A January Boat Ride

Posted on January 29, 2013 by dsobotta
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Swansboro Harbor, January 2013

Swansboro Harbor, January 2013

January is not a particularly tough month here on the coast of North Carolina.  One of my few concessions to winter is that I wear cotton socks inside my crocs.  The crocs still have plenty of ventilation, but I get a little protection from the socks.  Only one trip to the mail box in January 2013, required that I change to my tennis shoes because of heavy rain.

Winter has not been totally absent here along Raymond’s Gut.  We have seen a few days where we did not break forty degrees Fahrenheit.  However, we are lucky that even when winter has found us, it has been tempered by outbreaks of warm weather like we are enjoying this last week of January 2013.

When it gets up over sixty or seventy degrees Fahrenheit in January, it is time to play a little. There are four things that I do to enjoy the scenic beauty of the area and take advantage of the warm weather that regularly slips into the area during January.

One is to take walks along the marsh close by our subdivision.  We are such a protected area that even on the nastiest days, I often get to enjoy a wide variety of the area’s wildlife.   I regularly seen loons, otters, great egrets, great blue herons, and king fishers among other inhabitants of the marsh. When the weather is really nice, our marsh inhabitants are often down wandering in the big marshes near Swansboro.

The second thing that comes to mind as warm weather blankets the area is taking my Sundance skiff out on the river.  There is rarely a week, that I don’t run my boat down to Swansboro.  It’s only ten minutes by water.  It can be really cold out on the river, but a few warm days can make things nice enough to ditch the gloves and coat.  However,  just because the air temperature has warmed up to seventy degrees doesn’t mean that it is going to be that warm out on the river.  On my most recent trip, the air temperature was well over seventy degrees Fahrenheit at our dock.  I left the dock with my coat tucked in the back cooler of our boat.  I was comfortable in my long-sleeved t-shirt.  As I idled my way to the river, I was impressed that the top layer of the undisturbed water in Raymond’s Gut was over sixty degrees.  By the time I got out to the river things were changing.

As my quick ride down the river at 30 MPH progressed, I could feel the chill in the air building as we approached Swansboro.  When I powered back the motor as I crossed under the bridge at Swansboro Harbor, I noticed the temperature on the depth finder was reading just over forty-nine degrees.  I put my coat on for the trip back up the river.  I didn’t take it off until I turned into our inlet.  I also noticed that after the boat had mixed the water in the marsh, even the water temperature there had dropped to just over fifty-three degrees.  When you are riding on the water, you normally feel the water temperature more than the air temperature.

The third activity I like to do on warm days is go kayaking, but I generally like to have four or five warm days in a row when the water is as cold as it is now. If I can find a streak of nice weather, it is a good time to enjoy our inlet and even the nearby river like I did on Christmas Day and in early January.

My final warm weather January activity is hiking the beaches.  I would likely have gone over during this last spell of warm weather, but we are in the midst of bridge construction and I couldn’t get free until almost four o’clock which is a little late to head out to the beaches this time of year.  It also wasn’t that long ago that I hiked the Point at Emerald Isle.

Whatever I do on these magical warm January days, I manage to enjoy our beauty area to the fullest.  The Southern Outer Banks are truly a wonderful place. It is sometimes hard to believe you can actually walk on the beaches and play on the water in January here.

You can find pictures of a boat ride of mine down the river at this link.  I have also posted pictures of some kayaking that that I did on January 12.  My latest January beach hike didn’t yield a lot of great pictures, but this is one that I do like.

If you would like to learn more about the area visit this site with links to more information.  You will also a list of my most recent technology articles.

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Winter By The Gut

Posted on January 27, 2013 by dsobotta
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A Sunny Winter Day Along Raymond's Gu

A Sunny Winter Day Along Raymond’s Gut

Most people have never heard of a piece of water being called a “gut”.  I first saw the term used when I visited Newfoundland in the early seventies.  There I found places on the map like Famish Gut, Grand River Gut, Star Gut, and Turks Gut.

When we moved to North Carolina’s Southern Outer Banks in 2006, I was pleased to find out that the body of water behind our home was called Raymond’s Gut.  I’ve never been able to find the name on a map search, but an old gentleman who was working on a detailed map of the White Oak River assured me that was the local name for the water feature at my doorstep.

According to Wikipedia a gat or a gut is a narrow passage of tidal water between two land masses.  That describes the water behind our home perfectly.  For our area it is a relatively deep body of tidal water that flows from the pine woods adjacent to the Croatan National Forest on the western side of Carteret County into the White Oak River at the northern edge of Hampton Bay.

Though our gut is only three or four feet deep, it is much deeper than the cove into which it flows.  The cove because it is much wider and shallower has to be regularly dredged so that we can have a navigable channel out to the river.  So far the tide has taken care of keeping the gut navigable for my skiff.

Living along Raymond’s Gut is a treat during the whole year, but it gets really special during the coldest parts of winter.  We normally see our coldest temperatures in mid to late January through early February.  As the weather chills the water in the marshes down by Swansboro, a lot of the big birds that live there most of the year come and hang around our gut.

It is such a regular occurrence that we can almost predict the weather by the type of visitors that we have.  While we have regular big bird visits during the whole year, you can tell when the weather is turning really cold by the arrival of the pelicans.  When the pelicans hang around all day, you know things are not very nice out in Bogue Sound.

Great blue herons are almost permanent residents.  At least we usually have one or two fishing here even in the summer.  I sometimes think juvenile great blue herons come here to learn how to fish.  When the really big great blues show up, you know things are getting nasty in the outside world.

We also have a number of great egrets who pass through the area.  You will see them in their favored hiding place when we have biting cold winds.  Their spot is mostly sheltered from the wind, and if there are two or three great egrets in there, it is a good bet we won’t see any nice weather for a while.

Recently we have gone from the wonderful warmth of early January 2013 to what most of us call downright cold.  A day when the high temperature does not break forty degrees is seriously cold weather on the Crystal Coast.  Once in a while the gut gets icy or even snowy, but winter never lasts long and rarely gets very severe. The result is that we are pretty spoiled.  Several hours below freezing can get us to grumbling about the weather.

A spell of really cold weather also causes problems in the gut behind our house as everyone shows up at once.  An air traffic controller would have welcome the last twenty hours.  I saw a pelican and a great egret going at it for a while.  After they finally reached a somewhat tenuous peace, a great blue heron showed up to clear out any challengers to his territory.

About the only ones who seem to be able to laugh about the territory squabbles are the otters who would rather be nosy and wrestle than fight. Of course they have to eat their fill of fish before they get in that playful mood.  As far as I can tell there are not enough fish in the gut to make a great blue heron playful.

Fortunately for all of us here on the coast, we are only a couple of weeks away from that time of year when the North Carolina sun takes charge of the weather.  With some luck things will start to warm up and the big birds can once again spread out across Bogue Sound.  For now we will enjoy them, and hope the big blue herons behave themselves.

At least we have not seen any serious ice on the gut like we did a couple of years ago.  In 2011 the ice forced the great egrets and great blue herons into fighting over some spring fed ponds.  It was pretty spectacular squabbling but I got some great pictures.

Pictures of this winter’s birds can be found at this early winter link and this late winter link.

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Warm Winter Weekend in January

Posted on January 11, 2013 by dsobotta
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January 10, 2013 Sunset, Bluewater Cove

January 10, 2013 Sunset, Bluewater Cove

Some people do not believe me when I tell them about the first January that we spent along North Carolina’s Southern Outer Banks.  That winter I kept track of the number of hours that the temperature was below 32F.  The total was around nineteen hours for the whole month.  We also had at least ten days when we broke 70F.

That doesn’t happen every winter but we  have only endured one “cold” winter in the seven winters that we have lived along the Crystal Coast.  Our definition of cold would bring a chuckle from anyone living very far north.  Cold to us is when a day doesn’t make it to 50F.

A brutal low temperature would in the low twenties.  We haven’t seen very much cold weather this year.  One of the geraniums that we planted out by our bulkhead behind the house and near the water is still alive.  The geraniums on our front porch are still blooming.

So far this second week of January 2013, we have beaten the forecast every day.  At 9:30 AM the morning of Friday, January 11, we  reached 60F.  At least for the first part of the week it was cool in the mornings and I wore a jacket which helped me imagine that it was winter.  Today I abandoned my coat for a long-sleeved t-shirt.  On my walk I met one of my neighbors pushing a jogging stroller.  She was wearing shorts.

If we get into the seventies on Saturday. January 12, I suspect that I will also drag out my shorts.  We never bury them very far here.  When I worked in a real estate office, most of the men started wearing shorts by April 1.

It is likely that the weather will change and some cold air will find us before the winter ends. We could still see snow.  We get a touch of it every three or four winters but fortunately it melts almost as fast as it falls.

The threat of some cold will not stop us from enjoying the warm weather while we have it.  On Thursday I managed a nice boat ride down to Swansboro.  While I didn’t do it in shorts, I only had on a light jacket.  There is a wind chill factor when you are traveling down the river at thirty miles per hour so it was nice to have a jacket.  However, I was not wearing gloves.

When you can ride down the river in an open skiff in January without gloves, it is a pretty good indication of how nice the weather is.  Friday afternoon, January 11, we did have some rain.  However, the rain was so warm that fog developed almost immediately at the surface of the water.  In our marsh the water was already warmed to the mid-to-upper fifties before the rain.  I suspect it will make it into the sixties before the warm spell is over.

With great weather like this even if we get a spell of “cold” weather, the winter will seem much shorter.  Some of these nice warm days will make for great magic beach days.   If we can get to the the middle of February, that warm North Carolina sun will start to work its magic.  In the spring of 2012, March started so warm that we saw temperatures approaching 80F early in the month.  It made the water very hard to resist for those of us who love boating and fishing.

In February we start to see some flowers blooming.  About the third week of March I will be planting my tomato plants. Then the first week or two of April we can expect some strawberries to be ripe.   Towards the end of April we will start mowing the grass again.  Fortunately our grass grows very slowly in the spring which gives us more time for fishing.

Once we make it to May, summer is definitely on the horizon.  Usually we get to spend most of April and May sleeping with the windows open.  Sometimes the good weather coincides  with the pine pollen season, but most years we have enough rain to wash the pollen out of the air regularly.  I even managed some ripe tomatoes before the end of May in 2012.

It is nice to have a little chill in the air to remind us of all the cold weather that we are missing. However, there is nothing wrong with a string of 70F days in January. Warm days make it easier to stand on my dock and watch the otters and loons.  This weather is a wonderful treat and I’m sure there are a lot of people who would enjoy thawing out here on the coast this warm January weekend.

 

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A Surprise Around Every Corner in our Natural Paradise

Posted on December 28, 2012 by dsobotta
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Boardwalk at Bluewater Cove

Boardwalk at Bluewater Cove

There are places in the world which can help heal your soul.  I happen to live in one of those places.  I came to it at a time when my life was full of challenges and I had come close to forgetting how important it is to appreciate the natural world around you.

Anyone that follows my writings  and pictures knows that the years since 2006 when we moved here have changed my life.  At one time when I was working for Apple, it seemed as if I hardly had time to check whether the sun was up or down.  I was too busy trying to survive and watching my back.

Today my connection with the natural world is a priority.  The only thing higher would be my family and friends. Fortunately my dedication to being close to the world of nature also helps me nurture many friendships and my family.

After a couple of cups of coffee, a typical winter day begins with at least an hour of hiking around the marshes in our subdivision.  Sometimes I completely lose track of time and I end up spending closer to two hours wandering the woods and wetlands.  Those days breakfast tastes very good when I finally get back home.

When I start out on the boardwalk close to home, I never know what I will find around the corner.  It can be a great blue heron, some great egrets, a kingfisher, or any of a variety of ducks.  Recently I have had great fun with a pair of river otters.

This is a special area. I often describe the area as a place hemmed in for its own good by the Croatan National Forest, Cape Lookout National Seashore, and the Atlantic Ocean with a little protection by Camp Lejeune and the Marines.

A big part of our world is the White Oak River which luckily drains mostly wilderness and farmland.  The White Oak is a big but short coastal river with a strong tide and plenty of oysters.  Often the water is so clear that you can easily see for yards.

The White Oak is just intimidating enough to outside boaters that we rarely see crowds on it in the summer.  In the winter except for a few crab pots, the river is close to deserted.  I am happy to have it to myself like I did on Christmas Day 2012 when I kayaked for most of the morning.

My morning walk often takes me along Raymond’s Gut which empties into the White Oak.  I sometimes feel like I am in a bird sanctuary.  The other morning I stood and snapped shots of bluebirds swarming around a tree.  I have watched baby pileated woodpeckers waiting patiently for their parents to deliver food.

Even during the colder months, I often take to the river in my kayak or skiff.  I try to be on the river at least a couple of times a week twelve months of the year.  Instead of a long walk, in the summer I’ll often take my skiff to the marshes on the other side of the Intracoastal Waterway near Swansboro.   I enjoy a little early morning fishing before the day heats up.

In both spring and summer I can be found walking the beaches especially the area that we call the Point.  Usually I finish my day with either another walk, a trip into the river by kayak or a sunset cruise in the skiff.  Watching the sun slide down behind the trees on the other side of the White is my idea of a great finish to a day.

The beaches, the marshes, the sound, the ocean, and the White Oak River are all part of this wonderful natural world that has helped me recover and learn to appreciate the great natural gifts we are so lucky to have access to in our world.  It is a great place to live.

Certainly the bottle-nosed dolphins, the river otters, and the hooded mergansers would all agree with me that this is a wonderful spot.

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Time to Enjoy the Inlet

Posted on December 21, 2012 by dsobotta
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Bluewater Cove in December 2012

Bluewater Cove in December 2012

The holidays are almost upon us and winter has decided to visit us.  For those unfamiliar with the Crystal Coast, I define a winter day as one when the temperature does not reach 50F.

We endured some colder weather earlier in the fall.   It did pass and we have enjoyed some magnificent weather in December.  The first few days of December were in the upper sixties.  The second week only had a couple of days stuck in the fifties.  Even better the week leading up to Christmas had a day close to seventy degrees.

The river water returned to nearly 60F which is not bad for December.  With warm water and mild temperatures December has been a great time to enjoy the area’s waters.  Earlier this week before Christmas I spent an afternoon fishing the White Oak River in my kayak. It was warm enough that a long-sleeve t-shirt was all that I needed to be comfortable.

While I did not catch any fish, I had a great time being out on the river in such perfect weather.  I also got to watch several bottle-nosed dolphins feeding in the river.  I cannot remember the fall kayaking weather being any better since we moved down here over six years ago.  I know that I have been out in my kayak more this year than any previous year.

Unfortunately even here on the Crystal Coast we have to deal with the changing of the seasons.  The evening of Thursday, December 20, a front came through, and it feels like our really nice weather will disappear for a few days.  We are lucky because most years we get some nice days sprinkled all through the winter.  It is not unheard of for us to have several days in the seventies during January, but we can also get some snow.

Usually whatever snow we get is gone by noon, but strong winds and cool temperatures can make boating more challenging.  While I am dedicated to getting my skiff out on the river at least one day a week even if it requires a little ice-breaking,  I tend to stay in our inlet with my kayak once winter is officially here.

A trip in the kayak like I took earlier this week puts me about 1.5 miles from home.  When the water starts to cool and the winds start to below, I can find plenty to keep me occupied closer to home in our own inlet.  I can sneak out in the river a little ways and still be protected by a point of land sticks out into the White Oak but mostly I enjoy the warmth of our sheltered inlet.

If the weather turns bad, I can paddle home in under ten minutes. Our inlet is a great place for some easy winter kayaking.  There is plenty of wildlife to keep me entertained.  Usually my neighbors which include a great blue heron, a kingfisher or two, a great egret, and sometimes even a pelican are around to keep me company.  When the weather is nasty, we get even more of the big birds.

Even if the birds desert me, I can usually count on a beautiful winter sunset.  Somehow being confined to the Inlet for a few weeks isn’t such a big deal when your surroundings are so scenic.  I have plenty of wonderful memories of warmer weather to keep me going for a month or two.   By the end of February, the North Carolina sunshine is starting to warm things up, and I know it won’t be long before the tomatoes are in the ground once again.

So far this year’s weather has been easy to enjoy.  I hope it stays that way.

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December Waters

Posted on December 2, 2012 by dsobotta
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On the White Oak

On the White Oak

Most people would be surprised to hear me say that December is a good time of the year to be living by the water.  This will be our seventh winter here on the Crystal Coast and experience says that we have a reasonable chance of having some great days on the water.  It is a little early to declare December 2012 a really nice month, but the forecast for the first week looks very good.

When six out of the first seven days in December have a high temperature at sixty degrees Fahrenheit or above, you will hear no complaints from me.  We had a similar run of shorts weather in December 2011.  Unfortunately there are no guarantees with the weather.

We can hope, but we have to take what we get.  The winter of 2010 started out much different from the winter of 2012.  On December 8, 2010, I wrote a post called “Nothing but Ice.”  That year the ice wasn’t a surprise since we had an early Saturday in December when the temperature only rose to 43F.  The weather was about as cold as it gets here on the Southern Outer Banks of the North Carolina Coast.

Unfortunately it even got worse that year.  We had snow on the dock on December 26.  As we got into January 2011, it was clear that it would be an old-fashioned winter and one for the record books here along the Southern Outer Banks.

That was not the kind of weather we expect here in Eastern North Carolina.  Many of us live here on the coast because most years you can enjoy the water twelve months out of the year.  I might be a little bundled up when I take a ride down the White Oak in January or February but I do it so that I can appreciate the heat in July and August.

Even during the notorious cold winter of 2010-11, I managed to grab some time on the water in February.  However, I prefer winters like last year when it is warm enough not only for boat rides but also for walking the beaches.

While we went through a wet, cool spell in the fall of 2012,  there have been more than enough days with great weather that offers an opportunity to enjoy our local waters.  Fall is fishing season here at the coast so I like to focus on the fish in my backyard.

The fall of 2012 has been a very good fishing season.  While I don’t catch something every time that I go out,  I have done very well this year.  I have the choice of fishing with a kayak or skiff, but in the fall I love to fish in the White Oak with my kayak.  Sitting out by the oyster rocks in the middle of the river is a good way to enjoy the peacefulness of my surroundings.  Sometimes there are even some tasty rewards like this flounder that I cooked less than an hour after I caught it in the White Oak.

I often work the oyster rocks in the river and the marsh grass on the edges.  I also have good luck fishing our inlet.  This year the fish seem to be close to home.  I caught this nice puppy drum weighing about four pounds about 350 feet from our home.  It was one of those days when I had worked a lot of the water without any fish including some in the middle of the river.  It was persistence that got a fish that close to home.

I have lost count of the number of puppy drum that I have caught and released this fall, but it has been my best puppy drum fall.    I haven’t caught a trout as nice as the one I caught last fall when I got this one that weighed over two pounds, but I have gotten a trout or two.

Last year, I caught a lot of trout out in the middle of the river, this year all my fish so far have been caught inside the Red Sixteen buoy.

Fishing is just part of the fun for me.  I enjoy sneaking up on the great blue herons and other birds.  In the kayak, I can get some really great pictures of our own big bird.  It is even possible to get some shots of the kingfishers which rarely stay in one spot for very long.  This one posed for me in the afternoon sunlight.

Beyond birds and fish, you also get to enjoy some spectacular sunsets.  I got a number of great sunset shots the evening of December 1, 2012.  This one which I call Kayak Evening is one of my favorites.  A number of folks enjoyed this one which I call Fire in the Water.

With fish, birds, and the opportunity to view great sunsets, I don’t know what there is to not like about December on the water as long as we can keep the cold temperatures up North where they belong.

 

 

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Quiet Waters

Posted on November 15, 2012 by dsobotta
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Quiet Waters Waiting for the Nor'easter

Quiet Waters Waiting for the Nor’easter

I lived in the North just across the Maine border for many years.  The rhythm of life in New Brunswick is different from the way it is here on the North Carolina coast, but there are some similarities.  On our Canadian farm it was always a rush to get things done before the winter blanket of snow arrived.

Once the snow came, there was a sense of release.  Many projects were frozen in time until the next spring.  For a few days, you could actually relax until those regular winter chores began in earnest.  Along the beaches of the Southern Outer Banks November’s bright sunny days seem to urge us to be outside and on the water as much as possible.  In the back of our minds, we know the outside season that we love and cherish could be snatched from us at any time.

Some years the great weather goes on forever.  Then there are years like 2012 when November reminds us that it can be a fickle master.  Not surprisingly when the late fall rains and cooler temperatures arrive on the coast, there is a pause and a changing of the gears that is similar to what happens in the North when the first significant snows arrive.

Carteret County with more water than land is unlike the urban areas of the east coast.  The wind, weather, and temperature are of great importance since people here spend so much of their time in the out-of-doors.  I like to think that we live much of our lives in a world without walls here along North Carolina’s Southern Outer Banks. Whenever I get a great day, I often spend it checking out the changes in The Point at Emerald Isle.  It is one of those places where Mother Nature is the mistress and I am often exploring the unknown.

We are very lucky here on the coast.  Even after fall has long given up on the interior of the state, we can snatch some summery days from the jaws of winter.  We have to change gears again and find our shorts, but it is just like a thaw up North when the snow leaves.  You take advantage of it and get back into your old routine until cold winds force you to change your habits and clothes once again.

Actually one of the treasured times up North is during a snow storm.  Most people who can will hunker down in their homes and adapt to staying inside until the weather clears, and they can get back to work.  Here on the coast when the Nor’easters blow with driving rain and wind over a day or two,  the feeling is very similar to what I felt during a snow storm in Canada.  When it is nasty outside we try to watch the weather through the windows just as much as we did in Canada.

Maybe it is a little easier to get around in our Nor’easters than it is in a Canadian blizzard, but there are some folks living along Route 12 between Nags Head and Hatteras Island who might argue the point.

Just as bright blue skies might follow a strong Canadian storm, it is not unusual for stellar weather to show up after a Nor’easter. Most skiffs, kayaks, and fishing rods are usually ready for action at any time here on the coast.  All it takes is a little good weather to get most people back out on the water.  As long as there is any hope of catching a fish, there will be a rod or two in my kayak or along for the ride with my skiff.

When it does get too cold to be serious about fishing from a boat, I don’t give up on the water,  I try to zig zag down the White Oak River to Swansboro at least once a week.  In January and February, I have to bundle up, but fortunately March regularly brings warmth to North Carolina.  March is often a hard month for me to resist the call of the water.

With even our coldest months of January and February struggling to keep me off the water,  Carteret County and our home of Bluewater Cove in particular end up being a very good place for wintering.

As I write this on Thursday evening, November 15, 2012,  our latest rain storm is moving off shore, and our local forecasters are calling for another Nor’easter to form off the Carolina coast this weekend.  I likely won’t be able to go chasing puppy drum in my kayak like I did last weekend when the temperatures surged into the seventies, but I am on track to have my new gas logs up and running by the time the storm finds us.

Of course we might get some fine weather between the two batches of rain so perhaps I should check my fishing rods before I go to bed tonight.

With the next storm in mind and getting closer to reality,  I suspect that I will be watching some Saturday football games from the backsides of my eyelids  while my wife cooks up some tasty rainy weather food.  I wonder if I dare dream for some homemade clam chowder?  It would make this Nor’easter almost as welcome as a good Canadian blizzard.

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The Point After Sandy

Posted on November 2, 2012 by dsobotta
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On the Point, Looking South

On the Point, Looking South

When you have a big storm like Sandy that slides up the coast, it does not take long for those of us who live in the area to start wondering what the storm did to the beaches.

In 2011 after Irene came through the area, I did a post called, “Walking between Irene, Katia, and Maria.”  In that post I chronicled some of the changes that I saw on the Point after Irene.  When I walk the Point, I use a piece of software called MyTracks. It runs on my Android phone and does a very good job of tracking where I walk.

In fact the maps that I create with my phone are much more accurate than what is typically posted on the web by Google, MapQuest, or Bing.  Their maps are updated infrequently, and the Point changes sometimes from day to day.  Often the Google maps show me walking across great expanses of water.  Unfortunately I have yet to master that skill.   I might get my toes wet, but on November 1, when I last visited the Point wading with my bare legs was not something I did.  At that time the water was cooling rapidly.

After Irene I calculated what I considered to be the new sand on the Point based on my previous hikes.  The Point has continued change throughout 2012.  In September 2012, I did another post, Back to The Point, discussing changes at the Point.  I also made another map from a hike which confirmed that sand was continuing to build up at the Northwest corner of the Point.

When I visited the Point on November 1, 2012, I really did not know what to expect.  At the time there were no newspaper reports discussing Sandy’s impact on our beaches.  It did not take me long after I got on the beach to decide that Sandy had smoothed the beach considerably but did not seem to damage it.

The cliffs of Emerald Isle as I call a series of sand dunes which are near where I enter the beach survived with no damage as you can see from this picture.  You can see from this photo that Sandy did level the beach and create some great walking conditions.

My hike confirmed that the Point survived Sandy without any major changes.   As I mentioned earlier, the long term trend of more sand at the Northwest end of the Point continues as you can see in this picture.

Though a lack of time prevented me from going all the way to end of Bird Island, if you look at this map of my hike and compare it to the one from August 31, you can quickly see that the changes have been minor.

I am pleased to report that there is a new dune building on the Point.  The Emerald Isle folks have it surrounded with warning tape, so I am hoping it will continue to grow.

The one thing that can definitely be said is that the Point has grown tremendously since I took this picture in November of 2007 when water was lapping at the vehicle ramp.  The Point essentially disappeared during high tides in late fall of 2007.  Using the map from my November 1, 2012, hike, I estimate there is now 1,742 feet of sand straight out from the vehicle ramp where there was only water in November of 2007. That measurement has not varied significantly since this spring.

After a lot of hikes around the Point, it is easy to say that there is a lot of sand out there.

 

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Living by the Inlet

Posted on September 19, 2012 by dsobotta
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My Drum Fishing Hole

My Drum Fishing Hole

In 2003 an impromptu anniversary celebration along North Carolina’s  Southern Outer Banks ended up changing our lives.   For years before that trip to Beaufort, NC, a lifelong attraction to the sand and surf kept pulling me back to the towns on the Outer Banks from Corolla to South Nags Head to Hatteras Island.

Now in the fall of 2012, we are beginning our seventh year of living by a quiet inlet of the White Oak River not far from Emerald Isle.  How we ended up in this beautiful, peaceful place and what we have learned from living here might offer some guideposts to others looking to relocate from the urban world.

One simple explanation for my love of this area is that I started going to the beaches of North Carolina when I could hardly walk.  Other than the years we lived in Canada, there was hardly a break in my annual pilgrimage to the shifting sands.  I was even camping on Ocracoke Island when Neil Armstrong stepped on the moon.  The feeling of being close to the sea that you get on the thin strand of sand that is North Carolina’s Outer Banks is hard to duplicate.  Many evenings while working in Northern Virginia, I would wish for an evening on the beach.

While I was deep in a career at Apple, the town of Buxton  perched on Cape Hatteras offered a special attraction.  We could go stay there for a week and forget the not so nice corporate world of Apple.  Much to my liking, you could not even find a telephone in the room much less Internet access.  I think my annual trip to the coast was one of the strongest incentives to mentor potential new managers.  I needed people whom I could trust to cover for me because going to Buxton put me off the grid.

However, our anniversary trip in 2003 was different.  Beaufort gave me the first inkling that I could live on the coast. Over the years we vacationed up and down the East coast from Chincoteague down to Bald Head Island.  No place, not even Charleston which I visited on business trips, piqued my interest like Beaufort.

It took three years, but we finally found a place to call home that satisfied the need that Beaufort had awakened.    Once we really made the decision to find a place to live,  it didn’t take long for us to decide that if we were going to live on the coast, we wanted to be able to see and smell the water.  We also wanted a place where we could live among permanent residents instead of just people on vacation.

Because of what was available on the water in our price range, we ended up in Western Carteret County on a small gut not far off the White Oak River.  Finding the right spot was worth the effort.

We are about three miles up the river from Swansboro and the Intracoastal Waterway.  Our life revolves around Cape Carteret, Emerald Isle, Cedar Point, and Swansboro.  Morehead City is also a big part of our life, and when needed we venture up to Jacksonville.  We haven’t found much need to go to larger cities.

The water is a little over twenty-five feet from our garage.  I can see if from my upstairs office.  My wife can see it from her laundry room/office.  When we eat a meal, I look out on the water and often we have some interesting visitors in the tidal gut behind our home.

Because we choose to live by the water, the water is a big part of our lives.   I always walk out on our dock before I go retrieve the morning newspaper.  When the tide is high often determines how I organize my day.   Most nice mornings I hike a road that parallels the length of the gut.   I usually spend a few minutes on our community boardwalk where I often play hide and seek with Great Blue Herons, Great Egrets, Green Herons, and Kingfishers.

It is a rare night when we close up for the evening and don’t hear either the hoot of an owl in the forest or a heron squawking about a territory invasion.  When it is dark at night and the skies are clear, we see more stars than most people can imagine.  The deep blue of our evening sky is hard to appreciate unless you have lived outside the glare of city lights.

While I spend much I my day writing, I rarely let slip an opportunity to get out on the water.  Sometimes I slide my kayak in the water for a quick fishing trip in our inlet. Other days I lower the skiff in the water for a visit to the marshes behind Swansboro.  Sometimes in the evening my wife and I ride out in the skiff and just watch the sun sink behind the trees on the other side of the river.  Coming back into our inlet is truly special.

The soil and climate by our inlet are favorable for growing things.  We got our first tomato this year before the end of May.  This tomato season was even better than 2011.  I had far fewer plants, and they produced almost as many tomatoes.  We grew lettuce during the late winter.  We enjoy watching our flowers and palm trees grow, and I don’t mind taking care of our low maintenance centipede yard.

On Saturday, September 15, I left for a fishing trip designed to coincide with high tide.  It only took me five minutes or so to reach my favorite fishing spot which is the picture at the top of the post.  It wasn’t long before I caught the first of three puppy drum that I enjoyed catching that morning but quickly returned to the water.  Mixed in with the drum came a couple of flounder, and it turned out that one was a fat 16.5 inch keeper.

After a couple of hours of fishing,  I made the short trip back to our dock where I cleaned the flounder and put it on ice.  After a refreshing shower, I pan fried the flounder and my wife fixed some vegetables.  We had a great lunch which was an exclamation point on a very nice day.

Three mornings I made the same quick trip to my fishing hole.  Each time I caught some feisty puppy drum.  Catching those fish in sight of our house is as close to a validation of our choice of a place to move as anything that I can conjure up.

We wanted quiet living in a natural setting not far from modern services.  I’m happy to report that we found it along the White Oak River in Bluewater Cove.  Even our experience with Hurricane Irene and a very rare tornado that visited the area have not changed our opinion of life here along the coast.

This is a great place to live.  The peace you find here is a sure road to recovery from the stress of the modern world.

 

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In the wildness of our surroundings there is peace

Posted on September 11, 2012 by dsobotta
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A view of the White Oak River

A view of the White Oak River

There are many reasons for living in a particular place.  The place can feel like home. You perhaps have found a great job in the area.  Sometime a location can be close to friends or an easy place to engage in your favorite activities.

Then there are places we go to for more than employment or fun.

Areas like North Carolina’s Crystal Coast are often more than just a place to plant your roots.  They are among the rare spots where the human spirit can find a renewal in the cathedral of the natural world.  Within their blue sky boundaries are often homes which offer more than just a place to live.

Sometimes by quiet waters under a cloud-tinted blue sky, you will encounter a place to find yourself or even heal your spirit.

Throughout my life I have found that natural beauty on my doorstep has helped me survive the challenges of our increasingly over connected modern life.

The wildness of a deserted beach, forest or open stretch of water lets us disconnect from our modern world and reconnect with the world around us.  The peace of an empty beach lets us listen to those quiet inner voices of our own which are often overwhelmed by the noise of modern society.   That walk away from the world and into wildness also prepares us to hear the voice of God.

That it is far easier to connect with God when we have unconnected ourselves from much of the world should not come as a surprise.   We try hard to divorce ourselves from the world when we go to worship in a church.  The sanctuary of a church gives us separation from the world.  That distance between us and the everyday world gives us a chance to contemplate and worship.  We need the separation because the world has become a noisy, demanding place where multiple things and people continually vie for our attention.

You can find the same separation in the wildness of many places.

Over the last sixty plus years I have found many challenges that have reminded me how little control that we actually have over our lives.  There are times when we just have to put our trust in a power that it is greater than us.  Those who think they are master of all their world just haven’t lived long enough to face a real obstacle in their life.

When the world seems to be collapsing around you and yet the voices of concern that you are hearing from those close to you make no sense,  then a walk out beyond the homes along the beach or  a paddle out to the oyster rocks can clear your mind and help you understand the path that you need to take.

Over the years my favorite places of retreat have changed as we have moved.  At one time I found solace on the rocky coast of Nova Scotia.  A few years later, a hillside overlooking the wilderness behind our farm came to be the place I escaped.  When we moved to Roanoke, Virginia, I created a network of trails on the high mountainside behind our home.  Now that I live along North Carolina’s Southern Outer Banks, I’ve found that I can find the solitude that I need in a number of places that have no walls.

My current favorite spot is far out on the Point at Emerald Isle.  It requires a hike of over two miles just to get there.  The effort is well worth it.  Before the fishermen come in their trucks in the fall, there are few people who are willing to spend the energy to reach the place that I have come to cherish.

Each time that I arrive there, I am reminded that we humans might try to control our world, but our efforts are at best sandcastles in the waves of time.  That I can walk this stretch of beach and see with my own eyes the new land created between my trips makes the experience I find in the wildness of this beach that much more powerful.

John Muir says it so eloquently on page 256 of The Yosemite.

Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul alike.

 

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