home

U

sually stories in TownDock’s Shipping News are of visiting boats from far away. Often the boats and crews that draw in a TownDock writer have a certain salty, crusty edge.

But not always.

It was a breezy Sunday evening in Oriental. The TownDock crew was visiting some friends on their new boat, a trawler, tied up on Oriental Harbor Marina’s “A” dock. There was a beautiful view of the waves on the harbor and channel entrance, and the Sunday evening small-boat shrimping fleet was out seeking their catch.

That’s when a blue-hulled sailboat appeared. It sailed in the channel, and then at red marker #8, turned towards the inner harbor, still under under full sail.

“Wahine” sailing towards the harbor.

We expected to see sails drop as the boat, “Wahine” entered the harbor near the anchored boats, but it didn’t. She sailed on, past the breakwater, past the red-hulled trawler at Point Pride and its roofless building. On and on she went, her hull disappearing from sight and seeming to go deep in to the harbor near Oriental Marina’s fuel dock. The top of the mast was all that could be seen from this writer’s vantage point.

Then it turned on a dime and emerged from the inner harbor, again under full sail. But that was not its only foray of the night past the anchorage.

Back out of the harbor…

Preparing to tack

A short tack underway

The impressive upwind sail continues

Wahine (we learned afterwards), is sailed by Rick Scott out of Whittaker Creek. She’s a C&C 36. Rick tells us that “C&C made lots of 35’s,” Rick says, but “not quite as many 36s”. The 36 is known a bit more as a cruiser than the 35, but “Wahine” has the 6’ draft fin keel, tall rig and Rick adds – “sails wonderfully.”

Rick says he lives on the boat when he’s in Oriental, on breaks from his work in emergency response and preparedness. He says he just decided to go out for a sail with some friends — Ron and Melissa Medlin and Alize Proisy.

The crew of “Wahine” showing how it’s done.

The C&C showed off both upwind performance and the ability to quickly do a 180° turn.

Wahine and crew next sailed towards the bridge, in a manner that seemed like they were going to go under the bridge. Except Wahine’s mast didn’t look like the right height for the laws of physics to allow that.

Maybe a hundred feet from the bridge entrance, “Wahine” came about.

…and then out back through the harbor, navigating through the small boat shrimping fleet.

Wahine and crew then came right back in the inner harbor, and “rinsed and repeated” the same course two more times. And then they made they way back to the channel and towards her home, on Whittaker Creek.

Wahine finishing up her harbor maneuvers.

Back out the channel, heading home to Whittaker Creek.

These are maneuvers not all of us would be comfortable making on a 36 ft boat (20 ft boats sailing into the inner harbor are less of a rare sight). Rick may get some criticism of his Sunday evening sail for being too daring. He did show some impressive sailing off – he walked the walk.

(Earlier this year, back in the cold, bracing days of January, Rick Scott made another memorable trip into Oriental’s harbor, breaking thru the icy crust with his kayak. )

Posted Monday June 13, 2011 by Keith N. Smith

email this story | back to top