Flooding in Oriental

Floating away......

We came into Oriental Wednesday night, and stayed at a Marina just north of town the first night. Then we got lucky - a spot on the free town dock, which is right across from "The Bean" (a great coffee house) and short walks / bike rides to everything. We've met up with Louise (Nock) and Ron Stevens each night, and will share a pizza later. Today, lots of rain and strong north winds have flooded the town. You'll see our boat docked right in front of the flooded main street - the photo taken from the porch of The Bean.
Oriental got hammered by Irene, and are still digging out - serious damage here. Fortunately Ron and Louise had minimal damage, because they got their cars to high ground, and moved all the furniture and tools up from their ground floor. Tomorrow our 48-hour free stay at the dock will be up, so we'll either head for Beaufort or anchor here for one more night until the winds subside. We've been eating good food (too much of it), and found some truly great buys at the Marine Consignment Shop (an autopilot and a single sideband radio and tuner) so Bill is happy. Our autopilot fell apart on the way to Oriental, so that was a great find. Our internet /phone access is spotty in this area, but we'll try to keep up to date!