Happy 4th of July

 It is hard to believe it is the 4th of July already.  Ocracoke had some festivities for the holiday.  They had fireworks for the first time in a number of years.  It was a very nice show put on by a professional company on Saturday the 3rd.  They set them off from the ferry dock parking lot, so it was easily visible right from the bow of our boat.

View of the fireworks from the bow of Southern Style

There was also a sand sculpture contest on the morning of the 4th.  We went to check it out.  It was not very dramatic.  Mostly seemed like it was for the kids.  Quite a number of families were helping the kids build castles.  It was the busiest we have seen the beach here all year.

Tons of people were on the beach July 4th morning

Later that afternoon there was a parade through town to celebrate our country's independence.  People decorated their golf carts and the local fire company started it off with their fire trucks.

Here comes the parade

After a rain-out of a day on Friday, July 2nd, Saturday and Sunday were beautiful weather days here on the island.  We had a great weekend as far as the weather was concerned.  

Keith and I did a little fishing in addition to attending some of the town celebrations.  We took "Lab Cab" out Ocracoke inlet on Sunday thinking it would be nice out with fair winds.  I should have known better.  Even though the ocean looked nice from the beach, there were some fairly large waves rolling onto the beach.  This can indicate big breaking waves across the shallow bar going out the inlet.   And we found out this was certainly the case.  

We took the center console and there were breaking waves in the channel and I think I lost ten years off my life going out.  I have no pictures of the ride as I was white knuckle holding on with no spare hands to hold the camera.  Won't be doing that again anytime soon.  After getting out there, the ocean was nice, but we only caught one Spanish mackerel.  All that stress for one lousy fish.  We came back into the sound and were able to pick up a couple small blue fish and two more mackerel.  All total from Saturday and Sunday we had enough to load the smoker.

Picture of the sounder in the Pamlico Sound as we trolled on the inside.  There are certainly fish down there.

So it was a good weekend overall.  I am getting ready to drive to PA for a visit with my family.  Once back we will soon be getting some company on the boat, so things may get busier the end of July and beginning of August.  Just more fun to look forward to.