Boating with Sunset Delight: 2018: Oriental, NC to Camp Lejeune Anchorage

Friday, November 2, 2018

2018: Oriental, NC to Camp Lejeune Anchorage

10/29/2018

Depart: Oriental Marina, Oriental, NC 10:20

Arrive: Camp Lejeune Anchorage 5:15

Distance: 27 nm

We had to wait longer than expected to get access to the pump-out station this morning. The owner of the sailboat blocking our access told us yesterday that he would make room for us at 9:00 a.m. Since we had a wait, Clark walked up towards the office and found an interesting carved pumpkin on display.

The 9:00 departure of the sailboat did not go quite as planned. Two sailboats occupied the dock with the pump-out station. The S/V (sailing vessel) in front planned to leave, and the S/V behind him planned to pull up out of our way. As it turned out, the S/V in front found himself stuck in mud. Using lines and winches he finally managed to extricate himself from the spot.

However, given that they measured the depth there at 3.5’ (a lot less than the second S/V needed), the owner declined to move up into the vacated space. He did, though, move up just enough that we could pull along behind their vessel and perpendicular to the dock to tie up for the pump out. We managed to tie ourselves on the dock with vast amounts of our boat overhanging on both sides. We totally blocked two slips for the duration of our pump out – one of them being the fuel dock.

We had very little room to spare between our starboard side and the stern of a sailboat on one side of the dock. Jokingly he said, “If you hit the dinghy, make sure you totally crush it! I want the insurance company to pay for a new one.” I declined the invitation to help him out saying, “I do not want my insurance rates to go up, so no thank you!”

Because of the stuck-in-the-mud sailboat and the length of time it took to complete pumping out our holding tank, we left Oriental Marina a full 45 minutes later than Clark hoped to depart. The pump-out equipment seemed to only work 50% of the time, and Clark had to restart it twice due to the amount of time it was taking.

Not sure we would make it to our planned destination of Camp Lejeune anchorage, Clark came up with a Plan B to anchor near Casper Marina should the need arise.

Traveling today was hot in the sun and cold when heading into the wind, so we continuously adjusted the number of layers of clothing as the position of the boat changed along our route. I was never so cold today as to require a blanket to keep the chill off. I see that as a vast improvement in weather. Yesterday, when we biked to the grocery store, I actually felt hot for the first time in quite a while!

Some items of interest we saw along today's route included ...