Did you hear the screeching halt?

The Princes Mia, our friend Martijn's boat at the Town Dock in Oriental.

The sliver of moon over Kintala at the Town Dock

We left the free town dock in Oriental yesterday because we had already exceeded the stay limit and our good friend Martijn needed the space. We probably should have stayed. A few days ago Tim started showing signs of some illness - allergies, cold, flu? No clue, but he was definitely exploring the bounds of misery. One of his big allergies is to pine pollen and we were spending inordinate amounts of time meandering with the river through pine forests full of it. And the wind was blowing it his way. Sneezing, watery eyes and a resumption of his December cough ensued.We dropped the hook at the beautiful Styron Creek anchorage early due to some nice wind filling the genoa, and he almost immediately dropped to the settee where he has been residing ever since, with the exception of a short foray to the V-berth last night. Tea hasn't helped much and we're exhausting all options in the medicine cabinet to no avail. Hopefully after another night he'll be able to resume the trip. This is one instance where the lack of an electric windlass has actually become a safety issue. I can't raise the 65# Mantus by myself and if we had to get to medical assistance we would simply have to attach a buoy and leave it there. The medical assistance issue reared its ugly head last night as his asthma was kicking in and he was having some difficulty getting his breath. We opted to stay here another day because medical assistance is eight miles away. If we had gone on to the next stop, the same assistance would have been nearly 45 miles. It's one of the things we accepted when we began this venture, that of being isolated from help in an emergency and while cruising is generally a very safe way to live (way safer than going anywhere in a car), there does exist some level of risk. He seems to be doing a bit better this evening, though, so with a bit of good rest tonight we can hopefully resume our trek northward. The geese are passing us by.

The parade out of Oriental in the morning.

Fortunately everything below was stowed. For the next half hour we heard a steady stream of complaints on the radio.

Apt name for the boat...I can think of another one but it's not very lady-like.

There are dozens of these fishing boats up and down the river.

And some very unique ones as well.

For an hour or so the boys were out playing touch-and-goes from the runway near by.

This is a beautiful anchorage with many faces.