A bit more excitement on this journey to Beaufort, NC. We left Topsail around 7:10 am (Tuesday, 7/23) since we had a longer sail today. Our first encounter – hey, what’s that BIG tug/barge doing perpendicular to the channel and blocking oncoming traffic??  Tried to hail the BIG guy on the VHF but no answer. Finally, he slowly pushed his barge closer to shore allowed us to pass in the channel. Two and one-half hours into the trip we entered Camp LeJeune Marine Base’s live firing range. They do actual live firing exercises across the ICW. Yikes!  Fortunately for us there were none scheduled for today. We traversed this area for about 15 miles and came to the community of Swansboro, advertised as the “Friendly City by the Sea”. It looked very friendly from our vantage point, but we didn’t go ashore. Here, the color of water turned more turquoise than green. Beautiful! We saw more “pleasure craft” both sail and power, a few shrimp boats, and more beautiful houses. I only took one house photo this time because it was big and so “white house-ish” looking and appeared to have a six-car garage so I just couldn’t resist.

We arrived at the Beaufort Yacht Basin around 2:00 in quite a breeze. After three attempts to try to back into the slip we decided to go in bow first. We shimmied right in bow first to a watchful crew ready to catch our lines. Once tied up we saw that we had Gold Loopers for neighbors. For our non-looper friends, that means they have already completed their loop (circle). Jan and Lee aboard Shangri-La were delightful and full of looper knowledge (Maridee they said hi!). They are also Harbor Hosts which means they volunteer their time to help us novices whenever we need help. They always have local knowledge which is invaluable information for us. We chatted with them for a while, swapped stories across the dock, then headed into town for a short doggie walk.

Wednesday, (7/24) morning we woke up to temperatures at least 20 degrees cooler than yesterday. A very welcome relief! We took another long stroll around town in the brisk morning air. What a great place – the town fronts the river and is filled with lots of magnificent historic homes built in the 1800’s and early 1900’s and several in the 1700’s. Most of the houses we saw had historic plaques on them. The gardens were beautiful with flowers and color everywhere. It’s a quaint yet bustling town and it would be fun to spend more time exploring but we were already committed to go to Oriental, NC. because of boat parts being delivered to the marina there.

Back on the boat Lee met with Michael and gave him their Great Loop Navigation notes – priceless – and then helped us push away from the dock. Wow, how nice are they?

We got underway at 10:30. On the way out we encountered a blockage of the channel again. This time it was a gaggle of little people in a sabot sailing program. We waited till the big people in power boats herded them to one side then we proceeded out the channel. Soon Scout was getting hungry, so we stopped at Jarrett Bay Boat Works for fuel. Gave her 140 gallons of diesel and she was feeling good again. For those interested, the diesel price was $2.40 per gallon. We’ve paid more and we’ve paid less so it seemed fair. Pulled away from the fuel dock for the short journey to Oriental, NC passing several “pleasure craft” both sail and power, a few shrimp boats and a pirate ship.

Arrived in Oriental and slid into the slip to find two Looper boats residing next to us. I moseyed over and introduced myself to Sue and Jim on Wanderlure. Sue had already called the Piggly-Wiggly (love that name) van to pick her up and take her to the market. She invited me and we were promptly picked up, left to shop and delivered back to the boat with our groceries. Gotta love the small-town hospitality. Sue and Jim are doing the loop in stages so they will head back to their homeport in Jacksonville, FL tomorrow but invited us to stop by whenever we’re in the area. Didn’t meet the other looper folks today.

I was able to find a hair salon within walking distance of the boat. I walked in and found the owner, Stacey, who agreed to take me later in the day. It’s always scary but I went back to the salon and Stacy started to work on me. She really is a perfectionist and decided the first treatment wasn’t the right color and did a second treatment. She says to me “you want your hair to be the color of a banana – the inside of the banana – not the outside”. Ha ha! So, two and one-half hours later, I was transformed back to my original very short, no dark roots, the color of the inside of a banana, hair. She was amazing and I left a very happy person I highly recommend Stacy at “Indulgence” salon in Oriental.

Today, Thursday (7/25) brought us another amazingly beautiful day with nice breezes and mild temperatures. On our walk this morning we found this town to be quite charming as well. Not as sophisticated as Beaufort but more rural, laid back, and a friendly relaxed town.  I read somewhere that Oriental is contagious. We heard that many boaters stopped for just for the night, ended up going ashore, finding a Realtor, and making it their homeport. Hmmm, sounds like my kind of place!

The Oriental Marina and Inn is great – it has a lush grassy lawn right in front of the boat. Both Snooki and The Duke agree. There is also a Tiki Bar and a small restaurant with outside seating overlooking the water and our boat. Across from us is a working shrimp boat business where there are at least eight shrimp boats parked right now. They cruise into the dock unload their shrimp then dock four deep. We bought a pound of fresh jumbo shrimp today for $10.00. It feels very comfortable here, so I think we’ll stay for a few more days…… Will keep you posted.