By By JONATHAN CLAYBORNE
Staff Writer
A biting wind and driving current couldn’t keep some boaters from assembling on the Pamlico River prior to the Washington Christmas Flotilla.
After several tries, and with the help of volunteers from the Pamlico Sail &Power Squadron, Bill Wade and Bruce Billings were finally able to dock the Waite to Sea II, which was bobbing around under the influence of the stiff breeze and choppy water.
The volunteers helped tie up the craft at The Marina at Moss Landing, where decorated boats were assembling for the flotilla.
Asked about the challenges facing flotilla participants, Wade said, “Wind and current here. The water’s really running fast.”
Wade, commander of the Power Squadron, added, “You have some experienced boaters here.”
Wade’s spirit was typical of the people gathering at the floating marina, which was nodding lazily in the chop.
Mike Staples handles waterside management for the flotilla and is a past commander of the Power Squadron. Staples said the crew on hand was trying to get the boats docked and ordered properly.
“It’s a sequenced event,” he noted. “They just don’t go out randomly.”
A few boaters had canceled because of the weather, he related, bracing himself against the stiff wind.
“It’s knocking us around quite a bit,” Staples commented.
Farther down the marina stood Bill Ramsden, who was making final adjustments to the holiday lights on his decked-out, 28-foot Bayliner the Cold Duck.
“They said the weather was going to clear,” Ramsden said, laughing afterward.
Ramsden added that boaters would have to watch out for the pilings on the boat slips, and that they would need to head straight into the wind.
Ramsden, whose decorations have won awards in past flotillas, said this year’s weather was the worst he has seen for the event in the past four to five years.
“Three years ago it was bitter cold,” he said, adding that there was no wind that year.
“The wind makes it a little challenging,” he said.
Just to the west, outside the N.C. Estuarium, Blount Rumley was readying the nonprofit facility’s team.
Rumley and his helpers busied themselves sprucing up their open boat with plastic snowmen, lights and other items.
“Come rain or shine, Santa’s on the way,” Rumley said.