[Rhodes22-list] Outer Banks Adventure of 2005 -- Day 1

[William E. Wickman]

Day One:  To Oriental – Twice

Actually, day one was the day that I started planning this trip some three
months earlier.  I’ll spare the details, but I find planning and
daydreaming about such a trip is quite enjoyable.  Having bought charts and
guide books, I spent many a cold winter evening reading and re-reading the
guidebook; plotting and re-plotting on the charts.

The day of departure was soon upon me, and as always happens when you want
to leave work early for a vacation trip, several “you cannot leave until
this issue is resolved” items came up and I got off to a later start than
planned.  Fortunately, I had packed up the boat over the previous few days
so just had to jump in the truck and go.

Note to File:  Never park your boat outside your office window before a
trip.  It is torture.

My calculations of drive time were wrong, of course, and I arrived to pick
up Sailing Buddy two hours behind schedule.  Sailing Buddy groused a bit,
but he was happy to be on our way and our spirits and anticipation were
running high.  My original plan was to get to Oriental before dusk, rig and
launch the boat, and anchor just outside the launch area for the first
night.  We were barely outside of Raleigh, NC by nightfall.  So before we
even launched, two truisms illustrated themselves.  First, one should never
have a tight schedule in anything dealing with sailing and sailboats.
Second, it doesn’t really matter when you leave on a trip, you will always
arrive at the launch site way past dark.

Note to self:  It is a full 9+ hours of drive time from Knoxville, TN to
Oriental, NC

Stopping somewhere between Raleigh and New Bern for dinner, we both agreed
that we should get a hotel for the night and start out fresh and rested the
next morning.  We hence drove on to New Bern, arriving around 9:30pm to
find numerous hotels.  The evening was still somewhat early and Sailing
Buddy insisted that we should press on to Oriental, some 28 miles further,
and get a hotel there.  We would be at the launch ramp with no driving
first thing the next morning.  Little did we know that 9:30pm is actually
very late in Oriental.

Upon arrival, we quickly found the marina hotel.  It looked nice from the
outside, but we couldn’t find anyone on duty.  Finally, we wandered into
the bar to find it full of drunken sailors.  No surprise here, but it was
Wednesday night and we didn’t expect to find the bartender drunk too!  It
was quite a party, but we were too tired to partake.  The bartender
informed us that the hotel closed at 8:30pm.  A hotel closing?  He couldn’t
get us a room, but offered us a drink for our troubles.  No thanks.  We
could have just slept on the boat, but opted to drive the 28 miles back to
New Bern.  Finally got to bed at around 11:45pm.

Note to self:  Oriental rolls up the sidewalks early.  If you want a room
there, CALL AHEAD.


Sorry, no pictures.  Sailing Buddy was in charge of taking pictures on the
first day and he hasn't sent me any pictures yet.

Bill W.