Oriental and more

So the second short half of the gale wind day took us to Oriental, a real boating town.
We tied up at the town free dock and endured a ton of gawkers and admirers.

You can always count on meeting great people and seeing great boats here.  This one came in a day before us direct from St Vincent, single handed.  A young Dutch sailor.  Prinsis Mia is a steel hull beast built for the several ocean crossings she's done.

I like the hand-cranked windlass.

And the cleats.

And the midship vice.

And here's the cockpit.

What a boat!

And just something to remember the deep south by as we fight our way north.  Zoom in on this flagpole.

Tonight we're in Bellhaven, tomorrow Little Alligator River.  Then we leave N Carolina.  We're bummed that the Dismal Swamp canal won't be open.  It's a ditch 60 miles long that was surveyed by George Washington.  Pretty cool  But Army Corp of Engineers are working on a lock.

In addition to the empty towns and waterways I realized today that everything is so quiet.  Even the usually chatty VHF is quiet.  It is eerie.  We heard that a lot of Canadians that are usually heading north now have left their boats and flown home before the border shuts down.

I mentioned today as we crossed mile market 860 that we are more than halfway home.  That was a mistake.  Lacy and First Mate assumed we were a lot closer that that.  But we do have 700 miles to travel to Catskill NY where we will probably leave Rosie for a few weeks until the canal opens.  And as I said earlier, the fun stops we had planned for the return trip ain't happening.  So we plunge on, watching the news and hoping wildly that Vermont will flatten the curve before the rest of the country.

Stay safe.  Stay home.  We are.