We departed Beaufort about 9:30am and made it to Oriental around 12:30pm. We weren’t sure where exactly the free docks were, or even if there were any available as they are on a first arrival basis. If they were occupied by other boats, we would have to resort to a backup plan. We crossed the Neuse River and entered the harbor. We could see two boats occupying the one set of free docks, and the other set were behind a large fishing boat, so we couldn’t tell until we got past that. As we eased past the fishing boat, we saw the other docks were open. I turned into the outside slip and we tied off. I went about adjusting the bumpers and lines, then sat down for a beer while Lauren took Frank for a walk.
Once we were settled, we took the bikes off so we could go for a ride. Just as we were about to leave, a large, old wooden sailboat came around the corner of the shrimp boat and was pulling into the dock next to us. The sailboat had a long bowsprit with netting, and cannons on the bow! I offered assistance to grab a line, but he said he was good. We left and biked over to a little store called Inland Waterway Provision Co. where I picked up some boat supplies and found a bottle of stuff that says will eliminate rust stains. I bought this to try in hopes of cleaning the rust stains that have developed on Klondike due to the salt water. We continued on to a Dollar General and Piggly Wiggly for some groceries and snacks, then returned back to the boat to put everything away. Once done with the reprovisions, we relaxed a bit on the back deck before we took the bikes once again to tour the town. We spoke to our new sailboat neighbor, Martin, who was from the Netherlands. He said he salvaged the cannons in the Caribbean and was on his way back home across the Atlantic Ocean! After our chat (which was hard to understand with his accent) we went exploring again. Oriental has a bunch of dragons painted on rocks throughout the town, and a large meditation labyrinth by the water. We returned to the boat once again and took Frank for another walk as the sun set. We ate dinner and debated our next destination- we originally had planned to stay on the ICW and go to Belhaven, but now we think we want to veer off to the route less traveled and see the Outer Banks, with Ocracoke being our first stop there…
