Welcome committee

Yesterday’s travels took us from Belhaven to Oriental, NC where we are now tied in one of the town’s free dock spaces. We left Belhaven at approximately the same time as our friends Bill and Ana on Knot Tide Down but they had been able to make a bit better time than us. They were lucky enough to arrive in Oriental just as someone was leaving one of the three free available dock spaces. Keeping in radio contact with them, we had our sights set on getting one of the others although with all the other boats in the area, the chances were super slim.

When we initially arrived, we dropped our anchor in the busy little anchorage there but as soon as Bill called us on the radio, our hook was quickly retrieved and we raced down to grab the newly-vacated spot on the wall. It took a bit of Captain-Ron type docking to get in there but now all is well. Just minutes after arriving, we were greeted by Suzanne and Pete, two more blog readers who have a boat in the area. They made the drive over to see us and while sitting on our boat, were surprised to see the previous owners of their boat cruise on in to the marina right beside us. Our cockpit quickly became a busy little meeting place. While that was underway, we were also visited by Sid, another reader who keeps his boat in Oriental. We love it! Thanks Sid and thanks Suzanne and Pete for coming down to see us. It really makes us feel welcome in these places when we meet folks like this.

This was quite the little get-together in our cockpit!