Sunday, June 7
Mile Hammock – Oriental
63 nm 8.5 hours underway
We had another early start—wanting to make the first bridge opening at 7 and hopefully get ahead of the weekend traffic.
Today was supposed to be a shorter, easier day. We had been looking forward to stopping in Beaufort, NC and spending some time exploring. Unfortunately, when we started calling around for a slip, we quickly realized that wasn’t going to happen. The Big Rock Blue Marlin Tournament—one of the largest and oldest in the country—was going on from June 5–14, and there wasn’t a slip to be had anywhere.
So… we pivoted.
We made the call to head straight to Oriental, which added another 30 nm to the day.
The trip started out going through Camp Lejeune, complete with all the “Danger” and “Keep Out” signs lining the waterway. Apparently, there are times when they run exercises and shut down the ICW entirely. Definitely a stretch that keeps you paying attention.
As we got closer to Atlantic Beach and Beaufort, the weekend traffic started to build. What started as a quiet morning gradually turned into a much busier ride.
Coming into Oriental requires crossing the Neuse River. The Neuse has a reputation for getting angry—and we’ll be spending a lot more time on it tomorrow—but today, we got lucky. It was calm and an easy crossing.
Oriental is known as the sailing capital of North Carolina, and out on the Neuse was the first time we’d really seen a number of sailboats with their sails up. With that much open water, it looked like it would be a great place to sail. We both said the same thing—it just looked fun.
We made it into Oriental without any issues, but if we’re being honest, it was a little quieter and smaller than we expected – and southern towns on Sundays don’t usually have a lot going on. After two long travel days though, we weren’t exactly disappointed. We were tired, and a quiet stop wasn’t the worst thing.
We ended up eating at the restaurant at the marina. We don’t usually expect much from waterfront spots like that—but this one surprised us. Heather was able to get a fried flounder basket with gluten-free breading, and Kevin had a crab cake that was actually mostly crab. Good drinks, reasonable prices, and really solid food.
After a long day, that’s about all you can ask for.
Leave a Reply