Oriental NC: Whittaker Point Marina Review

[rgranger]

Hey All

Just got back from a four day jaunt in the Pamlico and wanted to give Kudos to Whittaker Point Marina.

whittakerpointe.com

They cater to transients and have a few local boats as well but we were not what they were used to (Trailer Sailor). But they rolled with it. We showed up in the middle of a bad string of thunder storms so we "dry docked" and slept in the parking lot that first night. We also made use of the club house and showers. There are two dock masters, Ashley and Buck and Buck spent the evening with me looking over charts and pointing out his favorite gunkholes while my two girls played cards in the lounge. We launched at the city dock the next morning, sailed back to the marina and Buck gave me a ride back into town to pick up my van and trailer. He also pointed out the best spots to eat etc. The girls made use of the pool while I got the boat ready and then we took off.

I've attached a pic of our first night out and where we anchored for the night. Fried some eggs and ham and made coffee in the morning of the second day then we were off exploring. We found a small bayou that winded its way far back into the marsh grass, Later in the day we found a small piece of beach next to a pine grove and made camp for most of the afternoon. My girls swam and played in the sand. I made sure the lawn chair didn't blow away Late in the afternoon of the second day the wind pipped up to 18 kph so we went back into the sound and ran down a Catalina 27' he he he... I think he was annoyed... it was a great trip.

A few items of note...
- They have a West Marine in town.
- Bentley's Diner for Breakfast. The pancakes or okay but the biscuits and grits are amazing.
- Pizza at the Silo's for dinner. They also have a really nice Lobster Bisque.
- The Food Emporium is okay and the only thing open on Sunday Morning.
- Whittaker Point Marina is the cleanest, nicest marina I have every abused and the people are great. The shower room is set up so that each person has a private bath room. The lounge is gorgeous with with mahogany floors with ash inlays. Block or cube ice, courtesy van, and bikes, pool house fantastic dock. The only down side is the prevailing winds hit the marina face on and the channel coming in is VERY narrow but not a problem for us trailer sailors.

I have a lot more I could tell you but I have to clean out my inbox and do some work :cry:.
I'll go to Walmart this evening and get the pictures off of the camera.

I'm definitely putting this one on my "going back someday" list.

 

[watercolors II]

You made my day!

Wonderful story and I'm glade you shared it with me, thank you.

Here is a great website for those sailing in charted waters, they encourage sailors like you to post your stories about the marinas and areas you sail to.

https://activecaptain.com/

 

[rgranger]

Wonderful story and I'm glade you shared it with me, thank you.

Here is a great website for those sailing in charted waters, they encourage sailors like you to post your stories about the marinas and areas you sail to.

https://activecaptain.com/

Thanks

If you go to active captain and look at the reviews for Whittaker Point you will see I've already given them 5 stars. Whittaker is now on my "must return" list and you are correct, Active Captain is a great website.

Here are two more useful tools

http://www.freemaptools.com/measure-distance.htm
http://passageweather.com/

r

 

[Fly_H23]

Great review of Oriental. We honeymooned at River Dunes and rented a Cal 24 from Chris at Oriental Sailing School.

We plan to trailer our Hunter 23 there next year and spend a week.

 

[dhmurphy]

Do they have showers? We're looking at doing some Pamlico trips in the near future.

 

[dhmurphy]

disregard the last. i'm at work trying to read and answer these 911 lines.

 

[rgranger]

Do they have showers? We're looking at doing some Pamlico trips in the near future.

.

In my original post I simply said we "made use of the shower" but.... I failed to say how nice the bath house was. This simply was the cleanest and most private bath house I've ever used at a marina. It was immaculate, and set up so each person has a private room. Most places I've been you only get the privacy of a stall wall.

I give Whittaker Point an A+