ORIENTAL, NC

Of Sailboats & Serpents

Odd little Oriental. This little town of 875 souls brags that it is the Sailing Capitol of North Carolina. It also is home to dragons of many colors.

And they are quite serious about their dragons as the items above and below will indicate.

We saw rocks like this scattered around town, some with this very official looking sign posted above (complete with the state's Wildlife Conservation Department's seal). We saw a dragon floating in a pond, a dragon sculpture emerging from a lawn and little and big serpents all around.

Due to past hurricanes, all new homes are built at least 10' above ground. Oriental sits at the edge of the Neuse River which is the widest river in the USA. Who knew?! That alone would be enough to crow about but the folks of Oriental like the eclectic more than they like their landmarks perhaps. I only learned of it when I googled the net for more info on Oriental.

I've seen old barns and buildings with many things on them but never a piano keyboard.

This  blue bottle garden caught everyone's eye. It was much bigger than this small scene indicates. 

This was our first port of call that required the use of the ship's launch to get us to shore. Our boat was too big for the public dock. There were two thousand sailboats moored at several marinas that lay at the foot of the city. Many have left their boats parked here for the winter.

 The smiling face of a steward is almost lost in the broad details of the stern.

 

ALONG THE INTRACOASTAL

Flyways, Byways & Highways

Not only is the Intracoastal Waterway a wonderful place to watch the world go by, it is also a great perch for sunsets. Here the long thin clouds mark a byway of a different sort - these are jet contrails of all the air traffic that runs north and south along the Atlantic coast.

We made one passage along the Pamlico Sound where there appeared to be lots of obstructions along one side of the ship channel.

They turned out to be duck blinds. Since the iCW also parallels the East Coast's biggest migratory bird flyway, it makes sense that you want to be out from shore for the waterfowl. Bet it can get cold out here in the early morning hours awaiting the start of the hunting day.

At times you seem to be surrounded by water in some of the larger sounds. It seems like there is no other way to get around than by boat. Emerging from an empty horizon is a bridge. You can't hardly see where it begins and you sure can't see where it ends but it provides a way for those wanting to get to the Outer Banks Islands in North Carolina from interior lands.

A bridge also provides a social hub for the gulls. In many places they would put on an aerial show as we passed over the shallow waters. Our prop would stir up goodies for their next meal and, not unlike the output from the kitchen here onboard, there was always enough for everyone. No one goes away hungry if you get close to this boat.

Not everything on the ICW was a sleek pleasure craft. This was just one of the many odd ducks we saw as we bobbed our way south.

KITTY HAWK

Where Man Took Flight

Certainly Kitty Hawk lived up to expectations. It is a marvelous shrine to what was a uniquely American event (though other nations were trying). As interesting, the outdoor shots you see above and further on do not depict the conditions that existed in 1903. Kill Devil Hill in the background was once barren sand, as was all the grass areas. Kill Devil was 125' closer in. Over time the constant northern winds pushed the hill south. When it came to build the memorial in the 1930s, Bermuda grass was planted to hold everything in place. 

This fragile looking stick and canvas motorized craft was the first air machine to get off the ground. The Wright brothers were very thorough experimenters and they even built one of the earliest wind tunnels to test aerodynamic shapes. They spent several years leading up to the December 17, 1903 date using the hill for glider launches.

The first powered flight nearly 110 years ago actually started well down the hill where the sidewalk appears to end. Note the positions of the small gray markers in the background that begin at that vanishing point.

This is a close up of what you saw in the previous image. There is a large granite stone to the left of the Wright brothers shop and living quarters. This is where the first series of successful flights took off that day.  Three more smaller monuments are visible to the right of the the larger one and mark the distances of the first three flights. The last flight of the day was real proof that man could fly as it went on for 59 minutes and covered 852 feet. 

How do we know all these facts and figures? Simple, Orville and Wilbur were very aware of their potential place in history and had witnesses including someone there to squeeze the bulb trigger on their camera. Both the resulting photograph and the eye witnesses served them well later as they became involved in a dispute with the Smithsonian Institute. The Institute wrongly believed that their staff were the first to fly.

This is the Wright Brothers Memorial at the top of Kill Devil Hill. There is a revealing 360 view of the surrounding countryside from here.

Even kids can play on a sturdier replica of the Wright brother's plane. That is a new school complex behind the playground.

On our way out and back from Kill Devil Hill our driver/guide took us through some of the beach area housing that had been hit by Hurricane Sandy. Up until a day or so ago sand had covered this road, too. There was still much sand piled around many of the beachfront homes making them inaccessible.

HAMPTON ROADS 3

Connecting With Nature

This Brown Pelican came along side to check us out. We would later see flocks of them swooping and diving in the wake of our boat. Our passage over shallow waters would often kick up something they could nab.

Everything else of size has to sail back north to exit the city. Not us. The Intracoastal Waterway (ICW) allows us and smaller craft to avoid the Atlantic Ocean and stick to the backwaters. The transition from urban to rural was surprisingly swift.

Cormorant Clutter

Though Norfolk dropped behind us quickly there were isolated reminders that the Navy has many tendrils reaching out past the port. Best guess for this location is that the buildings are Navy ammunition bunkers.

Dead end? No, but it marked a short stop for us at the Great Bridge Lock, the only lock on the ICW.

The lock makes neighbors of us all for about 15 minutes. Captain Snyder has a feather touch on the controls as he snugs the edge of our ship up to the tie up bollards. Take a quick look at the powerboat on the right. Do you see the furry speck that caught my eye?

Emerging from around the starboard side comes the resident cat. Guess it makes more sense to keep a cat than a dog on board.

Not at all what we expected - this run of the ICW resembled a Louisiana swamp. Indeed this manmade canal runs through the appropriately named "Dismal Swamp. As foreboding as it looked, the swamp was once home for runaway slaves.

Our moorage for the night was at Coinjock, NC. The place is not on many maps and probably familiar only to those using the ICW. The little store there capitalized on its pint-sized reputation by selling T-shirts that read "What Happens In Coinjock, Stays In Coinjock." This flyspeck sized place is thought to get its name from the Indian name for mulberry.