In the land of Dragons

3/10/16 and 3/11/16

We left Balhaven early as we were excited to get going. Our next stop was going to be Oriental NC. We had to cross the Pamlico sound on our way. Similar to the Albemarle, the Pamlico sound proved to be exciting. We again had those steep 3’ waves that only the sounds can provide. The windshield wiper, as small as it is, came in handy today with all the spray.

We also passed the 300 mile mark on our trip odometer!

Entering the channel for oriental was exciting with reduced visibility, a narrow channel with the wind and current pushing us out of it, and a few crab pots sprinkled in to keep it exciting. We crash landed on the town dock. We made quite a spectacle of ourselves by being blown off  the dock before we could fully secure the boat. Wade and a number of bystanders saved our bacon by holding us off the seawall as we got more lines to cleats and horsed the In Sanity around and back onto the dock.

After the excitement,ice cream was the obvious de-stressor. Oriental came through in spades. Immediately across the dock was “The Bean”; a coffee and ice cream hangout where we were able to finally satisfy ourselves as only ice cream can.

We ran into a number of great characters in Oriental. Everyone was incredibly friendly and helpful. We will definitely return. One example of this is our need for a new impeller for the generator. It was not a common part and we had to ship it in. We asked a marina if that was OK even though we weren’t staying there and they said sure thing. We ended up staying and chatting with them for a while.

We could stay on the Oriental town dock for 48 hours for free. So we did.

3/11/16

The second day, we toured the town some more including the nearby “beach” where Emily decided to go for a swim in the balmy 58 degree water….There may have been some talk of a bet between wade and Em that she wouldn’t last 3 minutes….Wade ended up buying drinks that night. We had dinner at M and Ms, an excellent restaurant with incredibly fresh and delicious scallops. We will be back here next time!

We also encountered a few rare North Carolina Dragon (Draco Guardianus Carolinus) nesting areas! This egg is just starting to hatch. We left quickly in case momma dragon came home.

More Ice Cream and exploring rounded out our second day in Oriental. I can't tell you about ALL that we found – I need to leave a few secrets for you, the reader, to discover on your visit! Definitely put Oriental on the “Must see” list!