Visiting Family

This past week we had some of the New Jersey Mackeys visiting us in Ocracoke.  The following are some of the highlights.   

Keith, Scot, Lydia, Abigail, and Courtenay taking an evening dinghy ride.

Abby hanging out over the water in the hammock chair

There was some fishing from the dinghy.  This was the biggest fish of the week.  A flounder caught by Courtenay.  Unfortunately you cannot keep flounder right now in NC, so it was this flounder's lucky day.

One afternoon we all went to the beach.  The girls got to drive the Jeep off-road.

There was a big clamming expedition one day.  Here are the nieces from left to right.  Courtenay, Lydia, and Abby.  Pengi is on the clam basket.

Keith and Scot with their clam rakes.

The rakes have butter knives welded to them for dragging along the sand to find the clams.

Scot shows off his most excellent clam hunting ability.

Here you can see how we float the clam basket.  This way as you get clams you simply toss them into the basket.  Also good to tie it to yourself to avoid the current taking off with the basket of clams.

Everyone here works for their dinner

Underwater shot of what we are looking for.

Courtenay preferred snorkeling to the traditional method of clamming.

After clamming we also took the dinghy over to Portsmouth Island for some shell and treasure hunting.  Everyone was successful.  This was just a small sample of what we found.

And so as not to ignore the other popular bivalve on the island; we also had some oysters one night courtesy of Devil's Shoal Oysters.  Here Scot and Keith sample some raw.

All that activity can be pretty exhausting.  Abby in the hammock.

Lydia in the hammock chair.

A quick rest and the next day Scot and Courtenay were out with the kayaks.  Here they are loading up at the boat ramp.

They just missed a bunch of dolphin coming into the harbor.  The Coast Guard got a nice close look at them as they went out.

Luckily the dolphin hung around and they got to see them on the way back in.

Scot and Courtenay coming back into the harbor.

Court' watching the dolphin

Sunsets here are always a hit.  The Pamlico Sound makes a great view for the sunset.  We got to see some really nice ones while the family was here.

Sunset over the ferry terminal reflected in my sunglasses.

Quahog

This week we have been able to get out to the beach (now that the rain has stopped) and do a few outside chores on the boat.  With the hot summer sun, it has become a mission for us to keep Semco (teak sealer) on the outside wood decks.  As a result, Southern Style got another coat this week.  

After some hard work, a little relaxing is always in order.  The perfect spot for our hanging chair is on the upper deck once the dinghy is down.  The davit arm is ideal and can be adjusted for any height or position.

Me giving the hammock chair a try

While I was relaxing,Keith, Russ, and Tom went on a scouting trip to Hog Shoal looking for quahogs (pronounced KWA-hog).  

Keith, Russ, and Tom in the dinghy going to scout for quahogs

What are quahogs you ask?  They are not some rare, protected creature isolated to Ocracoke Island.  Quahogs are also known as hard clams or round clams.  They are found up and down the Eastern Seaboard in shallow waters.  The Outer Banks is a great area to go clamming.  There is no particular season for them, however they are most abundant during the summer months of June, July, and August.  Ranging from just under 3 inches up to 5 inches, adult clams have a thick gray to white outer shell with concentric growth rings.  The inner surface of the shell is usually a pearly white with violet markings.  This violet inner shell (called wampum) was coveted by native Americans for use as currency and to make jewelry.  To catch a clam one can shuffle around in shallow water and feel for them with your feet.  They usually are burrowed into about 2-6 inches of sand.  If you want to and have them available, you can also use a rake.  Pulling the rake through the sand you will hear a "ting" when a clam hits the tines of the rake.  Scoop it up either with the rake or your hands.  They must be 1 inch thick to harvest for personal use and there is a 100 clam per person limit or 200 clams per vessel. 

The boys quahog trip was fruitful

We had some raw and some streamed.  They were very tasty.  I have a feeling we will be having clams several times during the summer.

We are getting ready for company as well.  Keith's brother Scot and our nieces Lydia, Abby, and Courtenay are coming for several days next week.  We are excited to have them for a visit and hope the weather cooperates to give them a great vacation.

Rain, Rain, and More Rain

Well I said I would try to post an update about once a week, so here goes.  It has been raining for days!!!!!!  Thank goodness we had a chance to get to Portsmouth and spend a day on the beach when we first got here because the last 5 days have not been very nice.  Ocracoke has been under a flash flood warning due to the heavy rain.  We could see the ominous clouds starting to move in one evening the end of last week.

Clouds out over the Pamlico Sound 

Ferry coming across the sound as the clouds rolled in

And so it started raining.  It was a strange weather system. Usually this time of year here in North Carolina we get on and off rain with thunder and lightening (a typical summer thunder storms).  The rain these last several days however was a steady rain with no thunder or lightening.  

View off the back of the boat with the rain

View looking toward the inlet into the harbor from our boat

Not much to do on Island when it is raining except DRINK!  We did have the chance to sneak out one evening and bike to Zillies to have a cocktail with Russ and Michele.  Then the 4 of us headed to another friend's house and we had a small flash flood party.  

From left to right Me, Michele, and Marissa

Keith and I were on our bikes and we just made it back to the boat before the rain started again.  After a few more days of being stuck inside I was going a little sewing crazy.  Even started taking pictures of some of my quilting supplies.

Thread

Safety pins

I even went so far as to snap a shot of my red beans as I was making chili one night

So as you can see I was getting a little stir crazy.  I could not even get a good shot of my two new quilts that I finished as it was just too dark and gloomy inside.  Stay tuned though, I will get some pictures of them soon.  I needed some fresh air so bad that I finally put on my raincoat and took the Go-Pro camera out into the tempest.  I biked up to the first beach access.

Trying not to hydroplane

Beach in the rain.  Not a lot going on out here.

Riding back through town.  Many of the streets had standing water

It did feel good to get out for a bit.  They are predicting one more day of rain and then hopefully things will improve in the weather department.  We are expecting a visit from Keith's younger brother and nieces next week, so hopefully we are getting the rain over with before their visit.  For now I am drying out and back to sewing.

Our first week in Ocracoke

So we have been in Ocracoke for 1 week.  The first few days we spent getting settled in, obtaining an off road permit for the Jeep, and putting several coats of Simco (deck sealer) on Southern Style's teak decks.  She is looking good now and we are ready to play.

Our "on island" friends Russ and Michele Reynolds had us for dinner one evening.  Michele found these beautiful hand painted glasses, and gave us a set as a welcome to the island gift.  They have the Ocracoke Lighthouse on them.  They are absolutely beautiful.

I just love these

It was great to get together with Russ and Michele.  There should be lots of fun times this summer with them.  Their dog Millie is also a jem.  We cannot wait to doggie sit for her anytime they need us to.

Millie and Keith loving it up

After all our deck work on Southern Style was completed, we decided we deserved a trip to Portsmouth Island to do some shelling.

Part of the beach along the inlet side of Portsmouth Island

The weather was excellent with a nice breeze and not too hot.  The biting flies were a bit of a pain.  I made the rookie mistake of not having DEET along.  That will not happen again this summer.  All in all we had a good first trip of the year over to Portsmouth and the dinghy ran great.

Keith driving the dinghy on the way back from  Portsmouth

Below is a picture of Silver Lake which is the harbor at the southern end of Ocracoke where we are docked.  The ferry is docked just off the port side of us as we were coming into the harbor.

This is a view from the dinghy of the harbor and you can just make out Southern Style in the distance docked off the bow of the dinghy.

We had fairly good luck finding multiple shells on Portsmouth.  The most coveted of course being the Scotch Bonnet.  We found 53 of them on this trip.  Here is our bowl of Scotch Bonnets.

An oyster bag with all our shells

These are the Scotch Bonnets

There has also been some driving on the beach with our Jeep.  So far it has been a great idea to have purchased this used Jeep.  If we can keep it running well, it will be great fun this summer.

Driving back from the north end of Ocracoke looks a little like a moonscape with all the sand dunes right along the road.

Keith has been able to do some offshore fishing with Russ.  I already have made fresh Mahi once for dinner and there are are several vacuum sealed bags of it in my freezer.  Hopefully there will be some tuna on the end of Keith's fishing pole soon.  One evening there was a big "hub bub" on the island when a boat from South Carolina pulled in with a 392 pound swordfish.  That was pretty cool to see.

Swordfish are a predatory fish with a prominent pointed bill that looks like a sword (hence the name).  It uses its bill to slash at other fish.  This injures the prey fish and makes it easier for the swordfish to then catch and eat its prey. Swords are not very social and prefers to be solitary, unlike many other fish which prefer to be in schools.  They are quite elusive and challenging to catch.  Swordfish are next to Marlin as one of the fastest and most powerful fish in the ocean.   They can swim over 50 MPH and generally grow to about 10 feet in length.  An adult swordfish has very few natural predators.

Picture from the internet of a swordfish jumping out of the water

The actual Swordfish brought into Ocracoke Tuesday evening

It has been a good first week.  We are so happy to be here.  It is a real treat to be able to have the whole summer to enjoy on this special island.  Stay tuned.  I will try to post a weekly entry to the blog.