How does a city in NC get a name like Oriental—it is named after the steamer Oriental and the town even continues the theme with a Dragon Festival. Oriental is the sailing capital of NC and it was great to watch the sailboats on the Neuse River from the colorful Adirondack chairs at Lou Mac Park. We are traveling with North Carolinians, Pegge and Mike on Avalon, and this is one of their favorite stops due to the friendliness, charm and hospitality of the whole town. If you are carrying a bag and look like a boater, you will get plenty of ride offers. Carol on s/v Miranda lives here now and passed us in her sporty red convertible and pulled over and took us to the Town n’ Country Market and then we got a ride back from Doug at West Marine. Cindy at the funky Marine Consignment store, which looks like the cluttered attic filled with “treasures” at the Bayfield Yacht Club boathouse, gave me a ride to the boat to pick up some treasures that Bob was willing to part with—we are still working on decluttering.
We stayed at the Oriental Marina and the dockmaster Tom knows how to do docklines. The marina has a pool, complimentary towels (do we love that) and a tiki bar where you can meet the locals and fellow boaters (bomba Shack, Jet Lag, Moondance) and here’s a picture of Pegge and Sam Spade aboard Avalon. This is a great walking town and there are historical walking tour pamphlets for Midyette and Broad Streets. The Oriental History Museum is only open Friday to Sunday. I’ve shown you a lot of pictures of houses but this Evinrude motor mailbox caught my attention. Oriental also has a free dock big enough for 2 boats and you can check out if there is space by going to the webcam at www.towndock.net/harborcam.
We had planned to have almost a whole layday here except for changing the oil and transmission fluid but then we noticed ooze seeping out of the anchor well and that definitely got our attention. Our anchor chain and rode was clogged with black sludge that the washdown pump did not get so we had to empty it all out, wash it down again, unpack the V-berth and scour the anchor well—4 hours, but since it was overcast and raining, it wasn’t so bad. We ended the day with a great fish dinner at M & M’s and toasted our anniversary of 40 years. My ruby is spending the best year of my life doing the Great Loop with my Skipper Bob.
We stayed at the Oriental Marina and the dockmaster Tom knows how to do docklines. The marina has a pool, complimentary towels (do we love that) and a tiki bar where you can meet the locals and fellow boaters (bomba Shack, Jet Lag, Moondance) and here’s a picture of Pegge and Sam Spade aboard Avalon. This is a great walking town and there are historical walking tour pamphlets for Midyette and Broad Streets. The Oriental History Museum is only open Friday to Sunday. I’ve shown you a lot of pictures of houses but this Evinrude motor mailbox caught my attention. Oriental also has a free dock big enough for 2 boats and you can check out if there is space by going to the webcam at www.towndock.net/harborcam.
We had planned to have almost a whole layday here except for changing the oil and transmission fluid but then we noticed ooze seeping out of the anchor well and that definitely got our attention. Our anchor chain and rode was clogged with black sludge that the washdown pump did not get so we had to empty it all out, wash it down again, unpack the V-berth and scour the anchor well—4 hours, but since it was overcast and raining, it wasn’t so bad. We ended the day with a great fish dinner at M & M’s and toasted our anniversary of 40 years. My ruby is spending the best year of my life doing the Great Loop with my Skipper Bob.
