We left Belhaven and headed to Oriental with some northerly wind we did manage to mortorsail some of the way but have to admit we motored for most of it - with the shorter days and so many boats heading the same way we wanted to get to Oriental to hopefully anchor while there was space in the small anchorage. We arrived and found a spot which will do for the night with the wind as it is forecast for the night, we planned to move on to Beaufort the following day and Tom and Sabrina planned to catch up with us there. All best laid plans 😬 when we checked the weather forecast for the next few days to our dismay a horrible little system was going to develop over Beaufort which potentially had 40 knots northerly wind in it so we decided not to head there but wait in Oriental and see how things developed. 

The following morning Tom and Sabrina headed to a boatyard to get their inmast furling mainsail looked at as it keeps jamming and we moved to a better spot to anchor where we had more swinging room before heading ashore for a wander and of course a nose in the shops. We bumped into Tom and Sabrina in the marine electronics shop and so walked with them to the grocery shop, here its a Piggly Wiggly store which offers lifts to anyone on a boat and although we only had a couple of items we got a lift back. Still the forecast didn’t look good - having a 7ft 2 draught (now I’m sounding American 😱) - of course I would normally say 2.2m draught but no one here knows what that means! Most places that people go into to hide from bad weather are shallow - too shallow for us and although we looked at charts, read reviews or anchorages etc we couldn't find anywhere better than the anchorage we were in so opted to stay even though we didn’t feel happy about it! By Thursday morning the forecast had change to include some stronger southerly winds before it went north - all the other anchored boats headed into marinas or one of the 2 free docks which only have 6-6 1/2 ft according to write ups and chart info, Steve decided to call the marina to see if they could accommodate us and they said they didn't have any berths but one of the free docks was empty and there was a boat leaving the other side shortly, we should go on there, he assured Steve there would be enough depth as the water level was up and it wouldn’t matter if we overhung the end of the dock if we couldn't get right on it. What a result - we were amazed that we could get on the dock but thought we might as well see if we could and so lifted the anchor and headed for the dock - there was actually good depth to just before the dock when it shelved, we did get on though with the depth sounder reading 0.0 under the bow we were still floating and 3/4 of innamorata was on the dock, we didn't try to go any further but tied up there. 

 

The front of the dock s very shallow the depth gauge read just 42 inches, The boat who was on the other side of the dock when we arrived said it was only 6 ft deep that side so we were lucky this particular berth was empty. 

We were very relieved and able to relax and look forward to getting some sleep after the fretful night we had had worrying about the weather.

Oriental is a nice town - much like Belhaven it has some nice properties and we enjoyed walking round the streets looking at them on our way over to see how Tom and Sabrina were doing. 

    

We rekcon this house has 70 solar panels on its roof - that must power half the neighbourhood!

We were very sheltered and really didn't feel much wind at all, it did rain thought and gave the boat a good wash, our dock flooded - this happens fairly regularly and we only had to don boots for the morning - soon we could get ashore to do laundry etc without too much difficulty. 

The Sky was still pretty gloomy looking when we went for a walk again over to see Tom and Sabrina

We were feeling a little depressed at the prospect of having to stay in the area for another week or so - we had considered leaving when the worst of the rain and weather had blown through and heading to Beaufort to leave for heading south but had opted out as forecast looked like strong winds at the end dying, leaving a nasty sea. So we had planned to go to shop and then back out to the anchorage - the free dock is for 48 hours in any 30 days. However when we looked at the weather and marine traffic we saw that there was an opportunity to get to Charleston and the wind should be good for most of the trip - so spur of the moment with out any preparation - I normally prepare a meal if we're going sailing overnight we decided to head off there and then and go straight past Beaufort. We both felt good with the decision - we just needed to get going and get out and sail.