Portsmith Island-Part Deux

We finished up on the beach and headed off to the village. If you look up the history of Portsmith Island, you'll find that it was once a very prosperous island, but eventually, the port moved and the island started to die off. Life became harder and with no running water, electricity or sewer, you can understand why people moved to the mainland, and eventually, there were just two elderly ladies, and a gentleman left on the island. The gent died and the ladies moved to a nursing home on the mainland after that, and that was the end of Portsmith Island. It is now part of the National Park Service and is maintained by them. It is slowly being restored by both the NPS and also volunteers who come and work to fix buildings that are still there.

The two of us in our little gator.

Established 1753

Population in 1860-685

Today-0

Lifesaving Station

This is the Methodist church taken from the top crow's nest of the lifesaving station.

The church was knocked off it's piers a bit during Isabelle, so it's a little leany.

Easy for us to relate to, since we ran from her on Hatteras.

An Islanders cross

There is an island there that has sunk into the sound. Fort Ocracoke used to be there and is now underwater. Today, it is used as a sanctuary for the Brown Pelican. Thousands nest and breed there. The white ones here do not have flight feathers yet.

We docked back in Oracoke, at the Jolly Roger, we walked around the island for a while and did some shopping. We were terribly parched and a little bit hungry so it seemed like a good idea to head right back to the Roger, and satisify both needs. When you see signs around your outdoor dining area and they say DO NOT FEED THE ANIMALS! it doesn't always mean the drunks. Not long after we sat down another party of about 10 came in and began to make a huge quacking scene. The mallards wandered around under the tables looking for handouts or scraps that had been overlooked. Of course, this was partway through our second pint and our table was the one that they decided to have a girl fight over some boy. Butch got a round of applause when he broke that one up. Course, the flying feathers were all over us. (I did save my beer) .

So, ta-da, that was our adventure on Ocracoke this year.