Ocracoke

Monday, May 19, 2015

Up early and on the way. Ocracoke is a mere twenty-five miles across Pamlico Sound, a relatively shallow water body with areas of shoaling to be avoided. Left our unprotected anchorage on Oyster Creek in Swanquarter Bay at 0730 after a blustery night. Not much good sleep. Worried about anchor dragging. Lee wind pushing us toward land.

Winds S ten-fifteen. Sailed under jib and mizzen out into Pamlico Sound and set our course for Ocracoke. Out of sight of land for a while. Two other sailboats, one flying a spinnaker, a large kite like sail deployed at the bow, used for downwind sailing in light air (light winds).

Past Middle Ground Shoal to port, crossed Blue Shoal to entry into the Big Foot Slough Channel that leads into Ocracoke. Not much traffic other than the Swanquarter – Ocracoke – Cedar Island ferries.

 

 

Ocracoke - Swanquarter Ferry

 

Big Foot Channel, narrow and shallow in spots. Rule #1 – don’t enter channel when ferry boats are coming or going. Rule #2 - don’t enter channel when ferry boats are coming or going. Rule #3 – know the ferry schedule so you can implement rules # 1 and 2.

We follow the rules, motoring down Big Foot to intersection with the Nine Foot Shoal Channel, further down Big Foot to intersect with Teaches Hole Channel (Remember him – Captain Blackbeard?), made a hard right into Silver Lake, the ever so charming Ocracoke Harbor. A few other sailboats and powerboats anchored. Arrived Ocracoke at 1430. Moderate south winds. Anchored in ten feet of water.

Life is good today. Hunkering down for a few days.

Speaking of Edward Teach, Captain Blackbeard, true story, just a couple of weeks ago staff with the Underwater Archeology Branch of the North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources (hard to believe North Carolina would have such a branch of government what with the hard line Republican dominated legislature they have) recovered the very anchor carried by Blackbeard’s flagship, the Queen Anne’s Revenge. They hoisted the three thousand pound anchor from the bottom where in lay in twenty feet of water off Beaufort, NC for the past 297 years.

 The actual ship was discovered in 1998 and they are just getting around to a concerted recovery effort. The site of the ship’s sinking has already yielded more than 250,000 artifacts, including cannons, gold, platters, glass, beads, shackles and rope, according to the state.

 I love this stuff!

 

 

My favorite mate!