03: The Refit
Oriental, NC

Oriental, NC

Oriental has been our home for six weeks. Tomorrow we leave.

 

Six weeks ago when we started our sailboat search, we had only heard of Oriental because of some boats we’d seen listed online. We had no idea that Oriental was “the sailing capitol of North Carolina” nor did we know that of all the places we could have started our journey, this by far was the best place for us to be.ย We met some wonderful people during our stay here and we learned so much about our boat, ourselves, and each other.

 

To Paul & Nancy @ Triton: You were our first home in Oriental! Thank you for your help and advice and for guidingย us through our first few weeks of boat ownership.

To Doug and Anne: We wish you 500 Sailcraft man-hours-a-month so you can get your boat on the water and get going on your adventure!

To D & Don: Wish we had the chance to check out Southern Cross – thank you so much for the MANY words of wisdom and advice. We’d love to spend another evening hearing more sailing stories over glasses of wine – that was so enjoyable.

To Merna & Dale, s/v Someday – SO nice meeting you two! Dale, thank you for all of the insights and helpful pointers AND the charts!!! Such a wonderful gift, thank you SO much! I have been sitting at the table all morning pouring over them. SO glad to have them ๐Ÿ™‚

To Debbie L! ย – s/v Illusions will sell quickly, I am so sure – she is a beautiful, well cared-for boat. Thank you so much for all of your help and best of luck in your new land-life!

To Ben & Ed @ West Marine – you guys are awesome! Thanks for all of your help and guidance!!

To Paul @ The Village Hardware – thank you so much for all of your help and for letting us borrow your car to get our propane tank fixed. All the best! “The Swiss Miss” and “The Little Canadian” ๐Ÿ™‚

To Sailcraft: Darryl, Chris, Andy, Dan-the-welder, John, Z, Canada-Dan, Alan, Shannon – you guys are amazing and talented and have been so, so patient with us. You are each so good at what you do – we were in the very best hands possible

To Mark Lucas: We cannot put into words how thankful we are for your guidance, expertise, and, most importantly, your friendship. You are going to kick @$$ as Mariner One: your business will thrive because you are the best at what you do and because you take the very best care of your clients.

 

Some photos of our stay in Oriental, NC:

Image 3
The “Little Free Library” – a little box full of books that you can borrow mounted on a post in the front yard of a local Oriental home.

 

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There’s this thing about Oriental and dragons – they have dragons everywhere! On flags, on wind sockets in the front yards, and painted on random rocks at the beach (like this one).

 

Image 1
I saw this on a run one afternoon – funky!

 

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Sometimes the easiest way to walk your dog is to just get in your golf cart and go.

 

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We passed this a few times on the highway going to Bayboro (the next town) and back.

 

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Our home for the past month. Mom, thank you for sending many, many items to this mailbox ๐Ÿ™‚
Image 21
Z was working on painting these – they are all parts to Doug’s mast, I believe. But in this configuration, they kind of look like a whimsical, modern art installation.

 

Image 39
See? Another dragon!

 

Image 49
Dan The Welder – this guy is awesome! He made us a really nice mount for our solar panels and also added a few inches to our boom gallows. His work is flawless – you literally cannot see where one piece of metal ends and the other begins.

 

Image 32
Z!

 

Image 55
John and Mark working on insulating our backstay.

 

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Bo (Mark’s dog) LOVES Stephane.
Image 37
One of the docks @ Sailcraft.

 

Image 58
Mark in the bucket. I got to go up in the bucket and take a few shots of the boat from above.

 

Image 51
Stephane with Captain Robert Lauzon – Captain Robert did our original boat survey and came back to write up an addendum showing that we completed all of the outstanding issues in the survey (this so we could get hull insurance).

 

Image 44
This is the route we’ll take tomorrow morning – out Whittaker Creek and south!

 

2 thoughts on “Oriental, NC

    • Author gravatar

      You 2 are an amazing gift to everyone. Go forth and be S&S!! All the very best to you both. *hugs*

    • Author gravatar

      hey, Your getting closer! I really hope I get to see you soon ๐Ÿ™‚ Anywhere, just google from Augusta Ill keep track but if you know where your going next that will help ๐Ÿ™‚ dont know how fast you plan on traveling. Loving you both! keep the photos coming!

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