Not Bad Looking for a Smoker

[crazycarl]

Oriental touts itself as the "Sailing Capital of North Carolina". With 3.5 sailboats per Capital, it may be true. However, the boat below is visiting today and boy is it a beauty. Er, for a motor vessel that is. 
Last fall she motored past me while I was sailing my Compac 19.

[Cruzin]

Wow pretty nice ride! I need to come visit your area it sounds pretty cool!
Dale

[crazycarl]

We love it here. Everyone is a boater with 95% of them being sailors so you know they're nice folks. We have 8 marinas I can think of right now, and every subdivision has their own docks. The town has 900 residents and over 3200 registered sailboats. There's hardly a day you don't see a sailboat on the water. Being on the ICW I get to meet a lot of transient sailors. Us old guys sit on the porch of "The Bean", a coffee shop across from the harbor, and rate the skills of boaters as they come into the town free docks. Most all the towns here have free 24-48 hour free docks. We even have a free pump-out, bathrooms, and the local Piggly Wiggly will pick you up and drive you to the grocery store and back. We have live music 4 nights a week and a friendly race around the buoys every Wednesday afternoon. There are a bunch of summer sailing camps and it's entertaining to watch the little ones learning to sail. Coming is the SailPack Interconference Regatta. College teams from up and down the east coast and Midwest compete. Last year we hosted the University of Virginia team in our home. 
I have met Sam of the YouTube channel "Sam Holmes Sailing" before he headed across the Atlantic. We invited over 3 different YouTubers for dinner and the use of our laundry. Each couple having different outlooks on how their lives have changed living on boats. I have met several circumnavigators that live in town and one gentleman who has crossed the Atlantic 17 times.
Just recently I met and got a tour of Josh Kali's 19' Mini Globe boat before he headed off to Antigua.

I encourage everyone who likes to sail to come visit Oriental, NC. If you like wide open sailing were you don't have to tack for miles, we have it. If like to gunk hole creeks and estuaries, we have it. Maybe you're looking for that secluded island to spend a night or two on. Yup, we have that too.

[Tim Gardner]

You must be the CCCC! (Crazy Carl Chamber of Commerce)

Sea, See?  Si.

[MarshHen]

CC is right.  I spent the good part of a year in Oreintal on a boat.  I loved it and would still be there if my other half wasn't such a nomad.

[passagesfromtheheart]

A gorgeous yacht, indeed!!! And yes, please, sign me up for Oriental! Sounds absolutely divine!!!

P.S. Please check your PM — sending you a msg. :-)

[Urban Hermit]

When George Wallace first took office as Alabama's governor, he made a big deal about selling Alabama's "navy," its two huge yachts in the general class of the one pictured above, and its "air force," a fleet of five planes of various sizes.  I don't know what happened to the planes but he "sold" the yachts to two state agencies, one of them the new University of South Alabama and their use was continued without interruption.