Beach Treasures

The weather this past week finally cooperated for Keith and I to make a trip with our dinghy to Portsmouth Island.  This is our favorite place to search for shells, particularly the elusive Scotch Bonnet (North Carolina's state sea shell).  We had a great day and found over 65 Scotch bonnets.

Scotch bonnets on the beach on Portsmouth Island

Here are the ones we found laid out on our table in the cockpit of Southern Style

We found other cool shells as well and I tried to take some creative shots

More pretty shells

Along with our beach combing, Keith also had some luck last week with his fishing.  He got two speckled trout that we ate for lunch one day.

Keith's speckled trout

Pretty sunset with the ferries in the shot

Although we had some very nice weather, it is the spring and sudden weather changes and high winds are common.  We had a storm front come across the sound one day and it was something to see.

The front rolling in with a vengeance

The wall of the front moved in and winds immediately became sustained at 35-40 mph and some gusts of up to 54 mph were recorded by our anenometer.

Ocracoke Lighthouse with storm approaching

We survived the storm just fine on Southern Style and are hoping for nice weather to return in the upcoming days.