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.