The Log of Spartina: days eighteen through twenty

Thursday, July 4, 2024

days eighteen through twenty - a nice place to be trapped

I check the weather forecast and realize I have a decision to make. Good sailing weather today, then high winds, rain and small craft warnings the two following days. I want to spend at least one day enjoying the island. I either sail off the island today, forgoing the day on Ocracoke. Or get trapped there for three days. Ocracoke is a nice place to be trapped. I decide to wait out the weather.

The name Howard is everywhere on Ocracoke, most likely dating back to Blackbeard's quartermaster William Howard. There is Howard Street, Howard's Reef and Howard's Pub. And of course there is Philip Howard, who runs The Village Craftsman shop just off of Silver Lake.

I see Howard late one evening as I hear a live band and I'm walking in that direction to see what's up. There's Philip standing on the grass just off the road. He looks at me with curious glint in his eye. "Are you local?" he asks. "You look like an islander and I thought I knew everyone on the island, but I don't know you." I tell him I am not an islander, but we have met. It was a decade ago when I first sailed into Ocracoke. In fact, I remind him, he wrote a post about my boat on his online journal. He thinks for a moment, then says "A wooden boat?" Yes, that's it. He smiles.

Philip tells me the music is coming from an island birthday party. Lots of food and drink. "Just go in there, tell them you are looking for my daughter, enjoy the party and they'll never know!" I tell him I will take a pass on party crashing, but it is good to see him.

I have been visiting Ocracoke for about 35 years, sometimes for work, sometimes with family. The Pilgrim, the girls and I spent a week every summer for 14 years on the island, and loved every minute of it. And as for work, there was visiting the island after the storms. I was there a few days after Sandy, Alex, Matthew and, the most recent and most devastating, Dorian. People living on coastal islands are nothing if not resilient. In the worst of times they have always welcomed me, sometimes into their destroyed businesses, sometimes into their flooded homes. They assess the damage, make a plan, move forward.

Visiting the island after Dorian, I was waiting on the docks for a ferry and met a woman named Kelley Shinn. She and a reporter and I visited while waiting for a relief ferry. She talked about her house being flooded, losing her vehicles, losing just about everything in the floodwaters from the hurricane. She lost everything but her spirit. She smiled as she talked, the devastation didn't faze her. Kelley had seen tough times before, as evidenced by her two prosthetic legs. And she keeps moving forward.

I knew Kelley had written a book so I message her, hoping to say hello and maybe get her to autograph a book. She replies that she is off the island, headed to a literary festival to do a reading. She tells I can use the outdoor shower at her house, laundry, whatever is needed. I thank her for her offer of hospitality, tell her I will be fine. I do find an already autographed copy of her book at Books To Be Red.

My three days on the island turn into long walks, lots of reading, a visit to the island's store for resupplies, lunches and dinners at Dajio, SmacNally's and Ocracoke Oyster Company. A Blue Moon with a water view from SmacNally's is always a treat.

As are fried shrimp on a Caesar salad at Dajio.

My dock is right next to the ferry docks, a little noisy at times with overnight maintenance.

Captain Rob of the Schooner Windfall, a friend of many years, helps out by letting me charge my battery packs on his boat.

The second night, lots of rain. I sleep fine under the boom tent. Wind, wind and more wind on the second and third days.

And more walks back through the old part of the village tucked in the live oaks.

My storm radar app confirms that staying put is a good idea. I would have been trapped somewhere for a couple days, might as well be a favorite island.