On our way north toward Norfolk, we stopped for one night at the Oriental Marina and Inn, in Oriental, NC.
It is a quaint, family-owned motel with about a dozen boat slips along the dock of a bay filled with commercial fishing trawlers.
We met other boaters and motel guests on the lawn and on the Adirondack chairs. A casual, friendly atmosphere.
As it turned out, there was another boat named R&R two slips down from us. So here is a shot of R&R with R&R and R&R.
We walked parts of the town, and enjoyed it. Well kept homes along quiet small town streets. It was a welcome change from the large and busy marinas where we often find ourselves.
The morning we left I had breakfast with Danny Meadows, the delivery captain who met us in Nashville in May 2019 when we bought R&R, and was in charge of the 10 day delivery voyage upstream on the flooded Mississippi River, with me as first mate and trainee. We remembered some fun times, and some scary times, from that trip!
Danny lives about 8 miles from Oriental. I enjoyed catching up with him over breakfast, and we then showed him the improvements we have made to R&R since he was last aboard.
At Oriental Marina we met a couple from Boyne city, Michigan who were guests aboard a classic 1950’s Mathews motor yacht heading to Florida. She has much simpler technology, so the dockhand was the “bow thruster” to push her off the dock.
Oriental, NC. Another Mayberry.
