Thursday-Friday May 26-27:  Oriental NC up through the Alligator River

     We once again secured a spot at a free dock in Oriental, though space was at a premium.  This town loves cruisers, and provides two free docks as well as clean restrooms.  However, it is also a town that has fallen on difficult times.  Many houses are for sale, a factory right on the water is closed, and a few businesses on the main street have changed hands a few times and are now vacant.  One of the remaining businesses - the Island Provision Company, which also runs a small marina - now lends out courtesy bikes to cruises to make the run for groceries.  Thursday morning, we donned our backpacks and set off.  That store wasn’t yet open, so we set off on the hike to the Walmart Express.  A few blocks into our walk, a car pulled alongside us.  “You folks heading to the grocery store?”  They asked.  We were, we said.  “It’s closed.”  They informed us.  “We don’t have a grocery store anymore.”  They then pulled into a nearby parking lot and told us to get in, they would take us to somewhere with groceries.  Dan and I piled into the backseat and our hosts - former cruisers originally from Rhode Island - filled us in on the grocery store’s demise.  The Walmart Express chain, after having installed themselves into many small towns across America and successfully put smaller Mom & Pop places out of business, decided they weren’t making enough money and closed all of its operations.  (In Oriental it closed down a family-run grocery, and a local pharmacy.)  After many months of no grocery store and stalled negotiations to buy the building, Oriental will have a new Piggly Wiggly in place in the near future.  In the meantime… our hosts dropped us off at a Dollar General.

     We’ve been to one of these before.  Basically it’s a cheap general store that has a LOT of snack food and some canned goods along with all kinds of non-food items that are made and sold for next to nothing.  This one also had a cooler with some cheese and milk next to the dizzying array of soda.  We were mainly interested in fresh meat, fresh produce, and butter, but settled for a few cans of cat food.  While we were staring at the potato chips and beef jerky a woman came over to us.  “Are y’all cruisers?”  She asked.  “I saw you got dropped off.  Do y’all want a ride back to the boat?”  

    Back at the boat, we decided not to hang around for the consignment shop to open (at 10:30) and Dan prepared for us to leave while I made a quick trip back to the corner Island Provision Company, now open.  They have a small shelf in the back with bargains and I was hoping to find some stationery.  To my delight when I walked in, they had a large display of fresh produce.  “Trying to make up for the lack of grocery store.”  The owner told me.  They hosted a farmer’s market in the parking lot every Saturday, and kept this small stock of fresh produce during the week.  I snatched up the last tub of strawberries as well as some veggies.  

     Isn’t Oriental great?

     Thus supplied, we headed out and back onto the ICW.  Along the way, we were treated to a display of some kind of military vessel - two of them were zipping around with several men aboard each.  No one had uniforms, and there was no insignia save the American flag, so we figured they were test drives of new vessels.  We dropped the anchor in Slade Creek for the night, mile 140, off the Pungo River.   

Military boats out for a test ride

Sunset in Slade Creek

     Friday we left fairly early.  We hoped to get in more than 40 miles today, so we could be in the Dismal Swamp when/if the tropical whatever brewing offshore arrived.  This part of the ICW is part creek, part river, part canal.  There are more crab pots, but nothing like the minefields of lobster buoys in Maine.  It’s still sunny and hot, the beginning of the holiday weekend, and everyone with a boat is out on the water, private and commercial.

     We made a brief stop at RE Mayo, the fish processing plant we’d visited last fall.  This place is such a gem.  Where else can you just tie up at a dock, walk through the working part of the building and be greeted with smiles and directions to the little store where fish, marine supplies, and hardware is sold?  We’ve heard too, that if there’s room, you can spend the night right at the dock for forty cents/foot.  I selected some frozen shrimp and frozen flounder while Dan browsed for the right size bolt he needed to fix the arm of the helm chair.  Here we met Laura, who is single-handing Artemis after many years ashore working in mental health care.  We continued our journey together, though we parted ways when she went to Bellhaven and we went on to anchor in South Lake, in the Alligator River.  Grilled flounder and corn on the cob for supper!

RE Mayo, Hobucken NC.