On 7/31/2015 9:43 AM, Patricia Weart wrote: Thanks Pat, that's appreciated! Connie
Connie, you will always vicariously have my boat.
Pat
On 7/21/15, 8:40 AM, "Conbert Benneck" <chbenneck@gmail.com> wrote:
On 7/20/2015 6:16 PM, Michael Murphy wrote:
Mike
Thanks for the good information.
You do know how to make an old boatless guy jealous.
Connie
The small town of Oriental NC bills itself as the *Sailing Capital of North Carolina*. It does have a large number of big boat marinas but also has good facilities for small boat sailors. It provides a 1st class public ramp with 2 floating piers, a kayak launch, and a free downtown dock for overnight visitors (limited space esp. in the summer).
You can find gunk-holes to explore and well-sheltered anchorages every 3 to 6 miles on the Neuse River between New Bern and Pamlico Sound. I made 2 trips from Oriental this week. On the first trip I reefed at the ramp. Although the creek where the ramp is located is sheltered you can easily experience twice the wind just a 1ÂŽ2 mile offshore on the 3 mile wide Neuse River. After sailing under the high-rise bridge I was treated to low winds, about 8-9 knots, so out went the reef. An hour later I looked over my shoulder and saw a line of white up river. The reef quickly went back in and over the next hour the wind rose to 15 to 16 knots. Sailing at 5 knots and occasionally surfing at 6 knots I ducked into South River instead of my intended beach-combing destination. After an hour or two exploring anchorages in South River the wind died to a comfortable 9-10 knots for a good close-haul trip back to Oriental.
The following Friday, I returned to do some beach-combing on a 3Ž4 mile long beach near the mouth of the Neuse. Winds were lighter so I felt comfortable anchoring off the beach. It is a difficult place to anchor since in many areas a thin layer of sand overlays a hard pan of compressed peat. Your anchor appears to set in the sand but once it¹s stressed it slides thru the sand across the top of the peat layer. On an earlier trip I had thought that I solved that problem by physically setting the point of my Delta plow anchor into the peat layer. Upon my return I was surprised to see that the plow point broke out with a 8²x 8²chunk of peat impaled by it. To anchor here you have to find the mud bottoms and to take a second anchor close ashore where the sand is thicker.