Whilst everyone else was off to Minnesota, this spontaneous trip was meant to do the full loop of North Carolina’s lighthouses on the Outer Banks starting at Ocracoke and going all the way to the Currituck Lighthouse before returning home to Garner.
The best laid plans…this trip sure as hell wasn’t that!
- I didn’t check the weather forecast before leaving Garner very early that morning. That probably would have been very helpful.
- By the time I got to Morehead City, I discovered that I was much further from the Cedar Island Ferry Terminal than I should be in order to make my ferry reservation.
- Trying to fix the problem of too much distance and too little time got me nicked by the rozzers in Beaufort who were so nice to write me the bloody ticket on my birthday. Must have been quota day… 🙁
- I still end up making it to the ferry terminal in time thanks to continuing the very liberal interpretation of the speed limit signs as mere suggestions in an area with far less cops lurking about. Thinking I’m home free to make Ocracoke, I noticed that we were taking about 20-25 knot winds across the bow but the ferries that ply North Carolina’s sounds to the Outer Banks can handle much higher winds.
- Ten minutes from docking at Ocracoke, the winds jump to 60 knots (just under hurricane strength) as Subtropical Storm Andrea formed whilst we were transiting Pamlico Sound.
- We dock at Ocracoke and were told by the ferry crew that we’d better haul ass to the Hatteras terminal end of Ocracoke Island if we wanted any chance of getting off the island in the next few days as the ferries to Cedar Island and Swan Quarter were shutting down.
- Of course, I made the desperate 14-mile run up NC-12 just to find out they had shut the ferry system down on that end about two minutes before I pulled into the queue.
And that my friends is how I ended up stuck on Ocracoke Island during a nasty storm and barely escaped back to the mainland a few days later on the ferry to Swan Quarter. I made the fastest run from there to the Raleigh area to get to Garner just in time to head to RDU to collect the family from the airport.
Not exactly the most relaxing weekend with the winds raging and nothing to do on the island except sit in the hotel room (plenty of choice there as no one else was getting onto Ocracoke Island after the ferries shut down!).
But it was certainly an interesting time…and Ocracoke is a truly beautiful island. If you ever get the chance…go. Just don’t ignore the weather forecasts and blow the distance to the ferry terminal! 🙂
