Cruising Estrella del Sur: Hampton to Oriental

October 29 - November 5, 2016

Departed Sunset Marina at 8:45 a.m. and headed across the Hampton Roads to reach the ICW. It seemed we we had been travelling for such a long time before we finally hit the ICW mile marker “0”, but hey, only a little over 1000 more to go, if we go as far as Miami. We had made it to the start of a very different type of journey sailing south. While I was trying to feel very excited, I was overwhelmed with sickness. For the next few days we sailed and motor-sailed, anchoring out in some nice anchorages. Unfortunately, no ‘sundowners’ with Paul and Laurie as we didn’t want anyone on 2Outrageous getting sick. As Brad quipped, we should change the name of our boat to ‘2Contageous’.

The beginning of many bridge openings on the ICW.

One evening before sundown Paul came over and assisted Brad with getting up the mainsail up with a revised system of lazy jacks that will hold the sail in place when it is lowered. Fortunately, by the end of the third day my fever broke and I was feeling well enough to dinghy into town for a walk in Belhaven. It was a nice venture as we were able to see some trick or treaters and nicely decorated homes. Temperatures during this time were quite cool and for me, downright freezing, especially on the water. Good thing we had our ‘Propane Buddy’ to keep us warm.

Trick-or-treaters in Belhaven

On Monday November 1st we had a fairly short day, which was good as our chart plotter was continuously cutting out as we entered Goose Creek. I am so glad I had installed the Garmin charts on the ipad. We were going to make a quick stop at the Mayo Co. en route for some fresh shrimp. After stopping we decided that as rickety and decrepit as the dock was, it was only $14 per night and we were going to stay. We made the unanimous decision to go for a little walk and then have a shrimpfest afterwards. We quickly learned how much Laurie likes to walk. Our short little walks could end up hours long. Clearly we needed the exercise after sailing for so many days…Brad and Paul may not have agreed but complied to Laurie’s “just a little farther”.

Paul enjoying the walk!

The fresh shrimp we had for dinner!

Julie cleaning and deveining the shrimp!

Final product which was a group effort.

On Tuesday November 2nd we had the anchor up at 8:08 a.m. and headed for Oriental. It was quite a tease, as on the way into Oriental Harbour I did get some cell service for the first time in days, but by the time we anchored there was none and wifi was sporadic. I was disappointed but was starting to get used to ‘no service' with Roam Mobility. Paul picked us up in his dinghy and we went into to town for another walk, which we would become so accustomed to when travelling with Paul and Laurie. The walk turned into a bike ride (the town provides loaner bikes for sailors) - first one in years for me. We soon realized what a cool little town Oriental was…there is even a free dock there but it was occupied by other boaters. Early the next morning Paul radioed us on the vhf to tell us a boater had left. We headed in to the dock for the 48 hour maximum stay. During our stay we made use of the free bicycles and did some shopping and touring around. We enjoyed our morning coffee at the cafe across the street, “The Bean” ,which had amazing scones, the little marine store down the street that had a little bit of everything and we picked up a piece of artwork for the boat at a very cool little gallery. We also had a refrigeration guy from a local marina, Deaton Boat Yard, come for a boat call and look at our top load freezer. He let out a bit of refrigerant (rather than a leak, it as actually overcharged) which quickly solved our problems. After our second night we headed back out to the anchorage for our last night in Oriental, which was a very chilly 5 degrees C. This was such a cute town…going to be on the list for the trip home for sure.