A Month in a Little Village by the Sea

Tom King · July 12, 2020, 12:21:30 PM

Enjoying, and appreciating your posting this, including the pictures!!!

Are any of the old, hexagonal fish camp buildings left? I think they were just South of those "newer" ones now with feet in the water. We used to stay in the old ones.

SawyerTed · July 12, 2020, 12:34:09 PM

Moose, becoming a VIP opens all kinds of doors. Sounds like your Dad figured out a great arrangement.

Over the last three years I've learned there are all variety of volunteering opportunities with state and federal agencies. Recreation areas managed by the Army Corps of Engineers, the US Fish and Wildlife, Bureau of Land Management, National Forests and National Parks offer volunteer opportunities. Many provide housing. Just in Cape Lookout National Seashore there are outdoor opportunities, like ours, and indoor assignments (Air Conditioned). Some opportunities are short term, for a long weekend, and some require a 6 week commitment.

Some places are desperate for volunteers while others have a waiting list.

If any are interested, go to the website for the location you are interested in and look for the menu item "Get Involved". The volunteer opportunities are listed there.

SawyerTed · July 12, 2020, 12:36:30 PM

Tom the old ones were replaced with more modern ones several years ago. The hexagonal ones were heavily damaged by a hurricane- maybe Isabel but I'm not certain which one it was.

Stephen1 · July 12, 2020, 04:34:48 PM

Thanks for the postings, looks like a great way to spend a month on the oean front.

SwampDonkey · July 12, 2020, 06:08:26 PM

Looks like great times.

Nice fishing, boating and enjoying the scenery.

We have a different speckled trout up here, a brook trout. But every so many eggs there is a missing gene and the trout is more silver and runs to the sea for 3 years and then up river in the summers where it looses it's silver appearance and spawns. They call them 'salter' brook trout in New England and New York. We call them "sea run" up here. There is a small stream near here that rears brook trout to release in fall. Our government doesn't do any hatcheries and hasn't for 30 years.

SawyerTed · July 13, 2020, 04:00:05 PM

Our days off are Sunday and Monday each week. We stay in Ocracoke on our days off.

We went to the beach today....

The beach was as deserted as the road to the beach!

SawyerTed · July 17, 2020, 05:49:22 PM

So this week has been HOT! Did I say 🥵 hot and humid. A couple of days have been still and humid with heat index above 100.

We cut some grass and did some trimming around the buildings and cemeteries.

Today we had a family visit. The couple in their 70's got married in the church in the village 43 years ago in November. They told the funniest story about how they got here and the preacher they brought with them.

We have a bear on the island. It has been roaming and "tasting" things. It tasted the seat of one of our ATVs and the siding on one of the houses!

Nebraska · July 17, 2020, 06:52:20 PM

Sounds like a bear that would taste good itself, since it seems to lack manners.

WDH · July 17, 2020, 09:10:56 PM

I bet that is a very hard place for a bear to make a living.

SawyerTed · July 17, 2020, 09:20:34 PM

Quote from: Nebraska on July 17, 2020, 06:52:20 PM
Sounds like a bear that would taste good itself, since it seems to lack manners.

I'm thinking it's living on fiddler crabs and other scavenged stuff. If a bear is what it eats, I wonder if this one would taste good.

Don P · July 18, 2020, 06:47:34 AM

Doubt there is such a thing :D. I'd bet he does have a rather tough life. At one time, years ago, someone said there are as many bears in the Dismal as in the Shenandoahs, I never would have thought that.

Don P · August 06, 2020, 10:54:10 PM

@SawyerTed
You ok?

samandothers · August 06, 2020, 11:28:36 PM

I was also wondering if you had left prior to storm. We'll prior to storm evacuation.

We don't need live video of seam busting buildings.

SawyerTed · June 03, 2022, 09:45:39 PM

So we are getting ready for another tour of duty as volunteers at Cape Lookout National Seashore. This will be our 5th year.

We put our travel trailer on Harkers Island at the Cape Lookout HQ. There are about a dozen RV pads where volunteers can stay. We will only stay here on our "weekends" (Sunday and Monday). We come here to resupply, rest and do laundry.

I'll head home tomorrow to bring my boat down on Sunday. Portsmouth Village is only accessible by boat. We choose to use our boat but there's a small passenger ferry service out of Ocracoke that most volunteers and visitors use. Other visitors come by private boat.

We will catch a vehicle ferry from Cedar Island on Monday that will take our truck and boat to Ocracoke. From Ocracoke it is about 5 miles across the back side of the inlet to Portsmouth.

We leave our car at Cedar island and keep our truck and boat trailer on Ocracoke. That way we can walk on the ferry for the next few weekends.

Our duties on Portsmouth are to greet visitors, tell them about the Village and historic buildings, sweep out the buildings daily, assist in visitor safety, respond in emergencies and do some light maintenance. In exchange we get to live on the island free of charge. Our RV site is free as are laundry facilities. All that equals a free 6 weeks at the coast. I get to fish everyday, we kayak, we go to the beach. Most times we are the only people on a 5 mile stretch of beach. Emily gets to collect shells and sand dollars.

This year the challenge is fuel costs. The last two Covid-19 was a factor and will be a bit of one this year.

This is the Portsmouth Post Office and General Store. It has recently been painted and repaired (post hurricane Dorian).

red · June 04, 2022, 08:48:32 AM

Sounds like a plot to a Nicholas Sparks book

SwampDonkey · June 05, 2022, 03:14:55 AM

Looks like a good time to look forward to each year.

Stephen1 · June 05, 2022, 07:01:25 AM

I remember when you posted about it a few years ago. We didn't hear from you for a bit and I figured you were living the beach bum life.
That looks like a great summer treat. Enjoy!

WDH · June 05, 2022, 07:51:12 AM

I am jealous.

SawyerTed · June 05, 2022, 10:50:49 AM

Here's a map of the various locations

HI - Harkers Island where the Cape Lookout HQ is located. It's where the Volunteer RV "village" is and where our camper is.

CI - Cedar Island where the vehicle ferry departs for Ocracoke

O- Ocracoke a little seaside village of its own with about 900 permanent residents but probably 5 or 6 times that during the high season.

PV - Portsmouth Village where we volunteer - 20 or so historic buildings and the northern most part of Cape Lookout National Seashore.

HI to CI is about 35 miles.

The ferry trip is 2.5 hours and around 28 miles. It isn't a straight route because of shoals that necessarily have to be avoided.

O to PV is about 5 miles.

Why not run my boat from CI to PV? Three issues make that more difficult. First weather could make the trip difficult. Second security if my truck and trailer is a real problem. Third and most is ease of evacuation via Ocracoke.

Magicman · June 05, 2022, 06:13:41 PM

Thanks for the map. I now see why WDH is jealous.

WDH · June 06, 2022, 07:18:34 AM

I have spent much time in that area, mostly the next island north, Hatteras Island, where I have gone to surf fish for a week each Fall for the last 36 years. Probably the best surf fishing spot in North America.

SawyerTed · June 06, 2022, 07:37:46 AM

The surf fishing is world class anywhere from Shakleford Banks to Carova Beach and Hatteras is certainly the gem. I'm partial to Portsmouth, of course, but the conditions are primitive in comparison.

Here is the camper setup and our uniform shirts hanging on the line after being treated with Permethrin. The insects are one of the challenges we have at Portsmouth. Because the vegetation and composition of the marshes (increasing) the mosquitoes, green head biting flies and deer flies can make visit miserable for the under prepared.