Day 2 (November 3rd)

Today we woke up to a sunny and cheerful ocean sky. We decided to take a tour of the southern half of the connected Banks. The first stop was at a nondescript beach halfway between Rodanthe and Buxton. We climbed out of the car to go wet our toes in the nippy 60 degree water. As we headed back along the path, each of us yelped out as something sharp poked our feet. It turns out that the beaches in the area are infested with tiny burs with huge spikes!
Next stop Buxton and the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse. The lighthouse was originally constructed a good distance from the shore, but by 1999 it was nearly in the water due to beach erosion. For this reason, it was moved inland. It’s currently the tallest object that has ever been moved in one piece.

After this, we Ocracoke. Driving to the ferry, we passed a small pond where Greta yelled out for Mom to look at a bird. It turns out that this odd, pink and round-nosed bird was the Roseate Spoonbill, which is predominant in Florida through the southern parts of South Carolina. This made Greta and Mom very happy.

We made it to the ferry in the nick o’ time and soon arrived at Ocracoke Island. We then drove down to the town of Ocracoke to see the lighthouse. It’s less than half the size of the Hatteras and Bodie Island lighthouses, but Mom explains that this is because very few ships sail past Ocracoke’s inlet because they are infested with treacherous shoals. Shoals are inlets which are scattered with shallow sand bars, which can frequently be invisible but are always dangerous. Blackbeard is famous for navigating through the Ocracoke Inlet to strand his enemies.

The last stop was the Ocracoke beach. Greta and I had fun attempting to keep our legs dry in the surf of the waves (We didn’t do so well). Mom and I also went for a run along the beach. While we were running, we encountered an enormous piece of driftwood (larger than a tree trunk) which we suspect to be a wrecked mainmast of an unfortunate ship.

Tired and ready to go home, we lined up at the Ocracoke-Hatteras ferry. We waited through one line, and noticed that as the ferry came our line didn’t move, but certain trucks were driving past us and getting right on it. It turns out that construction trucks have priority over civilian vehicles, and we ended up waiting for nearly an hour and a half to get on a half-hour ferry.