Belhaven to Oriental – 42 nautical miles sailed, 1 bridge, 2 kilometres walked
With another small craft warning in place and 25 knot winds, we had a Clash decision to make: stay or go. We could have easily spent another day here, hanging around, drinking milkshakes and fancy beer, but we had miles to cover and the forecasted winds were no stronger than they had been the last few trips, so we pulled anchor around 9am and headed south. Everybody else in the anchorage stayed put.
The north wind was strong, even gusting up to 30 knots at times, and the combination of the engine with the headsail pulled us along nicely, hitting 9 knots at one point. We did have a battle with the headsail at one point when we tried to pull some of it in as we were leaving one of the wider bays into a narrow channel and we had a hell of a time. The furler (which is the spinning mechanism at the bottom of the headsail that allows you to pull in the sail with a rope from the cockpit) was jamming and the strong winds whipped the sail back and forth, totally out of control. This rocked the boat violently from side to side, throwing everything around down below – dishes in the drying rack went flying, the portable icemaker slid back and forth across the cabin floor, our nice evening table light went for a ride, books fell from the shelves, clothes got scattered, and we’d find out later that we lost one of our boat hooks over the side so were now back to two. Fortunately the new one we bought back in Annapolis held fast.
So, lesson learned. I have a checklist I follow before departing and one of the items is “Secure everything on deck and in the cabin”. When it is calm you don’t need to do much here. But when it’s windy and the sails are up, it is far more critical to secure EVERYTHING. You have to assume the boat will be on its side at one point, as it was today. And it could be on its side tomorrow too, if not from wind, from a power boat wake.
We arrived at the town of Oriental at around 2:30 and got anchored in the still strong winds on a north shore, so the water was calm. Oriental is known to be a boater-friendly town and they dub themselves the sailing capital of North Carolina, and judging by the well positioned and built dinghy dock and the large recycling and garbage bins available for boaters, it certainly seemed to be. We found a marine store and went in to see if they had any anchors. Bingo! They had a used 35 pound Danforth anchor with six feet of chain in excellent shape – exactly what I was looking for. The cost? $150. I asked if it was negotiable and got it for a hundred bucks. They even loaned me a dolly so I could haul it back to the dinghy.
We went for a short walk to the Oriental Marina and Inn to scope out the gas dock as we wanted to refuel here and get water and a pump out tomorrow. The marina is very cute with a decent amount of dockage, an attached motel, and a groovy tiki bar in the middle of it all, which I am sure has seen some action over the years. We spoke to the manager Tom who gave us a rundown on the fuel dock, but also a few tips on getting into Beaufort (our next stop) and where to anchor.
As we were leaving we noticed a hippy café across the tide water flooded street, and what looked to be an authentic backpacker came out in bare feet, skipped across the water, and trotted down the gangway to his boat tied up at the free town dock (space for two, and fully occupied). We went to the café to check it out and had to walk across permanently installed blocks of wood to get to the stairs as the flooded street was clearly a twice-daily tidal occurrence. Well, it was a great little place with a backpacker vibe unlike anything we’ve seen yet. The barefooted sailor’s girlfriend was there and she was barefoot too, and may have even been wearing M.C. Hammer, droopy crotch backpacker pants. A few others were there, one dude with his face in a laptop, an older gent reading on the deck, another flipping through his phone as he drank a latte. The server was kind, fully tattoo’d and decently pierced. We ordered a muffin and an ice cream then sat for a while, enjoying the view to the marina, which was also home to at least ten big shrimping boats, and all I could think about was Forrest Gump and his pals Bubba and Captain Dan.
We continued along our way for a longer walk, and explored some residential neighbourhoods, saw a nice ocean path with a few runners, then did a big loop looking for the local restaurants as we were thinking a seafood dinner out might be nice. We found Barcos restaurant, integrated with the Oriental Harbor Marina, but at 4:55, five minutes before the posted opening time, it was still dark and deserted, so instead we decided for dinner and a movie back at the boat. As we pulled out in the dinghy we were rewarded with a blood red sunset and Ana took some spectacular shots of the shrimp boats and the sailboats anchored in the inner harbour.
After that, it was all dinner, laptop movies, and sleep.
No comments:
Post a Comment