The Sailing Capital of NC

Left Broad Creek with beautiful sunshine and flat water to motor 7 miles to Oriental, NC. We opted for a slip at The Whittaker Creek Yacht Harbor so that we could deal with repairing our leaky raw water pump. Upon our arrival Knute (ken-ute), the owner, dockmaster & overall jack-of-all-trades; greeted us and within 15 minutes made all the arrangements for our job. By the end of the day, the pump was rebuilt and replaced! Jim set new records for getting a boat job done! This was especially fast considering Yanmar made it necessary to remove an engine mount to remove and replace the pump. Michael, the German mechanic, provided excellent tutelage and expedited the job. We toured the little town of Oriental. There are less than 1000 residents here, but 3000 sailboats that call Oriental their home. We had a great dinner at The Silos Restaurant, did the usual boat chores - laundry, grocery shopping, boat washing, etc. The marina loans out bicycles, so we peddled around town. Met a couple from Nova Scotia - and did a pot luck shrimp dinner on their boat. We are staying here at least one more night to get our mail that we had forwarded here.