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!

Typical Wright Brothers day

It was cold and windy from the northeast and overcast from time to time, as observors gathered on the "hill" to commemorate the 102nd anniversary of the first powered flight made by Orville and Wilber Wright in 1903. The gathering was treated to several different skydiving sessions. One flyer carried a large American flag unfurling to the ground. Another carried a smaller North Carolina flag. The plane flyover was sparse compared to the previous two years, but exciting nonetheless. Many of the locals gathered all along the Colington road to watch the spectacle from a distance, without braving the chilling winds up on the hill.

Manteo Christmas Parade 2005 pix

The webpages are up with the pix of the Manteo Christmas Parade 2005.
It was bigger and better than ever with over 70 entries. The Grand Marshalls this year were the owners of the Christmas Shop, Mr. Eddie Green and Mr. Richard Lacerre. There was a generous turnout in chilly but sunny weather to see the nautical themed floats. Many boats, beachlife creatures, surfboards, and marching bands, intersperced with Elizabethan flair and the Queen herself along with Sir Walter Raleigh on horseback. Have a look!

http://www.outerbanksvacationhomes.com/Manteo_Christmas_parade05.html

Manteo Christmas First Friday

It's First Friday in Manteo, and the town kicked off the Christmas season with a celebration down town on the Courthouse steps. The Oakwood Waits and Queen's singers gave a rousing chorus of Christmas tunes. Haskell Fitzsimmons read "Twas the Night before Christmas" to the childran gathered around his feet, and certain distinquished guests waited in the audience.







The courthouse was decked out even with a little snow!



Tomorrow is the annual Manteo Christmas parade and I'll be there to snap a few pix!