Re-blogged by permission of Lindsay Scheuer

Thursday, November 10, 2011

Oriental, NC

A couple of weekends ago, Nick planed a surprise weekend getaway to celebrate my birthday! The last few months have been so crazy and a night away was just the thing we needed.  Nick was able to keep it a surprise until the day before we left.  He booked a room at a the Cartwright House Bed and Breakfast in Oriental, NC. We had driven through Oriental a few years ago and loved it.  It is a sleepy little harbor town on the coast of North Carolina with about 800 residents.  You can walk or bike everywhere and it is perfectly charming.  

 

 

Our B&B was over a hundred years old.  When we got there on Friday night, the owners had drinks ready for happy hour on the porch.  We were able to walk a few short blocks to dinner. Life is was so much slower there!

 

From our room (on the top floor) you could see the Neuse River and all over town.  The owners recommended that we watch the sunrise over the water in the morning.  I am so glad we got up for it. We set our alarms and when they went off, Nick looked out the window and saw the faintest little bit of light.  He yelled out “IT’S HAPPENING!” and jumped out of bed!  Haha –  turns out a sunrise happens pretty slowly, so we didn’t miss anything!  We grabbed some coffee and walked town to the park on the water.  The sunrise was amazingly beautiful.   It was an awesome way to start the day.

 

 

After a delicious breakfast, we took our bikes out to explore around town.  We rode along the harbor, stopped at an art shop and had a mimosa, and dropped in a few antique shops.  It is so much fun to explore a new place.

 

Although it was just one night away, it felt like we had gone on a long vacation – such a fun weekend!

Posted by Nick and Lindsay

 

Read More from ‘Life to the Fullest’ at: http://thescheuers.blogspot.com/ 

 

It seems my days are spent in classrooms, behind the wheel, or in front of the computer facing a mountain of paperwork.  On those computer days, I find that I need to take a break every couple hours to get my eyes away from the screen and compose my thoughts.

During those break times, I enjoy sitting on the back porch watching the critters in my little wildlife habitat.  For those who read my post last year about Bluebirds, I did make it back to that little barber shop and purchased two more bluebird houses.  Both of the new ones were placed in the front yard where my wife could view any activity.  Although these are in close proximity to one another, I figured it would give the birds a choice of where they would like to build their nest.

The bluebirds came back this year and built their nest in the back yard once again.  They are very territorial when raising their family, and daddy bluebird refused to allow any other birds to perch within 20 to 25 feet from the nest.  When the young leave the nest, usually all are gone within two hours.  This year I was fortunate to see one of them as it took its first flight.  The little one very nearly hit the ground before it gathered enough strength to fly upward to a nearby branch.  Two of the young ones have been visiting occasionally to rest and grab a bite to eat before flying off once again.

Other critters include one squirrel, one young rabbit, a pair of doves and a turtle.  The squirrel and rabbit frequently travel around the yard together, eating grass and the sunflower seeds that I throw out for the doves and cardinals.  The doves are peaceful birds and get along with all of the others.  Since hurricane Irene came through a couple of weeks ago, another pair of doves has taken up residence in the yard.  The new pair are very light in color, almost white in comparison to the others.

Probably the oldest resident of the habitat is the turtle.  We’ve been watching it grow over the years, but don’t see it very often.  I suppose it spends much of its time under the bushes or in one of the flower gardens.

Beyond the blue horizon, Waits a beautiful day.
Goodbye to things that bore me, Joy is waiting for me.
I see a new horizon, My life has only begun.
Beyond the blue horizon, Lies a rising sun.

I cannot sing this song as well as Lou Christie, but if you dream of blue horizons they can certainly be seen from the many waterfront properties available in this area.  Find your joy along the banks of the Neuse, Bay or Trent Rivers or one of their many protected creeks.  Enjoy our gorgeous sunsets as you plan your journey beyond the blue horizon from your private dock or one of the many marinas nearby.

Values for most homes and lots are much lower than they were during the “housing bubble” and mortgage rates are unbelievably low.  Now would be an awesome time to lock into the current rates, as each 1% increase adds 10% to your monthly payment.

Contact me at 252-675-3038 or Joe@JoeBrant.com for more information, or visit my website at www.JoeBrant.com.

  

Paddle On! Coastal North Carolina is one of the finest flat-water kayaking destinations on the East Coast. Explore the salt marshes and sheltered waters while learning about the wildlife and waterfowl that inhabit the creeks around River Dunes.

Paddle the quiet waters with a qualified naturalist and kayaking instructor. This 1/2 day paddle on April 30th is for novice and advanced participants in touring kayaks.

On the Eco-Tour, you’ll learn about:

• The Neuse River watershed
• Herons, egrets, osprey, rails, and killdeer
• Trout, drum, shrimp and crabs
• Native saltwater plants

Arrive on Friday, April 29th and join everyone for dinner at the Harbor Club. Saturday morning, you’ll meet your kayaking guide for a safety and instructional session and then we’ll head out together for the creeks. After the morning kayak tour, enjoy lunch at the Club and an afternoon riding bikes or relaxing by the pool.

A Paddling Perspective Weekend Schedule

• Friday, April 29th: Check-in
• Friday Dinner: 6:00-9:00. Enjoy Chef Robert’s new Spring Menu at the Club. Reservations required.
• 9am Saturday, April 30th: Meet the Kayak Guide at the Harbor Club Boat Ramp. Brief safety and instructional session followed by a three-hour cruise…
• 12:30: Lunch at the Club
• Afternoon: Open. Enjoy the bicycles, golf carts, canoes or head out on your boat for an afternoon cruise.
• 5:30 pm: Craft and Micro-Brew Beer Tasting. Sample our new Spring line-up of local brews.
• Supper: a selection of the Chef’s favorite dishes.
  • Low-Country Salmon: Fillet of Atlantic Salmon dusted with Blackening Spice and Pan Seared served with Charleston Grits and a Spicy Corn Cream Sauce $21
  • Angus Filet Mignon: 8oz center-cut Angus Filet grilled to perfection Served with Cabernet Reduction $27
  • Chicken Marsala: Twin Breasts of Chicken lightly pounded and sautéed with rich Marsala Wine, Mushrooms and shallots $18
  • Sicilian Plum Tomato Penne: Portabella Mushrooms and Fresh Herbs slow cooked in a Rich Plum Tomato Sauce and tossed with Penne Pasta Finished with Shaved Pecorino-Romano Cheese $14

$75/person. Includes kayaking, all equipment and lunch. Does not include Friday Dinner or Saturday Supper.

Please plan to bring sun protection, comfortable weather-appropriate clothing, and shoes that can get wet. You will be on the water for three hours. Bottled water will be provided.

Guests Welcome! Non-Members need Cottage or Saturday Dinner Reservations to participate in the Eco-Tour at this special rate..

Reserve a Space!(800) 975-9565 • (252) 249-4908 www.RiverDunes.com/cottages

Day started off cool with strong head winds and waves, again on the nose.  We went about 4 miles and the engine started to slow down.  Figured that it was a clogged fuel filter so we got into the lee of the shore and dropped the anchor and changed it.  Worked fine after that but suspect that we may have a bad tank of fuel.  From there we went onto a long sound that was a couple of miles wide and vanished over the horizon, so it was several hours of pounding into them until we got a change in course and could get the jib out.  Speed went from 4′s to 7′s on the turn.  The sound lasted for almost 20 miles before we got into another narrower section with mostly pine forests along each side.  From there we went onto a long wide river for several more miles and then to the town of Oriental.  When I was checking the engine in the morning I found a broken bolt on the bracket that holds the adjusting arm for the alternator.  Figured that it should hold for the day and that we would be able to find one in Oriental.  The town of Oriental is called the “sailing capital of North Carolina”. Cannot argue that but it is very friendly to boaters.  There is a town dock which you are allowed to stay at for 48 hours per month.  A few blocks away they have a dinghy dock for people who anchor in the harbour.  Once we got tied up it was shoes on and off to find a hardware store.  There is one in town which we found out.  There was also a small grocery store.  We talked to a couple who came by the boat and they say they drive 30 miles to a larger store.  There is also a store that has used boat stuff, anchors chain etc etc.  Got the stuff I needed to do the repairs, a metric 6×14 bolt and aluminum putty.  Got work done by supper time and then phoned Homeland Security to advise them of my arrival at Oriental, which I had forgotten to do in the rush to get the engine repaired.  Was told by homeland security that I had never phoned in before and there was no record of me since West Palm.  Told the officer that I had been phoning in each time that I tied to a dock as advised.  Then gave him the names of the officers that I had talked to, the dates and locations.  Said that was Ok and not to phone North Carolina any more on this trip.  Did phone 3 different 24 hour phone numbers before I could get an open office.  Must find a more up to date publication with numbers than the March 2011 issue.  We did see lots of Dolphins today, probably in the neighbourhood of 50 to 70.  This is the first day that we have seen large pods of them.  One pod I counted 8. 

The other thing that was interesting was one stretch we went through that was relatively narrow was filled with boats fishing clams.  One half of the river all the clamming was manual with the people doing it using rakes.  On the other half of the river in a one mile stretch there were probably 20 boats that were using mechanical means.  They have a conveyer belt and scoop they lower into the water and as the boat goes forward it scoops them off the bottom and they pick out the live ones as they come up the conveyor belt and the empty shells just go over the back of the boat.  That is the only place we saw any boats doing this.  There were also about a dozen boats that were dragging trawl nets.  They would fill the net, bring the net up and then sort out the live ones.  Spent a quiet night at Oriental until someone tossed a beer bottle on the deck.

Read more of the adventures of Jim and Phyllis at: http://www.sailblogs.com/member/chainreactiontoo/

Rich and Kelly Rae have been back in Oriental the past week visiting and preparing to head out when the conditions are right.

Follow more of Rich and Kelly Rae’s Excellent Adventures here.

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

Read more of Chris and Tracy’s adventures aboard Sanuk

Sanuk – 1977 Baba 30 – Hull #1

Blue Moon

Oriental, NC was one of my milestones: one of the places I had marked on my mental map of the east coast as being a place of significance.

Oriental is a tiny town with a lot of boats. More boats than people, they say, and I believe it.  I’d been there once before, with Helena, by land.  We wanted to check out “The Sailing Capital of North Carolina”.  It’s not exactly Newport or Mystic, but it is a friendly little village with lots of boats.

 
View from the Oriental Town Dock
photo jalmberg

I visited the Oriental Marina, mainly so that I could take a shower and catch up on my laundry.  I was afraid that any further neglect of these vital activities would cause the Department of Homeland Security to raise it’s threat level from orange to red.

The Blue Moon also need a bit of a scrub, and it was while I was swabbing the Blue Moon’s decks that I started receiving visitors.  Two of the visitors were wooden boat fans, wanting to know what kind of boat the Blue Moon was.  The third was a reporter named Bernie Harbarts, from towndock.net, the excellent Oriental news website.

Bernie wanted to interview me for the Shipping News column that he writes for the website. He took a ton of pictures, inside and out.  In fact, he probably has more pictures of the Blue Moon than I do.  And after he had asked me enough questions, we just started chatting about sailing, etc., and I more or less started interviewing him!

Bernie and his friend
photo copyright Bernie Harbarts

It turns out that I had heard of him, before.  Bernie is, when not at his home base in Oriental, what you’d have to call an adventure writer.  That is, he goes off and has adventures, and then writes books about them.

After sailing around the world in a 50′ sailboat, he rode the mule Woody across the country, from Oriental to San Diego.  The result was the book “Too Proud to Ride a Cow”.

I’d heard about this book, probably on an NPR program, and since I’ve been thinking along very similar lines for a thousand miles or so, had a lot of questions for him.

I won’t bore you the details of our conversation about the book business, but I found it very interesting, and encouraging, to talk to someone who was actually ‘doing it’.

Anyway, he’s a terrifically interesting and funny guy and I’m sure his book is too.  I’m going to buy a copy as soon as I get home and recommend you check it out.  Check out his website, too: http://riverearth.com.  Tell him John from the Blue Moon sent you!

After departing Oriental, I entered what I have come to call “The Wilderness”.  This is the stretch of the ICW between Pamlico Sound, and Albermarle Sound.  I have been in some pretty wild places on this voyage, including the Georgia marshes, but this stretch seemed the most wild and isolated of them all.  Not even a blink of a cell phone bar for two whole days.  That’s a record!

I’m sure it’s not that isolated if you are traveling by land, but by sea it really did feel that way.  And when I was swinging at anchor at night, with not a light, or house, or car, or boat in sight, I really felt like I was ‘out there’, in the wilderness.

Nonsense, of course, on the busy east coast of the US, but feelings are reality, and the scenery really was beautiful.

 
Morning on the ICW

Cabin Boy, waiting patiently for another day’s adventure to begin

A triple headland

Suddenly, the leaves are turning…
Notice the fog on the water

The light is beautiful on these woods

The beauty of traveling by slow boat — no wake!

End of another day

I’m not sure if these pictures capture the beauty of this area, but it really was lovely.

Meanwhile, a storm seems to be brewing up north. More on that, next time!

Read more of John’s blog posts at www.UnlikelyBoatbuilder.com, you’ll be glad you did. 
Bernie’s website is also a joy to read: http://riverearth.com.