Thursday, May 6, 2021

Settling Into Our Happy Place

We arrived in Ocracoke on Saturday, April 24th and are so happy to be back for the summer.  The weather, however, does not feel much like summer yet.  The Outer Banks spring is certainly hanging on and not wanting to let go.  The weather was been windy, windy, windy.  Sitting out here some 20-30 miles out in the Atlantic, you are subject to quite the breeze.  Many days have been blowing steady at 15-20mph and there are some days where we have had 25-35mph.  

View of one of my recent morning beach walks with the sand blowing along the beach.


Morning view out over the water on one of the calmer days.

The windy weather has at least given us some time to get a few things done.  We where able to get our first COVID vaccine shot.  Hurray.  Our second will be the beginning of June.  So good to be done with that.  I also started to organize my shells from Sanibel so I could start collecting Scotch Bonnets and such from here in Ocracoke.  I've already made one trip to Portsmouth Island with Keith in the dinghy and collected a dozed Scotch Bonnets since arriving here this spring.

Here is the majority of my Florida shells from this winter

I have started to make some beach jewelry with some of the smaller shells and hope to take some pictures to show in a future blog.  Right now I am just trying to get these organized.

I also bought a lamp at a consignment shop while in Charleston.  I wanted to make something with a bunch of Keith's cigar bands I have been saving.  The lamp seemed like a perfect piece on which to decoupage the bands.  I just covered over the previous picture that was on the lamp.  I did this on one particularly windy day.  It turned out kind of cool.

Our cigar band lamp

Closer view

Of course there is always some kind of seafood to eat even if you can't fish.  Our good friend Russ Reynolds, who lives on the island, brought by a bag of the oysters farmed here on Ocracoke.  We were so excited that we ate them before I even had the chance to take a picture of them.  

Here is the empty oyster bag and one of our new nifty oyster shucking, cut resistant gloves.              

(I love the gloves almost as much as the oysters)




Keith has also had a project while the weather is not yet good for fishing.  Boating friends of ours from Beaufort, NC (Dr. Mike and Debbie) have loaned us the use of their 26-foot Sailfish boat named "Lab Cab" for the summer.  Keith went over  to Beaufort and picked it up last Saturday (May 1st) and brought it to Ocracoke.  

Dr. Mike's Sailfish the "Lab Cab"


Keith has been working hard getting "Lab Cab" all spiffed up and ready for fishing.  We took it out for a quick spin the other day just so I could drive a bit so I could see how she handles since I captain most of the time while Keith is fishing.  Can't wait for the weather to improve so we can get some "blood on the deck" as they say.  Hopefully you will be seeing many more pictures related to the "Lab Cab" as the summer progresses.  Dr. Mike and Debbie actually brought their big boat "Just Saying" (a 57-foot Carver Voyager) to Ocracoke this week.  They are planning to stay about a month on the island, then make their way into the Chesapeake Bay for much of the summer.  They are docked right behind us.

"Reggie" one of three of Dr. Mike's Labrador retrievers on the upper aft deck of "Just Saying"
(Hence the name of his Sailfish "Lab Cab")


So fingers crossed that the winds calm down soon.  Until then we will continue to entertain ourselves.  I'll let you know what transpires.



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