Warm year ending

The temps have been rising all evening, and it looks like this year will end on a warm note:

Manteo Christmas Parade pics 2006

Here are a few pics from the 2006 Manteo Christmas parade:


Manteo Christmas Parade pics

Wright Brothers celebration 2006

Here are a few pics from the celebration December 17, 2006:


Wright Brothers celebration 2006

Record high temperatures set on the Outer Banks

Yesterday we set a new record high temperature of 72 degrees for this day in history. The previous records was 71. Today we are also on track to break the standing record of 74 set in 1998. High temperatures today are expected to be 76! Of course tomorrow it is supposed to be 20 degrees colder! Enjoy it while you can if you are here.

Thanksgiving Storm pics album up now

I have posted over 100 photos into an album showing three days of history of the Thanksgiving Storm 2006 on the Outer Banks.
See the post on the Outer Banks Board for the link.

Outer Banks Board post with picture album link

Winding up tight

The Outer Banks is experiencing a rapidly developing nor'easter' right now, that is expected to hang out for a few days. I took a ride as far north as Southern Shores today, and got a few pics. Winds gusts have been as high as 56 mph here at the Manteo airport and reportedly higher further south. The Ocracoke ferry suspended operations early today, and left many stranded there. Some minor power outages have been reported. The rain did not start in earnest until close to dark, but has been steady and heavy since. Six inches is predicted. Thank goodness it is not freezing weather or we would be in blizzard conditions! Ocean overwash is expected all up and down the Outer Banks before this is over. Tides are higher than normal due to the moon cycle, and the next high tide is at about 7:30 am Wednesday.

See the pics taken on Tuesday before the rain on the Outer Banks Board here:

Outer Banks Board post

Another blow and heavy rain expected tonite

Another hard south wind will be blowing over the Outer Banks tonight into tomorrow, with heavy rain predicted through tomorrow afternoon. It doesn't appear that this wind will have any west component to it, so perhaps it will not be the soundside flooding event that we had Sunday night into Monday morning.

A shot from above

Last weekend the weather was beautiful on Sunday and we took this pic from the plane showing the Wright Brothers site as seen looking north to south. What struck me in reviewing this photo is that there is still quite a lot of "wooded" land on the Outer Banks as shown in this photo that is in a "protected" state, as in either the National Park Service or Nags Head Woods. This is a good thing. As developed as parts of the Outer Banks seem from the ground when riding down the bypass in the middle of summer, there is still a great deal of it left in its natural state.

New webpage of pics up

I have a new webpage of pics up now on the Elizabethan Faire which was held in downtown Manteo this past weekend October 7 & 8.


Elizabethan Faire in Manteo

Kitty Hawk Heritage Festival

Friday and Saturday, Kitty Hawk held its annual Heritage Festival. There was something for everyone, of all ages. The weather was great, and a good time was had by all.

Whalehead, Ocean Sands flooding aerial pics

I put up a new page of aerial photos today of the flooding in Whalehead Beach, Ocean Sands, and Spindrift up in Corolla. Lots of homes uninhabitable and renters are having to be moved. It is a real nasty mess for some to clean up.


Flooding Aerial Pics

Ernesto update Sept 1

Lots and lots of rain as elsewhere in the state, but otherwise not too damaged this time! Whewww!!!!!!!



More photos over on the board at:


Outer Banks Board

Morning after Ernesto

Rainfall in the area amounted to about 10-12 inches and is not over as of this writing. Channel 13 news is reporting that Dare and Currituck County schools are both closed for Friday. The center of the storm at the moment is just about directly west of us inland about 100 miles. The heavy rainfall is the biggest problem. Once daylight gets here, I will be out with the camera.

Ernesto/ocean pics

I put up a few pics taken Thursday afternoon around Nags Head and S. Nags Head over on
Outer Banks Board

Field of flags

This "field of flags" flies along the bypass in Kill Devil Hills, NC, as a tribute to the fallen soldiers in Iraq.

Light east winds, clear blue water

There have been some very beautiful beach days this week at the Outer Banks. The light east winds have brought in the clear warm extra blue waters.

"Pelican" winner of Pirates' Cove Tournament

The 56 foot Paul Mann built "Pelican" based out of Oregon Inlet took top honors at the Pirate's Cove Billfish Tournament this past Friday. They took home prize money of more than $584,000 for the 10 Whites and one sailfish hooked and released in this tournament.

First day of Tournament yields slow results

The first day of fishing in the Pirate's Cove Billfish Tournament was a slow day. Out of 131 registered boats, 101 fished, 29 laid in. The top point getter was the 60 foot Point Runner based out of Oregon Inlet, with three releases, for a total of 210 points. Hopefully the northeast wind of today will produce a better day of fishing for day two. There was one nice catch of dolphin and some proud guys.


A few more pics are here on the Outer Banks Board:


Pirates Cove post

Pirates' Cove Billfish Tournament underway

Well, today is registration day for the 23rd annual Pirates' Cove Billfish Tournament. There must be a record number of boats here this year, because the marina is chocked full. All the brand new dock space is full. The energy level is high as all the boats are rigging and getting ready for the fishing which begins tomorrow.
The new tournament building looks really good. It was being filled with all the vendor exhibits today when I visited. With the concrete floor and solid roof it is so much nicer than the large tent and dirt floor of tournaments past. The dinner area is still under a tent, but there are significantly less tent stakes to impale oneself upon after several trips to the Bacardi bar!
Sunday was the day for the Alice Kelly Memorial tournament. Eighty boats fished with a total of 129 fish released, 122 of those being white marlin, 4 blues, and 3 sails.
Stay tuned for updates throughout the week.

Nags Head Speed Wash torn down

Noticed today as I was passing that the Nags Head Speed Wash building complex (across from the Tanger Outlet Mall, MP 16) was being demolished. Three buildings are being torn down. The small round building was gone last week. Today it was the laundramat building, and the office building to the north was gutted. That will be next. The land is owned by IG Holdings, the Wings people. No word yet on what is planned for this block of land.

Excessive heat warning for the area

The weather service has issued an excessive heat alert for the Outer Banks area from Tuesday through Thursday. The air conditioners will be working overtime this week in the rental homes! Hopefully the ocean will stay calm so the visitors can enjoy the water to cool off.

Rainy day, super busy

The line to enter the NC Aquarium at the Manteo airport was out the door into the courtyard. The parking lot at the outlet mall is full to overflowing. The bypass was literally bumper to bumper, with some touching unexpectedly. What are you to do on a rainy day on the Outer Banks, while on vacation? Well, you visit all those indoor activities, you shop, you ride and look, and look, and don't look where you're going.
Such is the state of a resort area in season on a rainy day.
The up side? You, the vacationer get to do those things you probably had planned to do anyway, and you don't miss a day on the beach. The retailer is happy, their rent gets paid, they survive another year to be there to serve the vacationing public another year.
Rainy days aren't so bad after all.

Watching the tropics

Well the first threat to NC from a tropical system is now at hand. The National Hurricane Center issued a tropical storm watch for almost all of the NC coast including the Outer Banks at 11 am this morning. We'll keep you posted from a front row seat!

Fourth of July Fireworks in Manteo

A new album of the Fourth Fireworks display in Manteo is
HERE

A great way to spend a Sunday afternoon

I posted a "trip report" on my board of a wonderful way to spend a Sunday afternoon boating on the Outer Banks. Check it out at:

Sunday Afternoon Boating Adventure

New tournament building at Pirates' Cove

The new building to house tournament activities is being constructed now on the grounds at Pirates' Cove. Hope it's ready in time for the summer's activities!

Wave Shack goes down

The Wave Shack building which was located next to RV's restaurant on the Nags Head causeway was in the process of being torn down today, to make way for an addition to the restaurant, an auxiliary building and more parking.

New message board is going great!

If you haven't seen our new Outer Banks Message board yet, take a LOOK! We have signed up a great number of members in the first few days, and have been enjoying a good time. We have a few locals on there who definitely add to the spice. To stay updated on the latest happenings on the Outer Banks, add the new Outer Banks Message Board to your favorites folder.

Outer Banks Message Board
Come join in the fun!

Alberto

Well, the latest on the National Hurricane Center update puts the track of Alberto exiting the coast of NC right over my island of Roanoke! Fortunately it will only be a depression by then. The rain shield is running far ahead of the center so it looks like it will be a wet day on Wednesday.



Wednesday morning update: Most of the heavy rain is either west of us over Raleigh/Durham or east of us out over the stream. The local weather channel crawler on the bottom of the TV keeps pumping the tornado warning and winds to 35, higher gusts. Looks like the system has sped up (once it got to I-95) and will technically be by here this afternoon late. Of course all the rain shield is still out front of it, but it also looks like the Outer Banks slipped through the middle of the two heaviest parts.

New Outer Banks Message Board

After some requests and pleading from some folks, I decided to start a new Outer Banks Message board. This is intended as just another place to stay in touch with what's happening on the Outer Banks, and stay in touch with friends we have all made over the years on various boards. Please join us!
Membership IS required to post, but you may read as a guest. We hope to have a good time over there with good clean fun and happy posts!


Outer Banks Board

It's finally summertime

Well, the season has kicked off in high gear. The roads are packed, the restaurants are packed, the merchants are pretty happy. The weather has finally decided to cooperate a bit today, and it is an absolutely beautiful summer day. Not too hot, and not too windy. Perfect beach weather with a slight east breeze. We are all looking forward to a wonderful summer season here on the Outer Banks!

Double rainbow, thunderstorms

Just had a report of a vivid double rainbow showing from the top of the Wash Baum Bridge at the same time as lightening and thunder, and a sunset! Wierd weather, but hey it's just turned summer on the Outer Banks!

Election results

The "unofficial" election results as posted on the Dare County website show:
Virginia Tillett kept her chance at a seat as commissioner, and will now face off with Republican John Robbins in the November election.
Rex Tillett defeated Ray Midgett for the at large commission seat and will face John Jack Shea in the fall election.
The big upset of the night was Max Dutton receiving more votes than incumbent Stan White, for commission seat. Stan is at present the chairman of the commissioners. Max will be unopposed in the fall election.

I hate this weather!

I'm so tired of wind and cool weather! It has been non-stop north or northeast for days and days now. Today was overcast and at times, a heavy mist blowing around that soaked you as much as rain. Looking forward to Wednesday, when it's supposed to go round to the west.

Cold and nasty out here today!

Cold, cold, cold! Nasty north, northeast wind blowing 20-30 miles per hour today after the front moved through last night. We had about an inch of rain throughout the evening and night. Just not the nice springlike April weather we would like to have out here on the Outer Banks!

Outer Banks historical photos

This week while cleaning out some old storage boxes I ran across some photos taken back in 1972 of beach erosion along the Outer Banks during a nor'easter' storm. My brother was working for the Park Service and went on an expedition to Buxton by air to view the damage down that way. This was before the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse was moved away from the beach. As always during one of these type storms Highway 12 washed away near Buxton. Do any of you remember the old sunshades at Coquina Beach, which is near Oregon Inlet? A couple of these pix show those sunshades just before they were washed away. Also a famous landmark in Nags Head, the old Arlington Hotel and Restaurant was swept into the raging ocean. The Arlington, owned by the Hayman family was once located on the oceanfront across from the Seafare Restaurant.
Enjoy these photos. I have more of a couple of different events, which I will get scanned and presented as a webpage soon.
Nor'easter' of 1972

Update: Pics from Kitty Hawk beach

Here's a couple of shots taken March 2 on the Kitty Hawk beach FEMA renourishment project ongoing. These were taken at the Hawk's St beach access.

Looking north:



Looking south from the same point:

Strange weather today

Extremely windy straight from the north, then one minute we are having a snow flurry, the next it's bright sunshine again! But hey, this is the Outer Banks! Weather's always changing!

Snow pix

A few from the Nags Head area this morning. It's all changed over to rain now, so what we got is disappearing fast. A few hardy souls were already playing on Jockey Ridge this morning.

Light dusting of snow here today

Woke up to a light dusting of snow here on the Outer Banks this morning. I know we get excited over just a little, but it's something we just don't see very often! The roads are clear at least though. Thirty degrees, and hoping for a little more....

Well, spoke too soon about the roads. Just heard there was already a wreck on the Manteo-Nags Head bridge due to ice. Currituck bridge is iced over.

The Outer "Banks"

There are MORE banks springing up daily at the WalMart intersection at the Kitty Hawk, Southern Shores line. East Carolina Bank just found its old building not good enough anymore, so they tore it down this week and built a new one! Across the street there is a new Gateway Bank AND a new BB & T going up. In the Marketplace shopping center, there is a newly remodeled branch of the Bank of Currituck. And not to mention the previously remodeled Wachovia right next to the East Carolina Bank. Five banks within sight of each other. Hope we now can store all that money!

Sand tax repealed

The Outer Banks Sentinel is already reporting as of 9 pm on Tuesday night that the sales tax has been repealed by a wide, wide margin of 79 to 21 percent. Dare County website is reporting 78 to 22 percent for the repeal. Vote count was 5363 for repeal and 1531 against repeal of the tax.

Kitty Hawk new berm

I took a ride over to the beach road in Kitty Hawk yesterday to see the new berm being built, and what all the hoopla is about. Yes, it is ugly dirt! The beach road is blocked from Eckner(Winks street) north a few blocks to Bennett. The large dump trucks are hauling this yucky dark gray mostly claylike material from a borrow pit in Currituck and stockpiling it between two oceanfront houses somewhere between those two streets named above. Then a large clamshell bucket machine is loading the material into these several large offroad dump trucks, which haul the material on the beach north to the Kitty Hawk pier area. At this point the berm has only been started up near the pier. I assume they intend to build one of this material south at least to the point near Eckner. That would be approx. one mile of beach. Below are a few pix of the operation. I got there late in the day, so the quality of the pix is not great- sorry! IMO, I can't think of a better boost to those supporting the repeal of the sales tax, than looking at this messy yuck on the beach! By the way, I voted yesterday.

Smoke/ emergency at Solo, Kitty Hawk

When passing the Solo gas station yesterday, Kitty Hawk Fire dept had one lane of the bypass blocked off and firetrucks on site. Apparently there was an emergency with one of the gas station isles. When we returned by there last night all the pumps from that isle had been removed.

Fishin' frenzy!

Ever wonder why the back of most OBX contractors trucks contain fishing rods?



Well here's why!!!!



Tuesday the rockfish were pounding the beach from Kitty Hawk to Corolla. This nice twenty plus pounder was taken near Winks in Kitty Hawk.

They've been running, along with the big blues (15 pounders or so), for several days now. Many locals are calling this the biggest blitz they've ever seen. On Monday, the coconut telegraph lines were a humming about the speckled trout being so thick they were taking a walk on the beach! Literally, no pole needed. Our crew picked up 19 specks right off the sand where the bluefish were chasing them into shore. They had to stop collecting fish because the cooler got too full. It was all two men could do to drag the 90 pounds of trout outta the truck up to the cleaning table. Sure was good for supper! As I am writing this the big rock is being cleaned for tonight's feast.

Several days last week, one of my framing crew took his kayak out in the ocean, along with a pole. The fish he hooked were so big they dragged him and the kayak three streets south before he could land it on the beach. That's what you call dedication to the sport.

They even start training the young ones early.



Did you hear that? That was the sound of nailbelts on construction sites all over Dare County hitting the ground. That coconut telegraph.... No wonder I can't get any work done!