Blogs from Ocracoke, North Carolina, United States, North America

Cedar Island, North Carolina, 7 juillet Après les plages et les stations balnéaires bondées de la zone subtropicale de la Caroline du Nord, la réserve naturelle du Cape Lookout offre tout un contraste avec ses grandes étendues sauvages. Situé à l’extrémité Sud des Outer Banks, ces flèches littorales qui séparent l’océan Atlantique du Pamlico et de l’Albemarle Sound, immenses baies intérieures, le Cape Lookout marque une sorte de frontière entre les parties méridionales et septentrionales du continent (disparaîtront bientôt palmiers et pélicans). Depuis Harkers Island, une rapide traversée nous amène au pied du majestueux phare, unique par ses motifs en damiers noirs et blancs. Redoutées des navigateurs depuis plusieurs siècles, les eaux entourant le Cape Lookout sont parsemées d’épaves et la construction d'un second phare plus haut et plus puissant au milieu du dix-neuvième siècle éta ... read more

It's mid-afternoon and I'm flopped face down on the bed whining that "I just don't know how to be at the beach." Others seem to immediately blend into the beach-scape the moment their toes hit the sand, but I feel like an interloper. To further complicate matters, I'm already worrying about how I'm going to frame this trip when I get home. Absolutely no sympathy is given to those having a miserable time at a beach; you are, after-all, at "the beach," in all its exposed, sandy, relentlessly windy, quintessential glory. But I can't get out of my head long enough to have a frolic-y good time. I had made the erroneous assumption that because this long string of barrier islands on the eastern edge of North Carolina is maintained by the National Park System, it ... read more

We stayed two days in Southport NC. From there we moved north to Hammock Bay, then Wrightsville Beach NC, then Beaufort NC. Sept 19 & 20th we are in Oriental NC which claims to be the sailing capital of NC. Not much has happened that will make a good blog. We reprovisioned in Beaufort and did laundry. We are going for a walk today after breakfast to a marine consignment store and maybe West Marine. We are still trying to make the Annapolis boat show on Oct 8th. We will need to arrive a few days early if we want to get an anchoring place. Tomorrow we hope to hop up to Belhaven NC which is about a 52 mile run which is our longest run so we will be leaving before sunrise. Cheers, Ron & ... read more

Destination - Mile Hammock Bay, Camp Lejeune, NC Left Morehead City 7:15 AM arrived at Camp Leleune 1:30PM Headwind today so no sail. Still made 8 knots out of Morehead then tide changed and went to 5 knots. This is a nice anchorage. A friend told me that sometimes at night the marines have drills in this basin and ride boats between the anchors and shoot blanks from machine guns. I hope it happens tonight. He did not know about it and woke up to machine gun fire. He said it got his heart pumping. There are already 10 boats in here and it is only 4:30. Hope to get to the anchorage at Wrightsville Beach tomorrow and then it may be a marina or two because I don't see any good anchorages. My brother is ... read more

Before flying over to Krakow, we spend a couple of weeks at home in North Carolina, visiting friends and family, and encouraging them to make plans for Poland! Keith goes on the annual fishing trip to Core Banks. This is a man thing. The men of the family stay in shacks and drive their trucks up and down the beach looking for fish. This goes on for 3 days until they pack up and ferry back over. This is a very well planned and executed excursion, very empowering. I and the other females of the family don't know all the particulars, but upon their return they are unshaven, tired and keep repeating the phrase "Hey Hank, what goes on at the island, stays there." While they were away we girls did get together and play a ... read more