Category Archives: Sea

Afterthoughts

Nature struck another blow to Hatteras. As the storm cleared out, I gathered my thoughts. This island is created by powerful natural elements. That’s the allure that brought me and many others here. Only a couple weeks ago, we were still in our routines of summer. There were plenty of visitors, the ocean was warm, calm and no storms. With the arrival of Fall, things changed almost overnight.

Weather forecasting predicted an event that found many folks unprepared. The low pressure arrived with a bang, throwing tremendous waves at us. It happens often, but tourism remained in place despite the threat of over-wash across vulnerable roadways. In the end, this storm has  made its unique signature added to a list of many in the past.

A vegetated dune is the first line of defense.

Dunes bow to the power of rushing water. At the KOA, a walkway spanning a once high dune, is sheared.

Sandbags are a desperate attempt to save infrastructure.

In Rodanthe, Ocean Drive sits behind a row of oceanfront cottages. They’ve been digging this out for years. Storms past have claimed at least two houses here.

I thought about people happily congregating around these picnic tables at Camp Hatteras just days ago.

Over-washed sand covers half the campground now.

Debris and broken asphalt litter the ground.

I was drawn to a lone pine seemingly awaiting its fate.

Each event we can learn how to live better within these elements. Nature is deemed destructive when man defies it, and highway 12 is a good example.

Now what?

 

Working Waterfronts

Several decades ago Hatteras Island was a bit different. The island had yet to be discovered by the masses and many locals made livelihoods from the sea. I was particularly taken with the commercial fishing industry. On the sound side of all seven villages, there were small working waterfronts where individuals could keep their boats and bring in the catch. Today those waterfronts are all but gone.

The village of Avon originally known as Kinnakeet had one of those waterfronts. That’s where generations of native Kinnakeeters had lived, and worked on the water. I saw this place as a hidden gem.

While wandering the Avon Harbor in 1977, I photographed a wooden workboat that lay derelict in the marsh. It was about 40 feet long and beautiful. With rounded stern, dead-rise design and distinctive trunk cabin, it could have been a sister ship to the Albatross boats built in Marshallberg, NC. The Edwin Jr. had seen better days. Little did I know at that time, it was a precursor to a way of life in decline.

Commercial Fishing

Moving here decades ago, introduced me to a culture of commercial fishing. It was a livelihood that captured my attention. I spent lots of time watching newfound friends hauling in their catch, sometimes prolific, many times not. I hung out at the creek where locals kept their boats and packed fish. It became a passion for my photography.

Old wooden boats had beautiful lines, particularly the traditional shad boats, like these in the background of this 1985 photograph. I noticed the wooden workboats were being replaced by ones built of fiberglass.

Shooting this 1980 image, I was especially taken by four shad boats tied up at the Beasley fish house in Colington. I would see them frequently long hauling Pamlico Sound at Rodanthe. Originally designed to use sail power, most had been converted to using gasoline engines.

I revisited that same fish house two weeks ago. The shad boats were gone, the building in disrepair. Some fishing was still apparent but it was not the same. For me, the scene symbolized the decline of independent commercial fishing enterprises, and made me sad.

 

Snow Job

The National Weather Service measured 8 inches of snow in Waves. It was relatively unusual, and it seems in the last 50 years, we’ve had a similar event about every 10 or 12 years. I’ve seen  snowfall amounts a couple times, as much as a foot deep.

This recent storm was fun and visually stimulating. Although blowing a gale, temperatures never dropped much below freezing. It was exhilarating to be the first person to make footprints toward the beach near my home.

Never whiteout conditions, the snowfall was moderate yet lasted nearly 20 hours.

The seas were lively, but the real show for me was the beach.

Wind-driven snow continued as I checked different vantage points.

The dunes can be a treasure trove of possibilities for a camera.

While the tendency is to shoot horizontally, vertical compositions can be just as effective.

What the environment has in store for its next show is anyones guess!

 

Front Row Seat

In 2002 while touring with a group of educators along Hatteras Island, renown coastal geologist Stan Riggs mentioned the annual erosion rate along North Rodanthe at 14 to 16 feet. Living on the edge, I’d seen it happening, especially after a groin was built at Oregon Inlet in 1989. More recently the issue has gotten lots of publicity and we’ve become a poster child for beach erosion.

My last blog entry addressed a certain row of houses collapsing into the surf. It’s a predictable yet sad spectacle. When the house called Front Row Seat went down on September 24th, I photographed what was left. Formerly known as Fric, the mess it left was in retrospect, avoidable. Dare County should have never issued the building permit in the first place.

Other rental beach houses fall (pun intended) into the same category. The pink and aqua-green McMansions on the left were built in 2007 and permits issued after objections to them being constructed. I took this photo in 2012. Now a decade later they’re closer to the brink.

On this ever-changing barrier island, the ocean isn’t the culprit!