We rented a golf cart at The Community Store to shop for ice and groceries, including fresh vegetables to make a dish for the Ocrafolk Festival Pot-Luck Friday night. Madison took to the golf cart, like she does most modes of transportation, by making herself comfortable and taking a snooze.
Exploring by golf cart
We took advantage of our wheels to explore the island again.
We drove out down Howard Street, which is still unpaved and gives a sense of what the island was like before the streets began to be paved during the 1950s. Howard Street connects with School Road where we turned right and passed the Deepwater Theater and Books to be Red on our way to Lighthouse Road.
Springer's Point
We stopped briefly to look at the lighthouse and drove on past Springer's Point, where we had a great walk with Licia and Philip last year. Springer's Point is owned by the North Carolina Coastal Land Trust. There's a lovely trail down to the sound that winds through maritime forest and tidal red cedar forest. The 120-acre preserve also includes salt marsh and grasslands. The site is historically referred to as "Teach's Plantation," because it was reputed to be a favorite haunt of Blackbeard. The pirate was killed at Teache's Hole, off Springer's Point.
More info about Springer's Point can be found at:
www.coatallandtrust
We circled back to Lighthouse Road, then down Irvin Garrish Highway (N.C. 12, which leads out of town to the beaches on the ocean side of the island and to the compound where the wild banker ponies are kept). We picked up some groceries and a new dowel for the companionway screen at the Variety Store and Hardware. Then we turned onto Back Road, where the coffee shop, Ocracoke Coffee Co., is located. The coffee shop has a good Wifi connection and almost always a good breeze. We cut down Sunset Drive, then turned left on Cutting Sage to check out the newer houses on the island at Oyster Creek and Sound Shores.
British Cemetery
On the way back we stopped to get ice in bulk on Trent Road, then got back on Back Road, which intersects British Cemetery Road on the way back to the docks. We skipped the British Cemetery on this trip because we had melting ice to contend with, but we've walked there several times in the past. The bodies of crewmen from the British vessel Bedfordshire, presumably sunk by a German U-boat, washed up on Ocracoke in May 1942 and are buried at this site. A lease for the 2,290-square-foot plot has been given to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission and the plot is officially designated a British cemetery. The history associated with the site is a window on what life was like along the N.C. coast during World War II.
More about island ponies can be found at:
Ocracoke ponies
More about the British Cemetery can be found at:
British Cemetery
An interesting brief history of Ocracoke can be found at:
Ocracoke history
Ocrafolk Festival
We chose Ocracoke as our first destination because we didn't want to miss the 12th Annual Ocrafolk Festival. Some of our Hendersonville friends have been to almost every festival. We attended the festival for the first time last year. The island's own wonderful acoustic band, Molasses Creek, hosts the event with humor and an easy grace that draws visitors into the island community. The bands play varied musical styles, but the setting seems to bring out the best in them all, perhaps because there's a comfortable intimacy with the audience at both the Howard Street and Live Oak stages. The performances are free, so there are fundraisers like the auction after the potluck to pay festival expenses. Whether you're bidding or just watching, the auction can be one of the most enjoyable parts of the weekend. The festival seems to be a reflection of Ocracoke itself, authentic and unaffected.
Here's the link to the festival web site:
Ocrafolk festival
In the June edition of Our State magazine, there's a feature article about Ocracoke in which writer Michael Graff quotes island real estate broker Martha Garrish: "This is not a financial decision," she says she tells prospective buyers. "This is an emotional Decision. You're buying a love of Ocracoke," and "The worst thing you can do is come here because you love it and then try to change it. If you do, it's like 'Survivor.' We're going to vote you off the island. "
Reading Graff's story after the festival, I realized something I'd been feeling, but hadn't quite articulated. Ocracoke still belongs to the local people. There are no high rises or chain stores. None!
Graff says the public beach on the ocean side of Ocracoke Island is consistently ranked among the most beautiful in the country. Because it's a United States National Park, there are no ugly condominiums squatting just beyond the dunes.
The village, on the sound side of the island, surrounds Silver Lake. Silver Lake is a harbor made by the Navy during World War II by deepening Cockle Creek. U.S. Navy Beach Jumpers trained at Ocracoke from 1943 to 1946. Silver Lake is where the ferries dock and visiting boats anchor or tie up to the Park Service docks. In the village, according to Graff, no new building can be taller than 35 feet. That means the 75-foot lighthouse will remain the tallest structure in town.
Graff's article can be read at:
Our State on Ocracoke
The Lighthouse
The Ocracoke lighthouse helped Jimmy Buffett plot his novel "A Salty Piece of Land," which I listened to as a book on tape with some reluctance. I mean what kind of story would the "booze in the blender" guy tell? But Robert hijacked the CD player on a road trip and it turned out to be a highly entertaining one.
In his Outer Banks Diaries, Buffett writes: "The other big discovery that fit right into my world was the existence on Ocracoke of the oldest working lighthouse in North Carolina. This led to more research, which illuminated the story of the Fresnell lens system, which became one of the main plot points of a later book 'Salty Piece of Land'."
Buffett had learned about the lighthouse on a one-day visit to Ocracoke to research Blackbeard, who became the model for a character in another book he wrote. The diary entry where he talks about his Ocracoke visit can be found on Buffett's web site at:
Buffett's Outer Banks diaries
Blackbeard
Blackbeard, whose name was Edward Teache, was killed off Springer's Point by a young Virginia naval officer, Lt. Robert Maynard and his crew in November 1718. Carl Goerch tells the story in his book, "Ocracoke" published in 1956. "You've got to hand Blackbeard one thing," Goerch writes, "He was no coward. He received 20 saber cuts and 5 pistol wounds. He was about to cut Maynard in two with his sword when a sailor whanged him across the throat with the but-end of his gun."
Robert found Goerch's book at some used book sale years ago. The book jacket says Goerch loved Ocracoke and visited nearly every year. It also says, "Dozens of feature articles and comments about Ocracoke have appeared in 'The State' magazine, which he (Goerch) founded in Raleigh in 1933."
The State became Our State. Goerch would probably be happy to know his successors still find Ocracoke a rich source of stories.
Another brief history of Ocracoke, which includes information about the island ponies and the area preserved by the Park Service can be found at:
Ocracoke history
Sandy Paws
Thursday evening we had dinner at the Backporch Restaurant. Martha opted out of dinner, choosing instead to go for a sunset sail with Capt. Rob Temple on the schooner Windfall II. While we were at dinner, we left Madison at Sandy Paws, a terrific boarding and daycare kennel on West End Street that's perfect for boaters and other visitors who want to bring their dog, but would like to be able to participate in activities where doggies are forbidden or otherwise a bad idea. At Sandy Paws you can leave your dog for two hours or for two weeks. It would be great if every port had such a kennel near the docks. After dinner, Robert and I were having a drink in the cockpit when we saw an otter loping down the dingy dock. He hopped on a powerboat tied up there and was helping himself to the last of some bait left on the deck. When someone walked down the dock, he slipped into the water. Earlier in the day we saw a dusky pipefish hanging around the pilings. This is a fish about 10 inches long that looks like an olive-green pipe cleaner.
We haven't been out with Capt. Rob, but we know he's a great storyteller from festival events and Martha said she loved her sail with him:
Windfall blog and at:
Windfall info