1 Night in Oriental, NC

1 Night in Oriental, NC

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Stats for May 19, 2019

Origin: Swansboro Dock

Destination: Oriental Free Dock

Distance: 52.4 miles

Speed: 7.9 mph

Time on the Move: 6 hours and 34 minutes

It was another early morning as we set off for the day. We had a mid-way point of Beaufort (Bo-fert) North Carolina where we wanted to spend some time. We weren’t sure if we would stay the night in the anchorage there, or move on a bit further before sunset.

Toby kept us entertained along the route.
When we were almost there, I decided to try the ol dye your hair with Kool-Aid trick. Just a little bit of pink on the ends for fun. I wasn’t sure how it would turn out, but figured I could cut it off if it was horrible.

After anchoring in Beaufort, we dinghied in to explore.

You can see a little bit of pink hair at the end of my braid–turned out just fine!!

There was a cute little main street filled with shops, restaurants, and museums. We started off exploring a little, buying Hay and Tobin new Beaufort shirts, and peeking in the boat building museum. Then we headed to lunch.

Watching over a boat-building class at the museum.
Vintage outboard motors.
Ballast stones from the Queen Anne’s Revenge, Blackbeard’s flagship, discovered just off the inlet here in 1996.
Lunch with a great view!

After lunch we headed to the Beaufort Maritime Museum. We have been to many, many maritime museums along the way, but this one was great!! First of all, it was completely FREE!! Second of all, it was interesting with lots of history and artifacts from the area, but mostly I loved it because of the information about Blackbeard’s ship the Queen Anne’s Revenge. This ship was found in 1996 just out of the Beaufort inlet after it ran aground and sank in 1718. Just now, more information and artifacts are coming to light as researchers study the remains of the QAR further. It is great pirate lore!!

Look at those pirates!!
A model of what the QAR looked like. It was formerly a French slave ship named La Concorde that Blackbeard and his crew overtook in the Caribbean and decided to call their own. There were some French artifacts found in the remnants of the shipwreck, as well as French ship-building designs, which helped researchers pin down that this was in fact the QAR.
Look at the library in the back of this museum!! Full of maritime books, maps, weather guides, and more. It was a beautiful room.
Surf’s up!
Looking fierce with Blackbeard.

Next we stopped by Fishtowne Brew House for fun for all!!

The bro bros love this huge Jenga, but I’m always worried they’re going to be clobbered by it when it falls.

After a few hours of fun in Beaufort (Bo-fert) we decided to pull up the anchor and move further north before sunset. There was a free dock another 20 some miles down the ICW, so we set our sights on that for the night.

We passed by the Miss Melissa on her side. We have a few friends named Melissa, including one of Hayley’s baby dolls, so this one caught our eye.

When we pulled into Oriental, we realized both of the free dock options were right next to HUGE shrimping boats that smelled A LOT like shrimp. I told Mike I couldn’t do it and we had to leave, but he pulled up to the dock anyway. So there we were.

And of course, Tobin wanted to go fishing.
So of course, Mike helped him fish.
Instead of fish, this is what was on the hook when he pulled it out of the water.

We had a beautiful evening on the free dock, but it was a pretty smelly one.

Thanks for reading and following our adventures!!

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