Portsmouth Island Day 2
Up before the sun, I looked up and saw a well defined ring around the moon. A sign of the coming day? Halos around the sun or moon happen when high, thin cirrus clouds are drifting high above your head. Tiny ice crystals in Earth’s atmosphere cause the halos. They do this by reflecting the light. Lunar halos are signs that storms are nearby. Pretending I knew nothing about the possible meaning of moon halo, I set the camera on the tripod, and waited to take the next award winning beach sunrise photograph.
A breakfast of fried eggs and bacon cooked on the camp stove, with my toes in the sand is sure put a smile on your face. Even if the clouds prevented my retirement. No million dollar sunrise photos today. Soon camp was full of life on Portsmouth Island. Casually and on beach time, we cook breakfast, cleaned dishes, collected shells, and inquired each other about their individual camp and vehicle set up. What could be better than standing on the beach with a freshly ground cup of coffee, toes in the sand, the sound of the ocean surf in the background and talking trucks and gear? If you wanted espresso’, Ryan could even make that for you too.
The bright sun felt warming on the skin. Today the temperatures were quickly reaching in the 70’s. A far cry from the 8” of snow I was walking through only 6 days earlier. Today was our exploring day. We loaded up and drove down the Portsmouth Island beach toward the Island’s namesake, Portsmouth Village.
With everyone packed into Al’s double cab Tacoma and my Tacoma, we drove along the shell laden beach north toward the historic past. Following the signs we left the beach and into the dunes and marsh. The final sign said to stay between the signs, but what laid ahead looked more like a marsh creek than a road.
I looked at my passenger, Ryan, and questioned, “The signs did say to go this way, didn’t they?” He agreed, so on I went. Driving through the water upwards to 2 feet deep, for over a half mile. The hardpan held firm and we never appeared to be in danger of getting stuck, but the drive definitely held a pucker factor when driving through water this deep, not knowing what lays ahead.
The Signs Said To Go Where ?
The Portsmouth Life-saving Station Kept Daily Watch on the Ocracoke Inlet Area from 1894 to 1938
By 1842 two-thirds of the exports of North Carolina passed through Portsmouth Island and the village. As often is the case with the Outer Banks, things change with the storms and in 1846, a new deeper inlet opened in Hatteras. The shipping routes shifted north, ending the profitable days of Portsmouth. By the end of the Civil war very few residents remained on the island, but it was not until 1971 when the last few remaining residents moved to the mainland.
Portsmouth Village was founded in 1753 and was one of the largest settlements on the Outer Banks for nearly a century. Located on the Ocracoke inlet, Portsmouth became the transfer port for shipping into North Carolina. The waters of the sound were too shallow for large ships to reach the mainland. The cargo was transferred into lighter, shallow draft boats to be taken across the sound and onto the mainland. This practice was know as “lightering”.
Today the Historic Portsmouth village is being maintained through the efforts of the National Park Service and the Friends of Portsmouth Village.
We had a little fun on our return trip.
Driving along the beach returning to camp, we found an unlikely island visitor, a seal. She sat patiently on the beach while we took her photograph. We worried if she might be sick, but upon investigations the following day, she had returned to the water and was no where to be found.
Following a late lunch / early dinner of steak and potatoes, I left the group in camp and headed to the south end of the island to try my hand at some fishing and sunset photographs.
A few Red Drum were being caught off the point of the south end cut by those using shrimp for bait, but my soft plastic shrimp impersonators cast out into the surf didn’t prove successful. Clouds covered the sun as the day faded into evening.
On the drive down the beach back to camp, I collected the little bit of driftwood I could locate. The campfire fire was aglow on my arrival. I tossed the additional wood next to the fire, set my chair by the fire and joined the group in an evening drink, s’mores and storytelling into the dark of the night. The perfect end to a near perfect beach day.
Day 3
