Delightful Ocracoke on a Rainy Day – Ocracoke NC [April 9, 2018]

In front of Silver Lake Harbor on the residential side of the harbor

The tiny, charming village of Ocracoke feels in some ways like a small Key West, without the overabundance of bars.  It is laid back and quaint.  The eclectic buildings are strewn helter skelter beside the road ways.  Many restaurants and inns are repurposed older homes.  The few roads are mostly narrow lanes, and are lined with venerable live oaks draped in Spanish moss and the occasional palm tree.  In April, traffic seemed to surge with the arrival or departure of ferries, and then be non-existent in between.  We imagine that during the summer months, it would be best to leave your car parked, and get around by foot or bicycle.  The whole village is about a half mile long.

Ocracoke is the southern-most of the islands that are part of the Cape Hatteras National Seashore.  To get there we drove an hour from Waves, through Avon, Buxton, Frisco to the tiny town of Hatteras.  We stopped off to say “hi” to the lovely Cape Hatteras Lighthouse in Buxton.  The drive took about an hour, most of it past tall, sandy dunes separating the road from the ocean on one side and salt marsh and scrub separating the road from Pamlico Sound on the other.  In some places, recent strong winds and heavy rains had swept sand off the dunes onto the road. 

Aboard the ferry

Good bye to Hatteras...

You get to Ocracoke by ferry.  While the distance looks very short on a map, the area is very shallow with ever shifting shoals of sand.  The ferries meander along deep channels.  The ferry trip took another hour.  We left the campground at 9:15 and landed on Ocracoke at noon.  Since we were in the motor home, we just fixed ourselves an early light lunch, ate at the dinette and watched the waves go by.

The town of Ocracoke across Silver Lake Harbor with the lighthouse in the background

The centerpiece of Ocracoke village is an almost perfectly round harbor called Silver Lake.  It was once Cockle Creek.  During World War II, the US Navy dredged the creek to create a deep water harbor to house and support the fleet of vessels used to combat the u-boats sinking ships off of the Outer Banks.  The harbor and other improvements like paved roads stimulated connections by ferry (three have regularly scheduled service) and tourism.  Silver Lake is very lovely.  It is surrounded by dockside restaurants and hotels in the downtown area, and docks and picnic tables in the residential area.

Ocracoke Lighthouse

Ocracoke has a lighthouse that is said to be the oldest lighthouse in continuous operation since 1823.  The lighthouse is not open for climbing to the public, but the base is occasionally opened for visitors during the summer.

Another view of town with the lighthouse

We parked the motor home in large, empty lot downtown by the National Park Service headquarters, and explored the town by foot.  What had started as an intermittent drizzle while we were on the road developed into a persistent rain during our walk.  We didn’t carry a map, just followed the road around the harbor and then kept the lighthouse in our sights as we walked toward it.  There aren’t many roads, and it would be hard to go wrong.  You will notice water drops on the camera lens in some of our photos.

Ocracoke was famous for the wild Banker horses that had roamed the island for 300 years.  When they started getting struck and killed by tourists with cars in the 1960’s, the horses were confined to a 100 acre corral.  The herd is maintained by the NPS.  There is a viewing area of the Pony Pen, with a few barns and buildings with roofs.  The sensible horses were huddled under the roofs out of the rain while the silly tourists stood in the rain trying to take their pictures.  Hence, no photos of horses in this blog.

The entrance to Silver Lake Harbor

One of Ocracokes most famous residents is Edward Teach, alias Blackbeard the pirate.  This was one of his favorite hang outs and was where he was eventually killed.

Ocracoke Seafood Market

An island paradise like Ocracoke is a seafood eaters dream.  We bought seafood for the next night’s dinner at the Ocracoke Watermen's Seafood Company a non-profit organization where local watermen sell their seafood “caught the old fashioned way.”  We stopped for lunch at one of the many seafood restaurants around 3:00, starting the meal with hot chowder and hot coffee.  Dana had fish and chips – the fish was locally caught blue fish.

There is something very appealing, original and unselfconscious about Ocracoke.  Vacation rental houses are often old fishermen’s homes with peeling paint and sagging porches.  There are two campgrounds on the island, and we are hoping to return someday soon.