Finally got out of Oriental

We finally got out of Oriental, NC, earlier this week. We were ready to go for a week before we could actually leave. Once again, trapped by weather, but this time was a bit unusual. We were docked at a friend's dock, up a creek in the southern end of Pamlico Sound. Pamilco Sound's tides are not affect by the moon, as most tides are. In the Sound the tides are driven by the wind. When the wind blows from the north it pushes the water in the Sound south and vice versa. We were having strong winds from the south and they pushed the water out of the creek. We couldn't leave because we didn't have enough water in the creek to get out.

We used the time to do some tourist things in New Bern. New Bern was the first capital of North Carolina, before the Revolutionary War. The governor, named Tryon, had a big house built there to govern from before he managed to get himself transferred to governor of New York. The capital was transferred to Raleigh after the war and the house burned down in 1798. But the locals never forgot and in the 1950s a very rich lady died and left the money to re-build Tryon Palace, as it is called. They found the original plans in a museum in London and re-built the place to show off the glorious past. No one talks about how much money the lady left but it must have been a bundle.

The most interesting thing was the man who was actually cooking in the kitchen in the same manner as meals would have been cooked in the 1760s. He would scrap coals out of the fire and put them on top of or underneath the cast iron pots, whichever was the appropriate technique for whatever he was cooking. We had quite and interesting time watching and talking with him.

When we did finally leave Oriental, we had a very nice day up to Belhaven, NC. Then another nice day up to the Alligator River marina, near Roanoke Island in the outer banks of North Carolina. If you remember your elementary school history, Roanoke is where the British deposited a settlement of folks who subsequently disappeared without a trace, the so-called Lost Colony. We rented a car and toured the towns of Manteo and Wanchese, including visiting a built-to-scale replica of a ship that brought colonists to the New World.

It is a bit quiet in this part of the waterway this time of year. This is a picture of Down Time in her slip at the Alligator River marina. We are the only boat here and when we leave tomorrow the marina will be empty. The owner says things don't really pick up again until the snowbirds start bringing their boats south in September and October. We'll be in Maryland by then.

Here is one other great picture we took, outside of Appomattox Courthouse. You would think that someone with this name could have made a better career choice.