We left the dock from the New Bern Grand Marina on Wednesday in time to make the 8:30 am bridge opening and we were entering Oriental, NC and the Oriental Marina and Inn (and Tiki Bar) at 11:30 am. What an exhausting day of cruising today! 😁 The trip brought back exciting and fond memories of day 1 of our cruising days on the last (2nd) Hatteras, Who Cares III, almost three years ago. See blog post “Leaving the Dock! New Bern to Oriental, NC,” November 3, 2014.
Steve had previously lived in Oriental for a period of 5-6 years so he had numerous friends and acquaintances in the area. My family and I had visited him several times from California during those years so I knew many of his friends also, we spent some of the day wandering the tiny town and reconnecting with some of them. At happy hour every day, the marina and inn’s Tiki Bar comes alive with locals! And with no exception on this day, we walked over and joined the get-together. Here is where we were able to reconnect with most of our friends.
After a rousing, friendly exchange with friends and reconnecting and catching up on the last 3 years, we walked to M & M’s and enjoyed a great dinner with more friends…and more fun reconnecting and catching up!
Back at the boat, I connected to the Marina’s WiFi and performed my usual speed test. I determined the download speed was 19.3 Megabytes per second! This is the fastest internet we’ve encountered on this trip, by far…and I’m not holding my breath till we see any faster or anything even close to this speed!
Blog continued below pictures
Today we left Oriental, crossed the Neuse River and ducked into Adams Creek…we’re back on the Intracoastal Waterway. We arrived at Casper’s Marina and topped off the fuel tanks which was the reason for this stop. They have the cheapest (and very convenient) fuel for many miles on the ICW in either direction.
The small town of Swansboro boasts several interesting shops and good restaurants within walking distance of Casper’s Marina, however, we did not venture out this trip.
mv/whocares 