Express to Oriental

Sunday, November 9 and Monday November 10

Up with the sun again, this time our aim was to get to Oriental, a city on the Neuse River, a body of water that has a reputation that rivals that of Abermarle Sound if the winds are not just right. The forecast sounded like the morning would be fine and by afternoon we might see why it has the reputation. So we headed down the Pungo River across the Pamlico River to Goose Creek (these 'creeks' down here look more like rivers than what we are used to calling creeks). This led to another canal that brought us out to the Bay River. Just as we emerged from the canal there were a bunch of dolphins there to greet us. One even went right under Tiffany Rose! The guidebooks said that we'd begin to see on the Bay River if the Neuse River was going to be a problem and all was calm. We turned on to the Neuse River with 18 miles to go, and about halfway down the winds started to show us how the river might be on a not so favourable day. For the first time we had reserved a slip ahead of time at a marina, as we had read that is a popular stopping spot with not too many anchoring locations. From the sound of the VHF radio chatter it sounded like all the marinas in Oriental were busy.

At Whittaker Creek marina the dockmaster was very accommodating. We needed fuel and to pump out and we were given a slip on the other side of the fuel dock so we only had to dock once. We're getting the hang of these docks with pilings but on approach it can get your heart racing! We sure will look forward to landing at those friendly floating docks up north again next summer!

Being at a marina means power, showers, laundry and when the wind shifted, internet access!

We walked to the grocery store and got a lift back with a man who had crossed the Atlantic four times, had ducked in here a few years ago to escape a hurricane and never left.

Today, we got some boat maintenance chores done, then were offered a lift into town. Quite an interesting little town. I think the population is about 900 people and the number of boats are 2700. At the marina in town we ran into a number of people that we had spent time with in Elizabeth City. We also met a family from Midland, Ontario travelling with three (maybe four) children. We met them because the boy was wearing his life jacket in the store and Christopher was telling him that wasn't one of our life jacket rules! A great conversation starter. Nice to see another family travelling. We ran into the same gentleman who drove us into town on the way back so he was kind enough to offer again. He had just arrived in town because he bought a boat that's at this marina. Right now we're pouring over the charts and guidebooks, checking the long range weather forecast to make our next plan.