East Coast of NC

[TBW]

second for River Dunes. Stay there a couple of times a year going up and down the coast.
Very nice place and people

[Kd9truck]

I would love to spend winters down in that area but my vessel draws 7.5 ft and I have been lead to believe that’s to deep for the area.

[mjscottinnc]

Originally Posted by Captain Bill

It depends on your air draft as well, though I'm somewhat assuming you are ICW friendly or you wouldn't be looking in that area. The Grand Marina and Bridge Point Marina in New Bern used to allow live aboards and the water in the Trent is is really deep there so your 6.5 feet is not a problem. With the Grand you are right in down town New Bern and there's some really good restaurants there. The BridgePoint marina is on the other side of the Trent.

The BridgePoint is no more, hurricane took it out and probably will not be rebuilt by the current owners.

[duckpond49]

I've spent quite a bit of time around Oriental of the last 30 years. The marine services are excellent, with expertise and good equipment. It is a fun town with good restaurants and people. Take a look at the local web site, TownDock.net, that will keep you up to date on all things Oriental.

[radsailor]

Originally Posted by Captain Bill

A friend who still lives there told me they dredged the Whittaker Creek channel last year. Is your information current?

If the channel has been dredged recently it is probably fine. My information is at least five years old.

[thomm225]

Originally Posted by Captain Bill

I kept my boat in Broad Creek near Oriental for 6 years before moving to full time cruising. Morehead city is primarily a power boating area. Beaufort a little less so, but your only real sailing option there is the ocean and going to Cape lookout bight. Everywhere else the water is too shallow. Getting in and out of the inlet is an exercise in dealing with wakes from large sports fishermen who for some reason think that throwing a five foot wake 20 feet off your beam is better sport than fishing. All this while half the time fighting the tidal current which is cutting your speed down to a couple of knots. That said going to Cape Lookout Bight is really nice if the weather cooperates. Oriental on the other hand has a lot of deep water for day sailing in the Neuse river in fairly protected conditions so one isn't so much at the mercy of the weather. Conditions that make the Beaufort inlet difficult (strong southerly winds) are a good day in the Neuse. If the weather is good one can always go down Core Creek to Cape Lookout. In the meantime in the Neuse/sound one can have may destinations. If you like towns you can go up to New Bern, Washington, Ocrakoke, Belhaven, Manteo, Swan Quarter, and Hatteras. If you like to get out in the boondocks, there's South River, the Bay River, Pungo River, West Bay, Turnagain bay and quite frankly too many little side creeks and anchorages to list. There's a reason that Oriental is called the sailing capital of NC. You will also find that the Marinas are much more reasonably priced and you have a wide range of price/amenities available in the area.

Great info.

I used to fish off Cape Lookout in the 70's on my old 17' power boat. We'd come out from Morehead City (Beaufort Inlet) but if it got rough took the back way home.

When I retire in a couple years, Oriental and Cape Lookout are going to be my first destinations. I'm planning to anchor in that protected area at Cape Lookout Bight and stay for a while.......

My 16 year old wife and I circled Emerald Island once also and I'd like to again but I can still remember lots of white water coming in near Swansboro with no depth finder, compass, radio, chart, etc so I may not be able to do that with a 4' draft but I haven't checked yet. (on OpenCPN or my paper charts)

[onewadd]

Originally Posted by ohdrinkboy

my $.02. Oriental is a great little town, but the sailing is better in Morehead/Beaufort.

Really, sailing is better in Morehead and Beaufort. I'm guessing you have never been there. PM me if you truly believe I'm wrong.

[Captain Bill]

Originally Posted by onewadd

Really, sailing is better in Morehead and Beaufort. I'm guessing you have never been there. PM me if you truly believe I'm wrong.

He sails a seaward 22. Retractable center board and draws less than 2 feet with the board up and 3.5 when it's down. The OP on the other hand, has a 36 ft sailboat and will have a whole different view of the shallow waters around Beaufort/Morehead where on the inside he will only be able to go in a few dredged channels.

[Jim Beck]

Originally Posted by Captain Bill

I kept my boat in Broad Creek near Oriental for 6 years before moving to full time cruising. Morehead city is primarily a power boating area. Beaufort a little less so, but your only real sailing option there is the ocean and going to Cape lookout bight. Everywhere else the water is too shallow. Getting in and out of the inlet is an exercise in dealing with wakes from large sports fishermen who for some reason think that throwing a five foot wake 20 feet off your beam is better sport than fishing. All this while half the time fighting the tidal current which is cutting your speed down to a couple of knots. That said going to Cape Lookout Bight is really nice if the weather cooperates. Oriental on the other hand has a lot of deep water for day sailing in the Neuse river in fairly protected conditions so one isn't so much at the mercy of the weather. Conditions that make the Beaufort inlet difficult (strong southerly winds) are a good day in the Neuse. If the weather is good one can always go down Core Creek to Cape Lookout. In the meantime in the Neuse/sound one can have may destinations. If you like towns you can go up to New Bern, Washington, Ocrakoke, Belhaven, Manteo, Swan Quarter, and Hatteras. If you like to get out in the boondocks, there's South River, the Bay River, Pungo River, West Bay, Turnagain bay and quite frankly too many little side creeks and anchorages to list. There's a reason that Oriental is called the sailing capital of NC. You will also find that the Marinas are much more reasonably priced and you have a wide range of price/amenities available in the area.

Agree that Oriental offers far better sailing opportunities than Morehead City. The latter is a fun place to visit, but Oriental is a better home base for a sailor.

[Paul L]

Originally Posted by Captain Bill

It depends on your air draft as well, though I'm somewhat assuming you are ICW friendly or you wouldn't be looking in that area. The Grand Marina and Bridge Point Marina in New Bern used to allow live aboards and the water in the Trent is is really deep there so your 6.5 feet is not a problem. With the Grand you are right in down town New Bern and there's some really good restaurants there. The BridgePoint marina is on the other side of the Trent but you have to walk across the bridge to get to down town. Sometimes a strong SW wind blowing for several days will really lower the water level which is not a problem in the marinas, but might make the water a bit skinny for you in the channel between New Bern and Cherry Point. There's a couple of spots where the normal depth is about 8 feet and a drop of a couple of feet could be problematic with your draft. The entrance to River Dunes is about 8 feet and is near the mouth of the Neuse so the wind tides are not as severe are as further up the Neuse. River Dunes is really nice, but is a good 5 miles from Oriental. Oriental is a really nice friendly little town but is a bit limited. Their annual festivals are usually pretty nice. The Front Porch Music festival was last weekend and before Covid was really nice as was the Croaker festival which is the first weekend in July as I recall. Depending on how big your projects are Northwest Creek and Bridgeton marina might be options but no walking to town. Wayfarers Cove marina might be an option but the entrance is pretty narrow and shallow. You would have to go in there on a strong NE wind that had been piling up water for a couple of days. Wayfarers is a boatyard as well as a Marina so they can haul you out if needed. It's been about 5 years since I've been in there so they may have dredged the channel. The owner's name is Tom so you would have to check with him. He has a couple of services that work out of the boat yard, including mechanics, fiberglass specialist, and a canvas shop as well as normal boat yard stuff like bottom painting. You have other options as well on Core Creek between the Neuse and Beaufort/Morehead City. I have used Bock Marine several times. They have a pretty good marine store on site and are not too far from Jarret Bay which has a more extensive selection. Kenny Bock owns that and has no problem letting you do your own work. He has a travel lift and a crane so can pull your mast if needed or work on top of the mast. He only has a limited number of slips but has a lot of ground for hauled out boats. You might want to give him a call and see if he can accommodate you. These boatyard are a pretty serious hike from civilization so there's no walking to town. I hope this information is useful.

Thanks, gives me some good info to ponder. Our airdraft is marginal, but doable at 64ft4in to the hard stuff.

[hpeer]

I just spent an extended stay hauled at Bock.

It is the BEST yard I have ever experienced, by quite a margin. Prices are fair, he has a chandlery on site and will order parts for you and give you much of his discount. Besides that the Bock family, and it is a family operation, are simply first rate people.

[davil]

No question about Bock, is all, as hpeer just posted.
I will use that yard any time, just a little too far for my commuting from Morehead City, I use

https://www.facebook.com/Ted-and-Tod...4531555327240/

It is only a few minutes for me by car to work on my boat when hauled out.
No supplies stocked, mainly services the local fisherman.
Friendly and fair also on his charges.
Since I cannot do the bottom any more because of my lumbar and other assorted geriatric "issues" have them do the paint, pleasantly surprised at the total charged.
Just another option for the DIY.

[CaptTom]

Originally Posted by Captain Bill

I kept my boat in Broad Creek near Oriental for 6 years before moving to full time cruising...

Thanks for this and all your other great local advice!

In the Before Times (before COVID) I was ready to put my house on the market and move aboard, with an eye toward setting up a home base somewhere in that area, even while doing a lot of cruising.

Having passed through a number of times, I thought it had the right mix of weather, shoreside resources and access to both blue water and the ICW.

I found it interesting that you mentioned more anchorages than you could list. Just passing through, I never seemed to find that many. Granted it was always on a delivery, so I wasn't wandering very far afield. Lots of times I'd see a cove or side creek and wonder...

Anyway, your commends have made me want to go back and look closer. Thank you!

[Captain Bill]

Originally Posted by CaptTom

Thanks for this and all your other great local advice!

In the Before Times (before COVID) I was ready to put my house on the market and move aboard, with an eye toward setting up a home base somewhere in that area, even while doing a lot of cruising.

Having passed through a number of times, I thought it had the right mix of weather, shoreside resources and access to both blue water and the ICW.

I found it interesting that you mentioned more anchorages than you could list. Just passing through, I never seemed to find that many. Granted it was always on a delivery, so I wasn't wandering very far afield. Lots of times I'd see a cove or side creek and wonder...

Anyway, your commends have made me want to go back and look closer. Thank you!

When I lived there we liked to go gunkholing so a lot of the anchorages we went to were a bit off the beaten path, up side creeks and out in the middle of nowhere. To be honest at certain times of the year the Green Headed Flies and Black Flies make some of them unusable. One time in August the Green Headed Flies drove us out of Turnagain Bay, but there were none in Broad creek on the other side of the river. There were many places we wanted to go but we just never got to all of them. The fact that you have a power boat opens up even more anchorages to you, because some of them are behind bridges that we could not get under. One thing to remember is that some of the places like Turnagain Bay are really close to the bombing ranges for the Marine Corp so they are not necessarily nice and quiet. It can be a pretty spectacular fireworks show at night, however I've never seen them doing any night exercises after midnight.

[Ryan0akes]

Thanks to all who posted here. There is a lot of insight which just prompts more questions, haha.

To answer some of the posters....

Our boat drafts 5.5 feet. the mast is 55 feet.

I want to sail. I want sail oceans, coastal, sounds, you name it. Not so much lakes.
The lake was fine to learn on, though I wouldn't consider the lake something to aspire to. Too little wind, too little space, too few destinations.
The main trouble with the lake is that it's more like surfing....you have to be ready to drop what you are doing if there is wind. You can't plan a multi-day trip with more than a few days notice b/c there may be no wind at all.

I enjoy anything over 10kts and feeling weather helm.

My two kids and wife aren't as into it yet and have needs of theirs that must be considered. Namely, the kids love to swim, so they immediately start asking when we can stop to swim. My wife likes destinations, so access to lively towns is a consideration as well.

I had originally considered Oriental, due to the number of boats and rumors of it being a good place to sail. I love the affordability also. My concerns, whether they are founded or not, are as follows:

1) swimming isn't great if advised at all
2) no kids there at the marinas (i have only been once and a 30ish year old sail loft repair guy told me he and his wife might be the only people under 50 there)
3) not the most active town life (same concern as above)
4) destinations to sail for anchoring or town life?
5) water color and sea life? I imagine the kids seeing porpoises in the ocean would be killer. Not so much in the pamlico rt?
6) I hear that due to the shallow water of the pamlico, the water can stand up just a fast or worse than the Ocean? I recently crossed from Swan Qtr to Ocracoke with a friend in a 19 ft boat and we experienced that exact scenario also.
7) aren't there plenty of shoals in the pamlico to have to navigate also? There certainly were on our passage to Ocracoke.

As for destinations from Oriental, Ocracoke is an obvious winner, though there doesn't seem to be an option for pumping the head in our boat?
Can one actually sail to Hatteras Village??? I thought the water was too shallow there?

So what appeals to me about the Beaufort area is exactly what a couple folks here have mentioned...

1) Anchoring in the bight of Cape Lookout sounds amazing and the kids should love this. I camped there years ago and loved it. The water is blue and wildlife (horses and porpoises) are abundant.

2) Access to the Ocean to sail is super quick and seems very appealing.

3)Beaufort and Morehead are both alive and well and would be great for my wife after a day of dragging her out to sea....or she could spend a day messing around town while I sail. ( I single hand as it is so I'm not too worried about lack of crew)

4) Oriental is a day away via Adams Creek, anchor and another day to Ocracoke right? Is it possible to get into Ocracoke with 5.5 feet draft from the inlet via the Atlantic? I have heard mixed answers here so far.

5) Sailing to Wrightsville or other destinations further South via the Ocean is a skip away.

The downside to that area seems to be the lack of other Sailors. I'm not stoked on the big motor boat scene and the rudeness of some boaters that don't know or care about sailboats.

Also, I wasn't aware that the inlet was terribly difficult to navigate. More thoughts on the Beaufort/Morehead marinas and navigation are much appreciated.


So what makes sailing the Pamlico or the Neuse better than the Giant Ocean next door? Forgive my naivety here; I am a new sailor. I do love the idea of just getting out sailing a single tack for a while and watching the land drop away. I also aspire to offshore sailing so the Ocean seems more apropos than the sound for that goal no?

Looking forward to hearing more on the topic! It has been so hard to get info on NC from just google searches and I don't know enough sailors to get info via word of mouth.

Thanks again for all your replies!