Submitted by kiper on Tue, 10/19/2010 – 10:55
Day 10 – Today is a bright sunny warm day in our little spot in the south. We may be here in Oriental for 2-3 days. We need a part, and Chris needs to get some work done. After here we will be stopping in the Bo-zone. It’s proper name is Beaufort, NC, but if you’re a boater it is simply known as the Bo-zone. Reason being is you hit Beaufort, and every single shop, restaurant and bar, gives you a wooden nickel when you visit their place of business. Then at night you use all your acquired nickels for free drinks. (It would just be rude to not use your gifted wooden coins of happiness) So… you drink until you use all your nickels, and then can’t get up the next day and off to the next destination, and end up staying again. Then the next day the cycle starts again. Sometimes for days…. it’s a boat drinking town. Some people avoid it completely. Not us. We are surely disciplined enough to go there 
The impeller housing on the boat is leaking freshwater into the bilge. Not sure why yet, Chris seems to think it’s a bearing problem. So he will remove it and give it to the guys at Sail Craft to check it out. This means a set back for a day or two. It’s ok, we are content here.
I just want to say this really is a sailboat friendly little town. There is a town dock that has 2 slips that you may stay at for free up to 48 hrs. The depth is 5-6 ft and 4 ft up to the bulkhead where we see smaller boats tied up. There is also a separate dinghy dock on the opposite side of the Oriental Yacht Club. A nice dock with 3 garbage bins, two for your trash and one for recyclables. Nice I wish every stop was that thoughtful. We also love the marine consignment store here. Heck just anchoring to go there may be worth it for you. It is a small shop, but isn’t lacking a bit.
Later, we went back to shore for dinner, and met 2 guys in Kayaks paddling down the intracoastal to Key West. What a great adventure, but it will be a looong, and tiring journey for those two young boys. I don’t know how much they researched that trip, but I hope they make it. I wouldn’t want to paddle against those currents in Georgia with gators watching me that’s for sure!! Anyway, dinner was fabulous at the Oriental Marina/Restaurant/Tiki Bar. I recommend the Cajun Shrimp and Scallops….. mmmuah! (Take that guide-book!)
It was a good day, followed by a good night…. and I get to sleep in tomorrow. Sweet
I was a boat captain for many years and always made it a point to stop in Oriental on my many trips up and down the coast from Fort Lauderdale to Cape Cod. It IS a boater friendly place. I also enjoyed Beaufort, too, and the canon shot at sundown. The last time I made that trip was back in ’92.
Want to have fun with the kayakers? Try this. When I was bringing an Outhouse 51 (Out Island) down the Mississippi waaaaaaay back in the fall of ’75, there were a pair of guys who had bought an aluminum boat at Sears and were rowing down to New Orleans from Minneapolis of all places. We ran into them at the marina in Helena, Arkansas. A marina owner somewhere up the river had asked them if they’d met the two girls who were in a canoe paddling down to New Orleans yet? This got the two guys all worked up to meet these two distaff adventurers. Of course there WAS NO pair of girls but the marina operators would telephone the next marina down the line and pass on the information. Those poor guys always kept missing the girls by a day or two. It would have been fun to know if they ever caught on the the prank.