TripSailor.com® Sailing Blogs

5-14-08

We are safely docked at Dowry Creek Marina in Belhaven, NC, after a long, but pretty pleasant day across Pamlico Sound.  We spent 4 days in Oriental, and the time actually didn’t seem that long.  We had lots of friendly people to talk with, including our friends from Hilton Head.  The marina owner, who has previously managed hotels in Palm Springs and Beijing, China, had decided to get out of the rat race and settle down in Oriental.  He and his wife own the restaurant and are enjoying the slower pace of life, though from what we’ve observed, they put in an awful lot of hours working. 

We’ve met Ray and Linda on their Krogen trawler “Summertime” who have just completed the Great Loop, and Mathew and Gail on “Alisio” who have taken a year’s sabbatical from their jobs to sail to the Bahamas and back.  Matthew works for the Smithsonian in information systems and Gail is a corporate travel agent – really nice people.  Rolf and Kathy live aboard their Tartan “Norske” and are trying to make the Great Loop. 

As you can see, the people who travel the waterway are friendly, helpful, and all have interesting stories to tell.  We spent our last day at Oriental doing a spit and polish on Cool Breeze, a final load of laundry, and a last shopping trip to The Provision Company, where I finally purchased a T-shirt I’ve been eyeing for 3 days.  We had dinner again at M&M’s – this time hamburgers. 

Oh, I think I forgot to mention in my last blog that a friend of the former owners of Cool Breeze spotted the yacht sticker on our boat, and looked up the registration and found it was owned by his friends the McCain’s.  We had several conversations with Ross, and we assured him that we were definitely enjoying sailing on our ’36, that we had gone through the proper ceremony to rename the boat, and that we were thankful that we had such a great boat.

We left Oriental early at 8:00, but not as early as some.  Everyone was anxious to be on their way after the nor’easter delay of several days.  It was a virtual parade of sailboats and trawlers headed north.  After howling winds, we were pleased to find pretty calm seas and winds less than 10 knots, even if the wind was on our nose.  We left the Neuse River behind and went through the ICW canal to Pamlico Sound.  There we put out our headsail and made good time to Belhaven. Nonetheless, it was a 7 ½ hour day on the water, and then there was a rush at the marina since everyone had left at approximately the same time.  It was finally our turn at the fuel dock and then we made our way to the slip.  We are getting reacquainted with the pilings that we saw in Florida, and they still present problems in docking.  It was actually an exhausting time trying to get the boat positioned in the slip – loosening lines and tightening lines, but we finally were safely tied up and ready for a cold brew.

After hot showers and another Dinty Moore meal, we are ready for slumber.  We will get up early for another 50 mile day and, hopefully, will arrive at the next marina before the predicted showers materialize. 

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