features, but its front V berth beds are not the best.
We then headed north on the Adams Creek canal which exits into the 3 mile wide Neuse river.
People coming to travel with us ask how long we can stand to have them with us. Sue and I have a huge bedroom and our own bath in the back. We’ll be fine. Guests only need to see how long they can stand the guest quarters. Actually, with us happy in the back, guests do have the rest of the boat to themselves at night, with an additional third bedroom and bath if those are convenient for them, as well as the couch in the salon which also makes into a bed.
While we talked to Ken and Lois a fellow DeFever couple who also just pulled in came by and commented about passing us when we were aground yesterday. Looks like we’re becoming more known in the boating community.
Jack & Sue 