5.30- Midyette Family Cemetery

This is the old cemetery started by Oriental's founding family, the Midyette family. It is just west of Midyette Street on the banks of Camp Creek. I just met the present owner of the property, whose ancestors were also among the early settlers of what became Oriental (some buried here), and he invited me to stop by the property, take pictures, and talk Oriental history.

It is a beautiful setting in an old pine tree grove, birds singing all around. It is shaded all day long, which is great for a resting place, but not great for photographs. Also, it only a great resting place if your blood is no longer warm, as mosquitoes abound.

The last picture is of an old saw blade, could be 80-100 years old, which the property owner found near the cemetery recently. Oriental was host to several saw mills at the turn of the 19th-20th century, including one mill immediately adjacent to this site.

FORMAT ANNOUNCEMENT:

Starting today, at least for a while, I will be posting a standard Daily Dinghy Dock Picture at the end of my posts... that is, unless the Dinghy Dock is featured in my slide show or a "non-standard" picture of the day (see my previous two posts for examples of those exceptions).

The idea is to give precedence to other pictures while maintaining a daily record of the harbor/anchorage view from the Dinghy Dock... So, here is today's:



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5.29- Mimosa Flower Heads

The Mimosa tree's budding flower heads with Dinghy Dock in the background.

See earlier shots of this tree:

-- 5.22- Mimosa leaves
-- 4.13- Mimosa Tree Budding

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5.28- An Earl Grey day

It's been cool, rainy and gray all day here in Oriental. Most folks have cleared out from Memorial day weekend, but some boats still hanging out in the harbor, probably waiting for better weather for cruising north.

On my return home, I made a nice hot pot of Earl Grey tea. This was the last of a big tin of tea I got at the "Ali-Baba International Food Market" on Wurzbach Rd. in San Antonio over a year ago.

I love the tin, but I sure would like to re-fill it with the same tea. Earl Grey tea from the middle east tastes a lot different than the English / Twinings version... I think has like 10 times more bergamot in it or something.

The Piggly-Wiggly ten miles away in Grantsboro doesn't even carry ANY Earl Grey tea; I have to take a trip to New Bern (the Big City, birthplace of Pepsi (yech!)) to even get Twinings Earl Grey. There are some middle eastern / Indian type delis and markets in Raleigh-Durham area, but that is a 3 to 4 hour drive away. I guess I'll try finding some on the internet...

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5.27- American Cruise Lines & "Scoots" Makeover

One of two American Cruise Lines passenger cruise ships came through Oriental today on its way up North for the Summer Season. ACL's two cruise liners spend the winter in Florida and the summer in Baltimore. In the spring, they transit from south to north, and carry passengers on a cruise of the Intracoastal Waterway, and in the fall they do the same from north to south.

They have been stopping in Oriental the past few years on these transit cruises. Last year they docked on "A" dock at Oriental Harbor Marina, but this time they anchored out in the Neuse River and sent passengers into Oriental on "Launch 5," which looks a bit like a miniature "D-Day" type landing craft.

Instead of storming the Town Beach, "Launch 5" tied up to the Dinghy Dock and sent a small army (about four boat-loads) of cruising tourists ashore for a 4 hour occupation of Oriental. I got these pics of them heading back to the ship.

I also rode past "Scoot's" restaurant and found owner Eric had closed for the day to have bead-board wainscoting installed as part of a renovation of the place. Eric says he plans to reopen tomorrow, and will have new bamboo flooring installed at night sometime next week. That's Eric on the phone behind the counter (to the right of the neon "Yuengling" beer sign).

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5.26- Memorial Day: Flags and Fishing

Memorial day flags line Broad Street as boats go to and from the Wildlife Ramp. Lots of folks enjoying the waters around Oriental, as you can see from today's Dinghy Dock picture.

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5.25- Fire aboard "Ocean Gem"

At about 1:00 am (5/26) I was having a beer at the local tavern when Firetrucks and Emergency Responders started screaming by from all over the County... they were on their way to Chris Fulcher's seafood plant in response to a fire aboard the "Ocean Gem" trawler docked there.

Eyewitnesses reported flames pouring out of the pilot house, but by the time I got there it was only smoke and steam from the firefighting.

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5.24- Dinghy Sailing & Street Party

Today we tested out the new sailing rig Capt. Dave built for his Bauer Classic 10' dinghy, and the Tennessee Ronnie served up some NC style barbecue at the annual Memorial Day weekend street party on Hodges St.

The sprit-rig for the dinghy had an easy day of it, with winds at most 5 knots, when we were lucky. It did make the boat go, though, even if a bit slowly. Rowing would have been faster, but a lot more work. The rig got a passing grade all around, though of course we have already identified places for improvement.

Tennessee Ronnie showed me his secret technique for serving up 300 plates of hot pig... plenty of breaks for some Tennessee style corn liquor.

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5.22- Mimosa leaves

This is a Dinghy-Dock-shot-only day. Here you can see how the Mimosa tree's leaves have fully sprouted. Soon the pink stringy flowers will blossom.

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5.21- Harbor Serpent

Beautiful day here in Oriental. As Memorial Day approaches, more and more cruisers are passing through on their way North on the Intracoastal Waterway.

Today at 1:00 p.m. Oriental was hosting 6 sailboats at anchor in the harbor, and three boats at Town Dock.

From 052108

While sitting under the Mimosa tree by the Dinghy Dock (reading The Possessed, by Dostoyevski), I spotted this juvenile snake taking a breather amongst the rip-rap.

Water Moccasins are common in the harbor and creeks, but I think this may be some other water snake, possibly a Nerodia Rhombifer (Diamond-back water snake, non-venomous), because it would duck under the water before swimming... I understand Water Moccasins swim with their whole bodies floating on the surface, and I have seen snakes swimming in the harbor with their whole bodies on the surface and been told those are the venomous and dangerous Water Moccasins. Anyway, I'll show this around to the local experts to find out. If you know, please leave me a comment (click "Ahoy!" below this post.



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5.20- Spam Blog and Lazy Blogger

Blogger's web-bots identified The Dinghy Dock as a "Spam Blog" last week. Apparently when that happens, your blog gets shut down automatically, until you tell Blogger it is not Spam Blog, then you wait for four or five days until one of their humans looks at your blocked blog and re-opens it.

I cannot for the life of me figure out how this site got identified as a potential Spam Blog. From what I gather, I have little way of preventing this, and it could be shut down again at any time. Oh well, I guess you get what you pay for!

Of course, I discovered that my site was shut down after having been a lazy blogger for a week or two. I finally decided to update with some back-logged pictures, and found the site had been removed. I have no idea how long it was shut down before I noticed.

Anyway, I will be filling in the past month or so of pictures during the next few days. Please drop by again soon.

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5.19- Haircut in the Big City

Today I went to New Bern to buy a tail rack for my bicycle at Target and to get a haircut... I forgot that barber shops close on Mondays, so I had to go to Fantastic Sam's instead... They did a pretty good job; at least I can see out of both eyes now.


Before and After

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5.18- Creek Tour

Went on a trip up and down the local creeks today... I will post more in the next few days (see above post dated 5/20)

For now, here is the slide show:



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5.17- Just the dinghy dock shot today

All I have today is the Dinghy Dock shot. Four sailboats at anchor today at 2:00.



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5.14- Caledonia Yawls

These two Caledonia Yawls, designed by Australian boat builder Iain Oughtred, showed up at the Dinghy Dock today. The owners and friends try to sail to Ocracoke Island every year, but haven't made it so far. This year they put their boats on a ferry to Ocracoke just so they could at least see it, even if they couldn't get there under their own power.

Their boats immediately drew a crowd at the Dinghy Dock as word of their presence was sent out by cell phone. Oriental being the Sailing Capital of NC, interesting boats draw crowds here.

While I was chatting with two crew members guarding the boats, the owners were off looking for a room for the night, as the group had been camping out and were ready for beds and showers. When the owners got back, the boats were rowed from the Dinghy Dock to the Town Dock bulkhead next to the Oriental Harbor Marina & Inn.

[ADDENDUM] Oriental's premiere on-line news site, TownDock.Net (no relation) published a story and more pictures of these boats and crew in the semi-regular "Shipping News" column at http://towndock.net/shippingnews/sara-and-rebecca-ann?pg=1

5.13- Heron snacking

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