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dozen dragon boat races played out on the water at River Dunes Grace Harbor Saturday. But in the overcast background, another race was going on, against the weather. The skies eventually did open on the 5th Annual Oriental Dragon Boat Festival but not until the final race of the day.

In one of the last races of the day, four boats clustered as they bore down on the finish line at River Dunes’ Grace Harbor.

Thirteen teams took part, five of them made up of military personnel – Marines and Navy for the most part. They placed first and second in the overall scoring.

Throughout the morning and early afternoon of the heats, it was easy to pick out which team crossed the finish line first. Paddles went in to the air, as happened in this race that the Salty Serpents team of Marines won.

Fran Deaton returned for another year of drumming for Deaton Yacht Service’s Draggin’ Tails team.

Among the civilian teams, four of them were Oriental based. Deaton’s Yacht Service team, the Draggin’ Tails placed the highest of the Oriental teams, coming in at 7th. In 9th place was Oriental Dragon Masters, who noted that their teams average age was 63. A year of weekly and twice-weekly practices showed in their synchronized paddling. Also representing Oriental were the Gnarly Dragons and the ever-spirited Team Shipwreck.

Oriental Dragon Masters – the back half of the crew – after winning their heat.

In one of the odder mergers, the Neuse Riverkeepers teamed up with a crew from Piggly Wiggly as neither had enough to fill the 21 seats — 20 paddlers and 1 drummer.

The returning champions, the Cherry Point-based Neuse Freedom Riders, clusters near the dock just before their final and decisive race. They were edged out by another Marine team, the Devil Dog Dragons.

This was the second year that organizers presented the Dragon Boat Festival at River Dunes and the secluded Grace Harbor gave paddlers a calmer course than they had in the first three years of the races on the Neuse River at Oriental’s waterfront.

The 2014 Oriental Dragon Boat champions, a team of Marines calling themselves the Devil Dog Dragons. Top award was a golden oar.

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Potash Corp’s Floating Fossils as a race was about to begin.

Kaitlin Von Heeder and Amy Chapin aboard Oriental’s Team Shipwreck.

The neon-yellow clad team of Pamlico Boy Scouts on its way to the starting line, passing the shoreside tents where the 13 teams were encamped.

In the second heat, the Neuse Riverkeepers and Piggly Wiggly combined team.

Some wear their hearts on their sleeves while others, such as The Marines on the Salty Serpent team reconfigured their T-shirts and wore their sleeves on their heads.

The Grantsboro Piggly Wiggly crew merged with the Neuse Riverkeepers. Here they showed off their neon t’s.

A merging of efforts. The Neuse Riverkeeper team and the Piggly Wiggly team combined to come up with the requisite 20 paddlers.

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John Deaton with some of the members of the winning team, the Devil Dog Dragons. Deaton’s Yachts had sponsored that Marine team. Deatons also had its own team of employees and others who competed as the Draggin’ Tails and came in first among the four Oriental-based teams.

The Oriental Dragon Masters in the pre-race parade of teams. It was one of several Oriental-based teams, but likely the oldest. Average age: 63.

The Marine team, Devil Dog Dragons. Its drummer was not shy about augmenting his drumming with some more incentive, quite possibly picked up at boot camp.

Same crew, right arm muscles in action.

On the other side of Grace Harbor at the end of the docks, some spectators gathered. These were among the more cushioned seats on the harbor.

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The Neuse Riverkeepers/Piggly Wiggly boat and its drummer Gabriel Huff. The former Oriental resident put his land-based drumming skills to the task.

A steerer guides a boat to the finish line.

The teams lined up on the shore ready to get in to the boats and have their turn at a race. Here, two members of Navy Corpmen team.

Oriental’s Dragon Masters, in red, raised their paddles to form an arch for the returning paddlers to walk under after their race. Here, in white T-shirt, and green T, members of two of the Cherry Point Marine teams.

Under the arch, the first place winning team, the Devil Dog Dragons.

Amron Wagoner from Deaton’s Draggin’ Tails.

Member of the Neuse Winds Freedom Riders team.

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In the final race, the drummer for one team of Marines the Neuse Winds Freedom Riders glances over to see another Marine team, the marigold-shirted Devil Dog Dragons close in on the finish line.

Here’s that finish.

Nol Engel of Oriental is the drummer for the Oriental Dragon Masters. In the last heat, the call went up that a drummer was needed for one of the Marine teams, and within seconds, Nol was striding to the dock. Here, he returns from that race.

The Devil Dog Dragons team did not execute this maneuver on the water, only in the processional before the races.

Mary Stancil bailed the boats between races.

The Gnarly Dragons were one of the teams out of Oriental. On board, among others was Oriental Police Chief Dwaine Moore.

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A team of relatively young Marines – the Devil Dog Dragons – churns through the waters of Grace Harbor. Their competition – Oriental Dragon Masters and Deaton’s Draggin’ Tails – featured drummers, Nol Engel and Fran Deaton respectively, who were in their 80’s.

The Deaton’s Team paddles back to shore after a

Each of the four boats brought in for the races was used interchangably by the 13 teams. At the bow of each was a dragon head.

One did not survive an approach to the dock..

The decapitated dragon head was quickly retrieved from the water. Shortly after, a replacement head was affixed to the boat.

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Octogenarian Fran Deaton, a veteran of these dragon boat races, back from one of the races in which she drummed for the Deaton Draggin’ Tails. With her, is Rita Vorleiter of Deaton Yacht Service.

Some you lose…

… some you win.

Big boats, small boats. Marines on the Neuse Winds Freedom Riders team in foreground pull ahead of the combined team of Neuse Riverkeepers/Piggly Wiggly. The Riders were last year’s champions. They finished second this year. The Riverkeepers were 13th in the bakers’ dozen field.

Flora Moorman and Jeff Aydelette who organize and produce the Dragon Boat Festival.

One of the four Oriental-based teams, the Gnarly Dragons.

The team, Gnarly Dragons gets in an in-boat stretch before the final race and/or bows before the drummer, queen who, it was announced, was Miss Teen Moore County.

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For its last heat, the green-shirt Marines were without the requisite drummer. To the rescue came Nol Engel, who’d already tapped out the beat for his hometown team, the Oriental Dragon Masters.

A member of the Hope Floats team scopes out the waters of Grace Harbor. The cancer-awareness group, who paddled kayaks from Raleigh to Oriental one week in April, were making their first trip to the Oriental Dragon Boat Festival. They drove, rather than kayaked, to River Dunes for the event.

The Hope Floats team on the course. At the steering position was one of the team from the Florida company that provides boats and personnel to run events such as Oriental’s Dragon Boat Festival..

A high five between two members of the Hope Floats team.

Some of the scouts on the BSA team. They placed third overall.

Near the dock, heaps of paddles and life vests that paddlers pulled from on their way to the boats.

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Teams line up to get on boats.

Four teams – in helpfully different colored T-shirts – step in to the dragon boats just before the last race.

A decorated boat and crew. A few of the Marine team, Neuse Winds Freedom Riders..

Oriental Dragon Master’s Linda Parker (in yellow vest) leads the team in stretches before their final race. Some began singing “Twist and Shout”. The team hit the final race with very synchronized paddling and something to shout about. Among the four Oriental-based teams, The Masters, average age 63 came in second only to Deatons.

Two of the four dragon boats, provided by the Florida company that stages these races in the Eastern US. A half hour lunch break was a rare moment when no one was going in to or coming out of a boat.

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On the way to the race course, there’s paddling….

…and then there’s paddling in a race. The Oriental Dragon Masters.

Under the tents where the teams gathered between heats.

Few teams might name themselves “Team Shipwreck” for all the juju that brings to a boat, but then few towns are named for a shipwreck, either. Here “Team Shipwreck” reacts on crossing the finish line ahead of the Neuse Riverkeepers/Piggly Wiggly team in the far lane.

Resting (Devil) Dogs. Between races, some members of the Marine team, Devil Dog Dragons, caught some rest under their tent. The team went on to win the day.

The crew of the Monk, Peapod, out of Canada’s capital were beset with some boat trouble on their way south. That’s what had them at River Dunes with a course-view seat of the dragon boat racing.

A member of the Boy Scout Waverunner team checks out the score board. That Pamlico County team would place 3rd, the highest among civilian teams.

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Team Shipwreck.

The rest of Team Shipwreck at the finish.

Some verbal reinforcement to the drumming on the Navy Corps’ team, the River Raiders. They placed 5th overall.

The Navy team River Raiders throw up a bow wave. Meanwhile, drummers on nearby boats can be seen observing the, “one hand for your drumstick, one hand for the boat” adage.

The Neuse River Dragons, comprised of several service branches of active duty personnel paddles out to the race course.

Special thanks to Jim Nixon, for letting our photographer get out on the water.

A dragon tail adorned the aft of all the boats. Beyond, the Potash Corp group, Floating Fossils.

Posted Tuesday August 12, 2014 by Melinda Penkava