34:42.831N 76:39.783W

Saturday 26^th November 2011

Distance run: 24 nmiles

We stayed in Oriental for Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving.  This is the day when everyone (unless you work in a shop) starts their Christmas shopping and the shops’ bank balances turn from red to black!  We went ashore to The Bean café for the egg & bacon muffins Steve & Michael had been looking forward to for breakfast, and then stretched our legs around the little town.  There was some evidence of the damage done by hurricane Irene, and the town seemed not quite as sparkly as when we came by in the early summer.   

We lifted the anchor around mid-morning today and motored the 24 nmiles to Beaufort, stopping off at the fuel dock to take on diesel and water before dropping the hook again around mid-afternoon.  The anchorage was much less crowded than a few months earlier, and we found a suitable spot just across from the dinghy dock.