We decided to stay another day in River Dunes Marina in Oriental, NC.  We borrowed their courtesy car and found the nearby Walmart Express and “provisioned up”.  It took longer to get to the store and back than it did to do our shopping.  Of course, I bought wholesome stuff like salad and sandwich meats.  Wayne threw in the Pringles and cookies.  Yes.  All are called “provisions“.

This marina is away from the actual town of Oriental.  This is a beautiful almost resort-like marina.  New homes are being built in a planned community setting.

Main building at River Dunes Marina

Hot steam showers ( although we couldn’t actually find the cold water to cool off), swimming pool and other amenities.   A restaurant that takes reservations only.  We ate in as always.  Very nice cruisers lounge with large TV, free coffee in the morning, and work out room.  All the amenities of a high end resort.   Very nice.

Kayaks waiting just for you!

The neatest for me is every time I would walk around the docks I would see these little birds flutter from underneath and fly away.  Another boater mentioned they were Barn Swallows.  I would get my camera out for a picture and they would fly away.  Like they knew.  But this morning, this one stayed in place long enough for me to capture it forever in film.

Barn Swallow?

Along with birds are the spider webs.  They are everywhere!!  Every little triangular shaped like area had a web.  Anchors.  Dock corners.  They aren’t beautiful.  Just functional webs.  This is a good picture.  You can see bugs have destroyed the web.  These spiders must eat well!!

Spider web along the dock

What are the spiders eating so voraciously?  Little “midges”.  Non-biting midges?  I hope so.  All over the fenders.  All over the boat.  We found a huge number out under the back of the deck.  More like gnats.  They are like glue to the white plastic.  We tried to wave them away and they didn’t move.  Some flew away … okay maybe a foot…and came back to where they were to begin with.  Spiders are making out well!!  Actually, I didn’t see the spiders.  Just their webs and the mess left behind by these midges.  Wonder what the spiders really looked like?

Non-biting Midges

A great day.  We provisioned.  We took naps.  We took care of some paperwork and caught up on emails.  Glad we stopped for another day.

Sunset at River Dunes Marina, Oriental, NC