Driving

Evan and I were in Wilmington, NC a few days ago. We stayed two nights, hoping to rest up and recharge after the day-in, day-out motoring from Oriental, NC. Alas, we did not get much rest. It turns out that when back on land, and in a city, we relapse into pre-cruising mentality and go about from one thing to the next to the next.

These things in Wilmington being: catching up with a Wilmingtonian friend I had met in NY this past spring; going to the movies; shopping for shorts (impossible to find at this time of year!) and a puffy jacket (I'll be meeting the family for Thanksgiving in a cold place); grocery shopping; doing laundry; boat stuff shopping; restaurant sampling.

Then we got on the boat and spent 7 hours glued to some task or another: spying confusing channel markers (whose brilliant idea was it to paint the marker number nearly the same color as the signboard itself?); keeping an eyeball glued to the depth sounder; steering against very choppy waters in Snow's Cut and Cape Fear River; making lunch without sustaining too many bruises. It wasn't the worst sailing we've seen by a stretch--it was actually fun at times in the way that driving over a really gravelly road at high speed can be fun--but it was not relaxing. 

So, once we arrived here in Southport, we decided to take a few days off. We were tired, plus the weather forecast for boating wasn't great for the next few days anyway. Now I don't want to sound like cruising isn't as amazing as most people think it is--how can you complain about taking off on a sailboat, you ask--but driving a boat through shallows and currents and traffic requires all the same concentration and undivided attention as driving a car, if not more. Do that 7 hours a day for a few days in a row, and one's bound to be a little tired.

Oh, for wide easy waters where we can use our auto-pilot...

In the meantime, I am perfecting my banana bread and asparagus/portobello risotto, and getting some writing done. (It turns out that the forward berth doubles quite nicely as a private place to write too.) I am also stalking the giant blue heron that hangs out in this marina sometimes. And, of course, listening to snapping shrimp (Evan explains).

Oriental, NC

My surprise birthday brownie may belie it, but I turned 33. 

I spent my birthday a few days ago in a friendly town called Oriental, NC. It was a very pleasant town, and we ran into a whole bunch of fellow cruisers we've met along the way. There were plenty of jarring moments, though, as I walked around, for every other billboard or store sign has the word Oriental in it.

See, starting from when I was in high school, the word "oriental" became a big no-no. "Oriental" was an adjective to be used to describe objects from "the Orient" (which, confusingly in British English, included pretty much everything east of Europe) like vases or rugs, not people. I cringed if someone said, "My son married an Oriental." As people started using the term "Asian" to describe people from Asian countries, anyone who used "Oriental" to refer to an Asian person was obviously either really old (too old to get with the PC program), lived nowhere near Asian people, or was racist. 

Thing is, there is nothing Oriental, or Asian, or east of European, about Oriental, NC or any of the establishments there! Weird and a little hilarious! (Why the name Oriental then? Apparently, the town was originally Smith Creek, but was renamed after the USS Oriental shipwreck nearby in 1899. Perhaps the ship was headed East?) I turned off the PC-radar, which was going haywire.

I went to get a haircut at the local salon Studio 55 and fell to chatting with my hairdresser, the septuagenarian customer next to me, her hairdresser, and the nails and facial lady, too, who was, by the way, the only Asian I've seen in NC so far. We talked about hair, bronzing a pair of 15-year old boots, cruising, and teeth.

Septuagenarian Catherine: "I may be old, but I have perfect teeth. My dentist asked me the other day if I'd been drinking tea again."

Her stylist, Mary: "What? Tell me, 'Am I a Southern woman?'!"

My haircut, which you can see in the picture above, cost me just $18 plus tip.

After Oriental, we moved on to Morehead City, just across from Beaufort, then on to a beautiful anchorage in the Marine base Camp Lejeune. Now we are in Masonboro, just outside Wilmington, NC, for a few days before going into South Carolina. Here are some recent pics: