Oriental Life

Oriental, NC
N 35 01.491 W 076 41.70

There's a reason that we like Oriental so much; life is good here.

On Sunday, I walked to a nearby park where I could have a view out over the Neuse River. It was a lovely day, sunny with a nice 15 knot breeze. One could not have asked for a better day to sail. Oriental is said to be the sailing capital of NC, with 3 sailboats per person. Inexplicably, on this day there were 2,000 sailboats to my left tied up at the dock and only 3 out on the river sailling.

At the public dock, there is a constant stream of sailors and ex sailors who like to hang around docks and talk about cruising. Many of them recognize the W32 immediately and are anxious to question us about the cruising life. It's good for one's ego.

In the afternoon, our great friends Penny and Richard sailed in to Oriental on Viking Rose. We last saw them in Marathon, and it was they who prompted us to get off our butts and sail to the Bahamas. It was great to see them again.

Last night we had dinner at the Steamer, a local restaurant. That's a rare treat for Libby and I. Generally we have dinner in restaurants only once or twice per year. Last night, we wound up in the middle of a Rotary Club meeting, so the entertainment was listening to 100 elderly men singing The Old Folks At Home.

This morning, we were invited to have breakfast with Viking Rose, but we got up too late. Instead, I went to The Bean, a coffee shop only 50 feet away from the dock. There, I met a delightful guy named Jim. Jim was a sailor from Puget Sound, and he once had workd on a merchant ship that sailed up the Hudson. We talked about the beauty of the Hudson Valley. He also mentioned that he worked in the Borsch Belt in the Catskills. That reminded me of my own story. I'll put that in tomorrow's post.