Just back from what was supposed to be a full weekend on the North Carolina Outer Banks. Mother Nature had other ideas. She parked a big low-pressure system right off of Cape Hatteras and said “Let it rain, hard, with gale force winds for the weekend.” So what started as a long, rainy drive from Charlotte on Friday never got a whole lot better.
On the way down we went looking for the Roanoke River lighthouse. It’s currently in Edenton, NC, and we didn’t know about it until Derith Bennett mentioned it in the Forums. Derith was also nice enough to give us some really good directions to find it. We drove right to the first spot and picked out the light, but there are two telephone poles directly in the line-of-sight and pretty much ruined any photos. We were able to get another look-see from the end of a neighborhood driveway. I left less of a mess than the group of Canada Geese that were grazing in the yard.
Hatteras was a real challenge. The storm is parked over the Outer Banks. It had rained all day Friday as we drove down. When we got there, the winds were 40+ mph sustained and driving a hard rain. Thunder and lightning all night with hard rain. Saturday morning the road (NC 12) south to the lighthouse was washed out and flooded in several spots. The forecast was for more of the same until Tuesday, so we decided to check out early, try our luck at seeing what we could and head home, or at least inland.
We headed south, crossing a few sections of road that were flooded and climbing a couple of new dunes in four-wheel drive. We got stopped at one spot for about 45 minutes as road crews worked to clear and open the road. We were within sight of Cape Hatteras light at this point and we watched it fade in and out of the cloudbank as the winds blew. Really a neat thing to watch and to contemplate a ships crew at sea watching the same sort of thing 100 years ago. Almost eerie to watch.
We finally made it to the lighthouse. You can get within about 30 yards from the parking lots and maybe closer if you can get to the beach. There's no close beach access, but if you drive south, in the direction the lighthouse is being moved, to the end of the road, it brings you to the beach and you can walk north to the light. Even if you don't walk up the beach, the view from here is very nice. It’s quite different from seeing it up close.
That was it, we gave up on Okracoke because of the storm. No ferry rides this trip. Instead we went back north and stopped at the Chicamacomico Life Saving Station, Bodie Island Lighthouse and Currituck Lighthouse. We were able to get our US Lighthouse Society passport stamped at Hatteras, Chicamacomico and Currituck. The volunteer on duty at Bodie had no idea what I was talking about. Just a reason to go back another time.
We ate dinner last night and then drove home. A little disappointing, but an adventure just the same.
As we were driving home, it occurred to me that this sort of thing is just what Sean Thompson was alluding to in the Forum thread about attending the Cape Hatteras re-lighting ceremony next year. There are only two roads to the Outer Banks and basically only one road, NC 12, that runs the length of the islands. It ends in Hatteras Village and it’s ferry rides from there to Okracoke and Cape Lookout National Seashore. There’s roughly forty miles between lighthouses along this stretch of the coast. From the southern most auto access the first lighthouse you pass is Bodie Island. It’s about 50 miles south to the Cape Hatteras light. Most of the ‘name’ accommodations are to the north. And there aren’t many of those. So if this is going to be a gathering of Harbour Lights collectors and lighthouse enthusiasts, make your plans and arrangements now and pack plenty of patience. These will be looooong days, even if the weather is wonderful.
Good lighthousing all,
Rick
[This message has been edited by RMau (edited 05-17-99).]
