Grey Suits and Storms

Haven't updated in a while because of work and leisure.  In July I spent a week on the Outer Banks.  The family was down there and I made sure to join them, given that I only get there once during the summer time each year.  Even though it's not my favorite time of the year to be there (mainly bc of crowds), I had nothing to complain about - warm water is something I never take for granted.

The town had been talking about it for years and finally pulled the trigger on a huge project to dredge and pump sand onto shore to build the beaches back up.  I talked to one of the workers who explained the process - they had to take over 2000 samples of sand from offshore to match the type found on the beach.  Then they dredge it, pull it onto a huge (looked to be 150+ ft) boat, get to about 200 yards offshore, and pump it to the beach through a huge rusted pipe.  It was pretty interesting to watch.  A maintenance guy from the realty company said people have been complaining that it ruined their vacation, but the last time I checked, there has to be a beach to enjoy the beach.

I'm not kidding when I tell you they've probably added 60-70 yards of beach, and we desperately needed it. I'm thinking it may have smoothed out the bottom a bit more, because the waves were pretty glassy all week.  When we got there on Saturday they were a good 5-6 ft and fairly clean.

Check it, a good dose of man fighting back at nature.

I always drive south when there is no surf in front of the house.  South of where we are, it's basically 30-40 minutes worth of wildlife sanctuaries and reserves, and not a lot of houses...the area immediately south of the Oregon Inlet is Pea Island.  Here you can be the only person on the beach.  I stopped at a few random paths through the dunes to scope things out.

I had to take a picture...it was just too damn inviting.  There's always this feeling of anticipation, just wondering what to expect when you get to the open beach.













In this case, not much--no people, just a few birds.  Awesome.

Some (or all) of these pictures may look the same to some poeple, but to me they are very different.  It's a snapshot of everything going on at that moment.  I could tell you what the air felt like, everything going on in my head at the time, what I did that day.


We also just got down to Carolina Beach for a few days with some friends- Bill, Brittany, and Jeremy.  Turns out that an hour or so before we started toward the beach Saturday, some girl got bit by a shark--nothing serious though.  Then we're about 5 miles south at Fort Fisher and as we're pulling up, a guy saw our boards and told us that the "grey suits" were out that day.  It's kind of an old fashioned term for sharks; "men in grey suits."  Anyway he had been out about 20 minutes before we got there and said he saw a 6-7 footer jump clear out of the water about 100 yards from him.

Everyone kind of looked around at one another, pondering whether or not to get in, but we all did.  The sharks are out every day and look how often something happens - pretty much never.  Besides, locals were speculating that it was a sand tiger who bit the girl, and the one that jumped near this guy was likely a spinner shark....they're garbage.  It would be one thing if a 10 foot bull shark ripped someone's head off, but a little nibble on the foot never hurt anybody too badly.

And allow me to let you in on a little secret:  when there are dolphins in the water, it doesn't mean there aren't sharks.  In fact, it's the opposite - there are likely more sharks.  Dolphins and sharks largely feed on the same things.  Sorry if I just ripped off your comfort blanket when you are swimming at the beach, but I calls 'em as I sees 'em.


The guy who pulled up his truck next to ours had a few extra boards, so the others with us got to ride as well.  It was like a good old fashioned surf camp.  He even gave me a leash he didn't need anymore. It's always great running into such friendly people.

Anyway, I'm not sure when I started this post or when it will be dated, but today is August 26, and Hurricane Irene is set to make landfall on....you guessed it....the Outer Banks.  This is a big storm, and big storms have historically shifted and created entire inlets there, not to mention the damage that affects people.  We'll see how it turns out, but something tells me mother nature is going to reclaim a good bit of that new beach in the picture above.