The Crystal Coast, Salt water on my feet

Spring on the Crystal Coast

The spring of 2012 is my sixth spring on the Crystal Coast.  They have all proved to be different.

I enjoy spring unfolding along the coast. It is a lot more subtle than spring coming to the mountains.

While each spring has been different, there are things we can count on in our roller-coaster of spring weather. 

Wind, blue skies, and moderate temperatures are no strangers to us this time of year. They are actually our companions most days.

Mostly we enjoy weather where the temperatures stay above fifty degrees Fahrenheit at night and below eighty-five degrees Fahrenheit during the day.

Daytime highs are usually comfortably in the mid-seventies.  At night we have very nice sleeping weather with lows from the mid-fifties to mid-sixties.  Sometimes we get out of that comfort range, but it does not often heat up early like it did this year.

March of this year was really a warm one.  The unusually nice weather let us do some activities that are usually reserved for later in the year.  I was wading around in saltwater up to my knees.  I even took a dip in our neighborhood pool on a really warm late March day.

As April has rolled around, our temperatures have become more seasonable perhaps even a little cooler than normal. The few weeks of early summer that we enjoyed in March seem far away now, but it all a matter of perspective.

Late in the third week of April 2012, I spent a couple of immensely pleasurable hours out on the White Oak River in my kayak.  Sitting in less than a foot of water astride a huge oyster rock in the middle of a coastal river nearly two miles wide is not something you do when the weather is ugly.

Grabbing the good weather when it is around is one of the enduring traits of living along North Carolina's Southern Outer Banks.  However, I would argue that our good spring weather would pass for exceptional spring weather in most other parts of the country.

For much of March and April, our heat pumps have been silent.  It is not unusual for us to sleep with our windows open now that the pine pollen is gone.  At the end of April 2012, and our windows have been open more often than not for the last few weeks. 

They might not be open all day, but it would be an unusual day when they were not open for at least part of the day.  Living with fresh, clean air in your home is one of the benefits of living here. 

We enjoy it now because we know that each year will bring us a few weeks in the summer when our home's air conditioning heat pumps create a refuge from the worst of summer's heat and humidity.

The nice spring weather brings with it other benefits.  Each year sometime in the first couple of weeks of April, we get treated to fresh local strawberries.  They herald the beginning of the local produce season.  Greens, asparagus, lettuce and other vegetables are usually ready at the same time.

This spring we have been enjoying lettuce for months from some heads that overwintered in a warm, sheltered spot near our home.

One of the really nice things about spring on the coast is that it comes on you gradually. In the western part of North Carolina and southwestern Virginia, spring sometimes explodes on the scene.  All of the sudden the grass needs mowing twice a week sometimes even when it snows.

Here on the coast don't get swamped by spring mowing. You get a chance to ease into the mowing season.  Our warm season centipede grass doesn't grow a lot in the spring. 

It was unusual that I had to mow our coastal lawn the first time in March this year.  Most years, the first mowing is usually not until April.  Even with this warm year, I have still only mowed twice this spring, and it is almost the end of April.   I will probably get a third mowing in before April ends, but it could easily stretch it to May.

We also don't get the intense explosion of spring color that you see inland in North Carolina and Virginia.  With more pines than hardwoods, our change is more gradual.  We do get a taste of color with azaleas and other flowers, but it is not like a mountain spring.

What we sometimes miss in flowers, I think we make up in other ways.  The water and sky go from their the intense winter shades of blue to the more subtle and muted spring colors.  In spring we often get that first taste of the beautiful emerald color that the area waters use to bedazzle us in the summer.

Warming weather also brings out many of our beautiful birds.   These photos of my feathered friends are from a couple of walks that I took recently in our subdivision. Beauty is usally just a short, warm hike away in the spring.

My photos from the Point at Emerald Isle were snapped recently on beach hike that will keep me inspired for a long time.  From experience I know that my next walk there will produce photos just different enough to keep me going back over and over.

With spring moving towards summer, we gradually start to see more visitors.  After a very quiet winter, visitors bring a sense of renewal and new life here on the coast.  Our crowds are never huge, and those who visit are here only for a few short weeks.

Other than changing when we shop for groceries or go out for meals, visitors have little impact on the average Crystal Coast resident.  They are a welcome part of life here.

Usually visitors start coming just about the time the fish start biting.  We had company the first week in April.  With good weather and quiet winds, we took advantage of the opportunity to fish. My fish-loving guest had a great time and was able to take four nice bluefish home in a cooler.

If you could sum up spring life on the Crystal Coast, it would be more of an unfolding of life instead of an explosion.  We don't go from spring to summer in a couple of days like some places.  We have cool days mixed with warm days. As the season progresses, there are fewer cool days and more warm ones.  Being so close to so much water moderates our temperature much of the year.

We go from short walks on the beach early in the year to long hikes as the water gets more inviting.  Boat rides go from short ones on the river to ones that stretch out beyond the beaches.  The few businesses that close for a couple of months in the winter are usually all open by Easter.

In a good year our spring will stretch from March through June.  Then one day, we will realize that summer has sneaked up on us, and we will venturing on the beaches later in the day, and our boat rides will often be early in the morning before the heat of the day comes.  Mowing our yards will be come a game of strategy.

With warmth comes more time on the beach and even a chance to visit the islands in the Inlet.  Spring is missed, and summer begs to be enjoyed just as thoughts of wonderful warm, humidity-free fall days start to tempt us into wishing that summer's heat would disappear.

Enjoying the unfolding of spring and the other seasons is a full time job here on the North Carolina coast.  It is one that I treasure.

The beach is calling me

This much warmth this early in the year has brough some challenges.  It was much easier to stay off the beach when I was three hundred miles away.

Now that I am back at the coast, the waves are calling me, and I really want to feel the salt water on my toes.

Unfortunately I hurt my ankle a couple of weeks ago, so going for a long beach walk like I did on March 17 last year isn't in the cards yet.   I am thinking another day or two, and I might be able to manage a few miles around the Point at Emerald Isle.

My last walk on the Point was January 24 when I spent four hours hiking there.  Usually hiking on the Point can be a cold proposition in winter, but this year even with somewhat limited time, I found some really nice days to be over there.  It didn't hurt that  winter never stays long around here. In 2012 winter hardly even made an appearance.

While my wife and I managed to spend most of February in the Virginia mountains where we caught one of the few east coast snow storms of the winter.  It was a very localized storm, but it delivered around nine inches of snow. Fortunately it didn't stay long or cause any road problems. The snow did provide some beautiful pictures.

Even with our travels, I did get back to the coast and home for the last few day of February. My quick visit of only three days confirmed to me that winter was already on a steep downslope.  That taste of spring on the coast made me yearn to have my feet planted in sand on the beach.

During those few days I did find a little time to visit the beach, and lots of time to think about being on the water.  Unfortunately I was destined to wait until after the middle of March before we could finally get back home to the Southern Outer Banks for an extended time. Only then could I actually get out on the water with the skiff for more than ten minutes.  However, sometimes delay can lead to impeccable timing because things were really nice when we got here.

While it was early spring by the time we got back to the Crystal Coast, we already had enjoyed a full flown inland spring.  It even included some tulips and dogwoods blooming near our daughter's home on Lake Norman. For a time it seemed like someone was running loose in North Carolina and Virginia with a giant pink paint brush.

Spring is much more subtle on the coast than it is inland in North Carolina and Virginia.  We just don't have that burst of color that comes from numerous flowering trees along with all the bulbs and spring flowers.  Actually this year, the Piedmont of North Carolina was a little like the coast in some respects. 

Usually the blooms on Bradford pear trees hardly last more than a few days at the coast.  In the mountains of Virginia and North Carolina the blooms can hang on for two or three weeks.  This year the Bradford pear trees in the North Carolina Piedmont went from blooms to leaves in just a couple of days.  The mountain trees were still going strong when we last saw them, but the eighty degree heat of the last few days will take their toll very soon.

If the flowers don't hearald spring at the coast, the beach certainly makes up for it.  While there is no symphony of color, there is a renewal that comes with the warmth that spring brings.  When the sand is warm enough to enjoy with your bare feet, you know that if won't be long before the water is ready for that first dip of the toes.  Last year I stuck my toes in the water for the first time on April 8.

Because I don't walk the beach as much in the winter, going back to the beach in the spring is a time of discovery.  Beaches are ever changing, and places like the Point change so fast that it is often hard to appreciate the changes before they are gone.  Every time I visit the Point, I feel like I am mapping new territory.

Last year I spent at least three or four days a week walking on the beach in the spring and early summer.  I never saw a piece of beach that bored me.  Each hike was like an adventure and just made me look forward to my next one.

Living at the beach is a special privilege.  Not everyone gets the opportunity to choose where they live, but those of us who manage to live near the beach understand that we get to sample some of Mother Nature's best. 

Each day that we can walk with the waves that wash over the sand, our lives are enriched by the peace that those waves bring to us.  The warmth of spring brings us back to the beach and its waves.  The explosion of color that comes to beach often waits almost until summer when the sun is just right and the water turns an amazing tropical blue-green.

I'm not going to make a fool out of myself by declaring inland spring or a coastal spring to be the best. They are both a real treat.  But as the song says, "Love the one you're with."  With that in mind, the beach has my heart since it is less than seven miles away.

Friday, March 23, just might be the day that I tackle a few miles and let the sounds and smells of spring at the beach penetrate my soul and strengthen my heart.  Being on the beach is one of the benefits of living on this side of a watery horizon.

 

The Essence of Coastal Living

Water, sand, and wind are big part of what makes life on the coast what it is.

There are other elements that are important in defining coastal life.  Among them are pine trees, live oaks, and the creatures of the air, water, and forests.

All these pieces of our environment make up a world that is very different even from places only a couple hours drive from North Carolina's Crystal Coast.

No matter where you live, there are landmarks or scenes that tell you when you are home.  For years I worked in Northern Virginia and would make weekly drives from the Washington, DC area to Roanoke, Virginia where we lived on a mountain.

I would always feel that I had left Northern Virginia as I drove up the slopes of the Blue Ridge.  I knew that I had moved to another, calmer world when I turned off of Interstate 66 and headed south down the Shenandoah Valley on Interstate 81.  However, I would never feel like I was home in the Roanoke Valley until I saw the towering flat top of Tinker Mountain which guards the northern entrance to the valley.

Similarly when I leave Roanoke for the coast, the roller coaster ride down from the mountains to the North Carolina Piedmont is a different world. Then there is the flat coastal plain with little but pine trees.  It seems to stretch forever. 

As I am making the long drive down Highway 70, it is only when I reach New Bern do I feel like I have arrived at the coast.  When I come down Interstate 40 and take Highway 28  towards Swansboro, I don't have a sense of being at the coast until I cross the big bridge at Jacksonville.

It turns out that water on the horizon is a big part of the feeling of being at the coast. That vista of water which seems to never end is as much a part of being at the coast as are the mountains of the Blue Ridge which stretch to the horizon are for life in the mountains.

It is hard to deny the importance of water being at the core of our coastal existence.

Yet the mountains and the water are very different.  Somehow the mountains are more distant and perhaps even more unattainable. Many times I hiked far up our mountain often making it to within sight of Twelve O'Clock Knob Road, but I never made it to the actual summit.  Always there has been too much private land that I would have to cross to get to the top.

In fact many of the mountains that I can see from my home are not places that you could hike at all.  Of course if you limit yourself to the Appalachian Trail and the peaks connected to it or the Blue Ridge Parkway, you can get to some great spots, but unfortunately those aren't the mountains that are in my backyard.

The water at the coast is more accessible.  The White Oak River that I see out the window of my office at home can be reached by sliding my kayak in the water from my backyard and paddling ten minutes.  The water that I see while I am walking along the Point at Emerald Isle only takes a few minutes to reach by skiff.

Even as I look at the water, I know how it feels on my skin and my mind even remembers the smells of different places on the water and even how the wind felt when I was on the water at a certain time.

So while I might live on a mountain, I am more likely to be a more intimate part of the watery coastal world.  We are lucky at the coast.  The shore is the people's beach.  We can walk for miles without a no tresspassing sign.   In the mountains outside the parks, the mountains are owned by people and often remain out of reach.  While they are beautiful to look at, they are harder to sample than the beaches and waters of the Southern Outer Banks.

There is no question that the scenery in the moutains can be spectacular, but a sunset on or near the water often comes with more than just a visual image.  Being on the water at sunset immerses me in the essence of coastal life.  As the sun slides down behind the pines, great blue herons often glide through the sky, and for much of the year as the warmth of the sun disappears, I can feel the warmth of the water and the breeze that always comes at sunset.

Yet there is no sin in enjoying both the blue beauty of the mountains and the experience of a golden coastal sunset.

Winter never stays long

The Southern Outer Banks of North Carolina is designed to be a nice place during the winter. 

There are not many places on the east coast with south facing beaches and water that stays warm well into November.

While it is a little confusing to newcomers that the water is to the south and not to the east, it is a very good thing in the winter.  If you think about it, having all the tree-covered sand dunes and the Croatan National Forest between you and the north winds is a great thing if you want to stay warm while walking the beach on a cold day.  A trip over to the Northern Outer Banks on a windy day will convince most people of the wisdom of my weather observations.

Having south facing beaches also makes for some great sunsets. While a beautiful sunset won't keep you warm, psychologically it will help you survive winter. The brilliant sunsets do present a few challenges.  Driving into the sun when you are headed down the beach towards the town of Emerald Isle just when the sun is setting can be an interesting experience.  It is not something that you want to try without sun glasses and your car's visor in the down position.

Beyond the south facing beaches, the area's trees really do help to keep us warm in the winter. We are a heavily forested area which is a little unusual for southern beaches.  With our home located just off the White Oak River and surrounded by woods, about the only winds that really hit us full force are ones from the southwest.  Those are not normally very cold winds.

The area is also blessed with sunshine more than half of the time.  With clear blue skies and the warmth of a North Carolina sun, it is no surprise that we often see the first ripe strawberries in the area in early April.  We have even enjoyed them in late March.

Winter at the beach isn't such a bad thing for those of us living here.  We have the place pretty much to ourselves.  There is never a wait for a seat in a restaurant in the winter, and the parking at the grocery stores is a lot less hectic in January than it is in July.

This year we have been blessed with especially nice weather during the fall and even some fantastic early winter days.  While we are facing a "cold snap" here in the middle of January, most people would be pretty excited to have low temperatures that are only a couple of degrees Fahrenheit below freezing.

Last year we did have a serious winter. It was perhaps the coldest in over 100 years, but winter has been a totally different story this year.  We are actually still eating lettuce from our fall garden.  Last year the water temperature was in the mid-thirties at this time of year.  I even had to use my skiff as an ice breaker.  This week on the tenth of January 2012, I recorded water temperatures in the river just two degrees under fifty degrees.

Actually we want our waters to cool off in the winter, because they offer some very welcome cooling usually until the middle of June or early July. With the water as natural air conditioning, late spring and early summer on the Crystal Coast is often a time when we sleep with the windows open while central North Carolina is running their air conditioning.

Winter is not really much of a challenge here on the coast.  While we might get some cold weather, I rarely wear anything but Crocs for shoes even in the winter. I cannot ever remember wearing a heavy coat.

If you like an era where you get a taste of all four seasons but no real snow shovelling, NC's Southern Outer Banks are hard to beat.  On top of the great weather, the scenic beauty of the area will stretch your imagination.

 

Signs of the changing season

We have enjoyed an outstanding fall with mild temperatures continuing through the first week of December 2011.

The shorts weather in early December this year was in stark contrast to the deep freeze that visited us during the same week in December 2010. 

The water behind our house froze on December 8, 2010 as the high temperature for the day didn't get beyond 36F.  Temperatures like 36F are more likely to be the low temperatures in the dead of winter instead of the high for a day early in December.

Colder temperatures do happen even here.  Looking back to December of 2006, we saw a very cold night when the temperature dropped down to 24F.  With the water still being warm we only got some light ice on the gut.  It is more normal for our cold weather to wait until late January and February. Then with cooler waters it is easier to get extensive ice.

This year we have yet to have a day when we didn't get into the fifties so it has been a much milder fall.  Still the weather has changed.  Earlier in the week, we had several days in the seventies before our cool down.  With the cooler weather, life in the marshes around us is beginning to adjust to a new season.

Late this week, the first pelican visited Raymond's Gut, the water behind our house, since Hurricane Irene sent them looking for shelter earlier in the summer.  The great blue herons have also showed up during the day instead of just coming to roost at night.  This fishing must be good up our way.

While I managed to both go kayaking and take the boat out our inlet and down the river earlier in the week, the winds, some rain, and cooler temperatures have kept me at the dock the weekend of December 10.  I also saw my first ducks of the fall, but I wasn't able to get a close enough look to identify them.

With the holidays approaching, lots of Christmas lights have shown up.  We attended an office party in Atlantic Beach on Thursday night, December 8, and chose to drive back down the beach through Salter Path and Emerald Isle.  It was a peaceful trip with no other cars and some beautiful decorations to light our way.

The Christmas holiday can be very quiet here along the White Oak.  Many coastal folks travel to visit their families this time of year.  A few of the restaurants even close for a time to give their staff a chance to be with their loved ones.

I absolutely love the holidays at the coast.  There are not enough shopping opportunities for people to get in a tizzy.  Life mostly goes on at the same measured pace that we slide into as all the tourists disappear. If you really want much shopping it requires a little driving.

However, if shopping isn't your cup of tea, our beaches are mostly empty and a great place to walk on a warm winter afternoon.  The trails along the marshes offer just enough protection from the winds that a cool afternoon hike is a very comfortable proposition.

One of the great things about living along the Crystal Coast is that in a normal winter, the outside is just another room that we get to enjoy. The winter of 2010 was not a normal winter, but the winter of 2011 is starting out much more like the ones that we have seen in the past.

I am hoping that all the ice that we see this winter is along the edges of the gut. I don't want to have to use my skiff as an icebreaker again.

 

Lingering Warmth on the NC Coast

While much of the east coast has been enjoying some recent nice weather, here on North Carolina's Crystal Coast, it has been an especially nice fall. While we are enjoying this warmth, in the back of our minds, we're hoping for a nice winter also.

Our weather has been near perfect with the exception of some persistent winds that have made for some interesting changes on the beaches here in our coastal paradise.

Still the winds have to be considered a minor annoyance when the temperature is over seventy degrees Fahrenheit in the middle of November.

In late October we were still seeing some almost summer-like warmth.  I went for an excursion on the beach and checked the temperature to find that it was seventy-seven degrees Fahrenheit.  With fall, there is little humidity in the air so this year with warmth in the mid-seventies or better, our weather along the coast has been perfect for outdoor activities.

There have only been two or three cool mornings and only two days which felt really like winter was on the horizon.  Those couple of days when we didn't make it out of the fifties, New England was suffering through a snow storm so I will not complain about our weather.

Our forecast for this middle week of November 2011 looks fantastic.  Even when the temperature is only in the upper fifties as it will be later in the week, you can still have some great fun out on the water because the water temperature is holding above sixty degrees.

When you can walk out to get the morning newspaper and wear shorts without the hint of a chill, there is not much more that you can request from Mother Nature in November.

With the middle of the month upon us, I have been out on the White Oak River three of the last four days in my kayak. One of the things about a kayak is that you really notice the water temperature.  There is very little plastic between you and the water so when the water gets into the lower fifties, riding around in a kayak is a little like sitting in half a chilled glass.  However, as long as the water remains in the sixties, kayaking is just refreshing.

The cooler but still pleasant days make for great hiking and biking in addition to the boating.  Sometime being surrounded by the 158,000 acres of Croatan National Forest, the 56 miles of pristine beach of the Cape Lookout National Seashore, and the over 20 miles of family oriented beaches on Emerald Isle requires some tough choices on what activity to undertake.  Plenty of practice makes me up to the task.

I tend to alternate between taking long hikes at the Point on Emerald Isle, shorter beach walks with my wife at Third Street, boat rides to Swansboro, White Oak River fishing trips by kayak, hikes at Croatan trails, and bike rides in our neighborhood.

Because the beaches are always changing, I never get bored with my walks. It is hard to tell what you will find. In 2007, the Point was under water.  It took a year before the sand was back, but the beach continues to evolve.

Walks that I took after Irene on Emerald Isle's Point showed some massive changes.  Even at my favorite small beach, Third Street, we found a lot of sand gone on one of our recent trips.  Less than a month later, the sand was back but piled on the beach slightly differently.

There is one thing for certain, this lingering warmth makes beach exploration and mapping a whole lot more fun than it is in January when the water has cooled, the air is chilly, and a cold north wind is blowing.

Each trip to the beach that I take while wearing shorts this time of year amazes me, but the truth is that the weather we are enjoying is not that abnormal. My fascination with weather results in some interesting charts.  I keep track of the morning low temperatures in several locations, including the Cape Carteret area.

If you check out this table and graph of morning low temperatures, you will see that November 14, 2008 had an even higher low temperature than we did this year on the same date.  October and November can with some rare exceptions be magnificent months on the Carolina Coast.

I still remember the image of a wedding party standing in the surf on October 10 last year.  All you have to do is to look at the album of photos that I took that evening to convince yourself how warm it was in October of 2010.  That was the case even with the winter of 2010 turning out to be a colder than normal one.

A look at the average temperatures for the area shows that we're just a little above normal, but the difference is really not that much.  The kicker is that if you already have pretty nice temperatures, and you're running a little warm, things can seem almost summer-like which is what we are seeing this November.

While we are scheduled for some cooler weather later in the week, it doesn't look like I will even have to cover my tomatoes which will hopefully make it into December once again if we are lucky.

The North Carolina coast, especially the Crystal Coast, is a wonderful place to spend fall and even winter.  Last winter which was the coldest in one hundred years, resulted in just a little snow for our area.  People were excited to see some snow, but I was pleased that for the most part it melted before lunch.  I don't mind a little snow on the grass, I just don't want to get into shoveling it.

So far the warmth on the Crystal Coast has kept my snow shovel relaxing in a corner in the garage for the last five years.  That's fine with me, and I will continue to enjoy any of these fall days where the sunshine and warm air combine to make us wish this weather would stay forever.  Every warm day in November and December is one less winter day.  This November is one of those times when we don't listen to heat pumps.  None of us will be complaining about that.

More information on visiting the area is available at Crystal Coast Life.

 

 

Fall on the Carolina Coast

You would have a hard time finding residents who think there is a better season than fall along North Carolina's Crystal Coast.  The weather often defies description. It is a time when the air is cooler, the water still warm, and the skies almost as blue as they are in winter.

Just about any activity is within the realm of possibility.  People still swim in the water though it is a little cool for swimming in my opinion.  However, I don't mind standing knee deep in the water, wetting a line, and trying to catch a fish or two.  The scenery and the weather are often so nice that catching fish is optional.

There are fall days that I have a hard time deciding what to do. The humidity is for the most part gone so long walks on the beach are very enjoyable.  But if the wind is quiet,  the area waters are perfect for kayaking this time of year. Hiking and paddling are two of my favorite activities.  I often carry a fishing rod in my kayak.

Earlier in October I went for an evening paddle, and the water was almost perfect when I got back into our inlet.  I just glided along and listened to the sounds of the birds around the marsh.  A few days later the wind was just right, and I hardly had to lift a paddle as the wind pushed my kayak back to the dock.

Fall is also a great time to take a skiff out and enjoy the beauty of the area marshes.  My wife who is not a huge summer boating fan really enjoys riding through the area waters in the fall.  Even with pictures, it is hard to appreciate the beauty of the waters and marshes along the Crystal Coast.  You don't even have to own a boat to go on a marsh cruise in the fall.  The folks at Hammocks Beach State Park have regular pontoon boat cruises for fund raising for local charities in the fall.

It is also almost impossible to get through a fall weekend without a festival of some sort.  We have recently had the NC Seafood Festival in Morehead City, the Mullet Festival in Swansboro, the Mumfest in New Bern, and two lobster festivals at area Episcopalian churches.

If I had to pick one favorite fall thing, it would be standing in the still warm water and doing a little surf fishing.  However, being a resident on the Crystal Coast lets me sample all the pleasures of the area in the fall. 

Even our yards cooperate.  The centipede grass that makes up most coastal lawns conventiently slows its growth in the fall so that we have more time for fall activities.  It sure beats a mountain blue grass yard.  They usually get a spurt of growth in the fall and often require mowing into December.

If you have never visited the coast in the fall, don't let another season slip by without giving it a try.

Moving to the coast, what to learn from Irene?

Now that the skies have cleared, and the waters calmed after Irene's visit to the eastern seaboard of the United States, what lessons can we take away from Irene?

The first lesson is one that I have known for a long time, hurricanes can do a lot of damage inland.  We found that out living in the Virginia mountains over three hundred miles from the coast. However, a lot of people move to the coast and assume if they are few miles inland, they will be safe.

As is often the case, it is all about location.  There are places that flood regularly thirty to sixty miles inland of the thin strand of sand along North Carolina's shore.  There are also places on the beach or on water close to the beach that rarely flood.

You have to ask questions when looking for property, and most of all pay attention to the history of the area.  One of things that comforted me when we moved to the Southern Outer Banks of Carteret County was the proximity of buildings from the 1700s in both Beaufort and Swansboro.  While those buildings are no guarantee, they do help paint a picture of what has happened over time.

One of four things that you can do on your own is to go to NOAA's historical hurricane track site. Enter the place name of the closest town to the location you are considering, and then don't panic when you see all the lines because the records go back a long ways and include everything from tropical depressions on up. 

Zoom into your location, and see what has happened in the past.  Our location on the White Oak River has only had two category two storms in the last 150 years.  One was Donna in 1960 and another was an unnamed storm in 1878.  The 1878 storm was the only one that we were on the bad or right side of the storm.

However, due to the nature of hurricanes there might have been storms that were very significant locally that don't look particularly close on the map. That is why the last you can do is one of the most important.

The second thing you can do is find the area's flood mapping site.  This is the location of North Carolina's flooding mapping site.  Plug in the location of any home that you are considering, and the site will pull up the flood maps.  However, you really need to be familiar with the area from the air because the site might well have the address slightly misplaced.

If you look at this image snapshot of my own home taken from the flood mapping site, you will see that I have marked the actual location of the house which is 700 feet into the flood zone instead of just outside of the flood zone.

One of the ways that you can know see to the exact location of a house you are considering is to do a little mapping on your own.  I use a program on my Android smart phone called MyTracks.  MyTracks does a great job of mapping your location, or you can use Google's built-in maps and a program called Lattitude which allows you to send your location by email.  It you want the location of a home, just send yourself an email from Latitude while standing on the front steps.

MyTracks will also record your trip and save it to a Google map so you can view it on a computer.  Just start it recording when you leave a home and stop it when you get back to a real estate office.  That way you can do a drive by any properties that interest you on your own.

The third thing to do is view some flood surge maps.  The maps only provide some broad guidance as you can see from this picture.  However, they can set off some warning bells which would indicate that you need to do further investigation.  If you see places where nine feet or more of water is coming up a river, it is clear that living on that river would require some care in choosing a home.

The fourth and most important thing is to talk to some local people who have had extensive experience in riding out storms.  I have a friend who has been in our area for over sixty years, and he has given me a wealth of information. Ask the locals what areas flood and what areas are safe.  You should know that even among locals, some people are more paranoid about storms than other.  We have one neighbor who put plywood over the windows of his brand new home in our well-sheltered subdivision.  As far as I know none of the forty plus homes suffered any wind damage to their windows during Irene. I think the building code requires 150 MPH windows.  My neighbor got the benefit of drilling holes in his new home, and having his windows covered for several days until he had time to take down the plywood.

When Irene came to visit, we did get a number of the local herons and egrets who came to our cove to hide from the storm. It was a good sign as far as I was concerned.  While their feathers might have gotten a little ruffled, I am sure they were better off hiding up the river with us than in a wide open marsh near the shore.

That are some basic common sense guidelines that can help in deciding on the right location for a home.  First if you live on the water and have a broad expansive view of the water, the wind and or storm surge can likely drive that water towards you, and unless you live on a hill it could end up around your home.

Second if you live up a river off of a huge sound, the laws of physics dictate that when you drive all that water from the sound up a much smaller river, there will be flooding.

Third the topography of the area where you live is critical.  If you are seeing very inexpensive waterfront property, there is likely a reason. Our county, Carteret, goes downhill from west to east.  While no part of the county is very far above water, the western part is in far better shape than the eastern part which looks like a giant marsh if you drive through it.  A trip down east is very different than driving around our area on the western side of the county.

The topography rule is also important in the subdivision where you pick a home.  There is one subdivision in our area that is shaped like a bowl.  When you have extreme rainfall even not related to a storm, you can get flooding there as you can on Emerald Isle near Coast Guard Road where the roads commonly flood after a storm.  Our subdivision is sloped towards the water. When we had the 20.25 inches of rain in eight hours, we got a little water on our dock, some homes in the subdivision shaped like a bowl ended up with water inside them. When the tide went out, the water dropped from my dock even though it continued to rain for four hours.  The homes in the bowl shaped subdivision had water in and around them for days.

Another rule that works well is avoid homes with basements.  They just don't work well here at the coast.  You are far better off with a home on a block foundation which has flood vents in the foundation.  Flood vents are standard in new construction in areas which flood.  It is also a good idea to avoid a home at the foot of a large sloping field. Torrential rain can come at you in like a small ocean wave if the topography of your home is wrong.

Also if you are buying an older home, you need to realize that it might not meet all the latest hurricane proof building codes.  It is not unusual to see an older home not far off the ground next to a new home that is three or four feet off the ground. Which one do you think is built to handle floods?

There are a lot of small local factors that have a tremendous influence on the safety of a home.  If you understand hurricanes, you can make some intelligent guesses on wind direction.  I actually bought the inexpensive online Hurricane Survival Guide.

While it is targeted at boaters, it helped me understand wind directions in a hurricane.  Our home is well protected from the east and north.  Our main vulnerability is from the southwest.  When hurricane Irene came by, we only had to deal with winds from the east and north.  While we are protected, that doesn't mean storms aren't impressive as you can see from this YouTube video that I did from our deck at the peak of Irene.

So how did things go in our first hurricane test on the coast since our move here in September 2006?  Certainly our area got punished by Hurricane Irene, but we survived Irene's onslaught which started at 5 PM Friday and did not end until 7 PM Saturday. We actually had an ice crea cone on Emerald Isle the day after the storm.

Carteret County in general and western Carteret County specifically came through Irene in great shape.  My Crystal Coast Life article gives detailed information on how the area fared.  At our home, I estimate we saw 80 MPH winds and perhaps as much as 15 inches of rain.  However, our power was only out for 14 hours so we cannot complain.  Another general rule that seems to be emerging from Irene is that small local electric cooperative do better than large old line power companies.

One other thought is that if you have a lot of trees close around your home, they can damage your home during a storm or provide you with lots of yard work for days after a storm.  We were happy to not have any trees around our home.   My clean-up consisted of running the lawn mower with bagger over the yard to pick up the debris that a neighbor had blown into my yard.

We were well prepared for Irene, and preparations confirmed much of the advice of the experts.

Things are back to normal here along the coast, and I am happy that I did my homework well before we bought a home here.

 

Beach, Sound, or River?

If you are moving to an area like the Crystal Coast which offers something of everything, what geographic area should you choose?

You could live on the beach at Emerald Isle, around Bogue Sound, or on the White Oak River?  All would give you good access to water.

The answer depends on many things including budget, personal taste, and availability.

While there are many homes on the market, most people quickly narrow it down to a few that they like.  If they are lucky, they have found one which they love in their price range and with features that meet all their needs.

It all sounds so simple, but of course it isn't.

However, if you want to walk out your door and go for a beach walk every morning without getting in a car, that narrows your search.  By the same token, if you want to drop your boat in water and go for a quick boat ride before breakfast like I do, that also limits your choices.

So what are some of the considerations when deciding where to locate on the Crystal Coast? 

The first thing that I typically ask people is what size home do they want.  Next is the price range that they need to hit.  Generally I send people off to talk to a bank before we have the price discussion.  These days you cannot get serious about looking for property until you have talked to a bank. Unless you have cash in hand, it is a waste of your time and my time to look at homes unless a bank has told you how much they are willing to lend you.

Price and size typically help narrow the geography a little.  Homes typically cost more per square foot over on the beach.  Also beach homes are typically smaller with some very expensive exceptions to the rule.  Maintenance, taxes, and insurance are also more expensive on the beach.  Taxes and insurance are important when it comes to thinking about a mortgage.

One other consideration is boating. You can only have a boat lift on the sound side of the beach.  Often over on the island having a lift with a boat on the soundside requires a long dock.  There are exceptions to this rule, but in general the docks are fairly long over the beach side of the sound.  That makes them susceptible to storms and surges.

You certainly do not need a boat lift to enjoy the water with a boat.  However, it you like to boat frequently and typically your trips are short, a lift is a great choice.

Facilities for launching boats continue to improve along the Crystal Coast with two new or improved ramp facilities in Beaufort and a huge new access area with ramps on Emerald Isle.  The Wildlife Resources ramp in Cedar Point has increased its parking and is in line for a major reworking.  Cape Carteret has a very nice ramp which is available to Cape Carteret residents for a minimal yearly fee.

What you want to do with your boat might also influence where you want to locate.

Currently getting out Bogue Inlet to the ocean is more of a challenge than it has been in recent years.  If fishing offshore is important to you, you should carefully evaluate where to locate.  Beaufort Inlet is in much better shape than Bogue Inlet.  Having said that, there are lots of people who go in and out of Bogue Inlet with few problems.

One of things often mentioned by people who live in Emerald Isle by the beaches is summer tourist traffic.  We have about six weeks of a strong tourist season.  That means if you live over by the beach, you have to be willing to put up with a little inconvenience at times.  The bridge from Cape Carteret to Emerald Isle is two lanes, and it can plug up for a time on Saturday and Sunday afternoons during the summer.  Some island residents just hole up during especially busy holidays like the Fourth of July.

In addition to traffic on the bridge, grocery stores in the area get very busy on holiday weekends and a few other weekends during the summer.  Most locals do their grocery shopping from Monday to Thursday.  However, it you live on Emerald Isle by the beaches, you can expect the Food Lion, which is only grocery store on the west end of the Island, to be relatively busy most of July and part of August.  The same thing holds for island restaurants and other services.

Living on the mainland lets you get around the traffic a little easier, and there are other options for grocery shopping on the weekend.  The same goes for restaurants, but good ones even on the mainland are still busy most evenings during July and early August.

As to weather, the mainland warms up before the beaches and cools down before the beach areas.  There is typically more wind on the beach areas, and in early spring the damp cool of the beach area begs for some real warmth which can often be found on the mainland just across Bogue Sound. The beach stays a tad warmer during the winter, but that is often offset by stronger winds.

Living along the sound on the mainland is a great compromise if you can afford it as soundfront property on the mainland is typically very expensive.  However, if you can swing it, it is a great way to watch life on the water along the coast.  There is always traffic on the Intracoastal, and it is fun to watch.

If you cannot swing living directly on the sound, there are a number of water access communities along the Crystal Coast.  All of the ones in the western end of Carteret County are either on the White Oak River or along Bogue Sound.  The amenities in the communities vary widely, and any claims of boat ramps and access to deep water should be carefully evaluated.  Some communities as they have aged have neglected their boat ramps to the point that the ramps are unusable except for very small boats.

While there are neighborhoods with year around residents over on the beach, you will likely more easily find a neighborhood with permanent residents over on the mainland.  This is also true for children.

Living on a coastal river is different than living either on the sound or by the beaches.  It is actually worth a discussion on its own.  It is where we chose to live.  I have my boat on a lift not much more than 25 feet behind our house.  It takes me just ten minutes by boat to Swansboro and the Intracoastal. Also when the sound and ICW are full of boats, I have the option of hiding out in the White Oak River by our house.   I love to walk on the beaches, but that requires a ten to fifteen minute drive.  I also am passionate about being a Southern gardener.  For me growing tomatoes is very important so I tend to think our location on the mainland by the river is a little better for getting early ripe tomatoes. If my location sounds great, my neighbor's waterfront home with a boat slip is for sale.

There are lots of different ways to determine where you want to live.  A good place to start is talking to a Realtor® who knows the area well. At a minimum you should visit an area website with real estate information.  Working with a a Realtor® can be quicker.  Showing you a few places is the best way to get the lay of the land and understand the neighborhoods.  You see things driving around in a car that you often don't have the opportunity to see on the Internet.

Reading about the area also helps you make an informed decision on where to live.  You can find links to my articles on the area both on this site and at this webpage.

The more work you do up front before starting to look at homes (including talking to a banker), the easier it will be to find your dream home.

 

 

 

Defined by your environment

I've had lots of opportunities to look at the world through the filter of different places. That continues even today.

Recently I was in Reston, Virginia not far from the Washington Beltway and Tyson's Corner where it appears the whole area's infrastructure is being re-built.

After that weekend visit, I spent some time on the mountain overlooking Roanoke, Virginia where we lived for so many years.

Both of those visits came after an extended stay in Carteret County along North Carolina's Crystal Coast.

All of the places are very different. The place where we stay in Reston backs up on Fairfax County park and is almost surrounded by trees.  In Roanoke, the home is on the side of a mountain with a view that sometimes includes the distant Peaks of Otter. Our Southern Outer Banks home is tucked in an inlet in Bluewater Cove just off the White Oak River.  The houses all differ greatly.

I have known for a long time that my mood is heavily influenced by the environment surrounding the home where I happen to be staying, but I don't think that I put all the pieces together until recently.

The way I feel probably has as much or more to do with what is outside the home as it does with what is inside the home. A place with regular bright blue sky and lots of sunlight not surprisingly makes me feel better. It might even make me feel better than a huge expansive home.

Most of us spend a lot of our lives worrying about what kind of home we live in, and as someone who sells real estate, I know a nice home is important to most people including myself.

However, where a home is can easily be just as important as how nice it is on the inside or how big the home is.

Living in Carteret County has really made that point clear to me.  The wonderful world outside our home along the county's Crystal Coast has become an extension to our home.

With a climate that often favors clear skies and warmer temperatures, it is easy to enjoy the out of doors.  When we first moved to the Crystal Coast, I was puzzled by the number of garages where you could see chairs obviously being used.

It wasn't long before a couple of chairs appeared in our own garage since it turns out to be just as nice a place to sit and enjoy the weather as our decks are.  While the chairs are often pushed to the side, it is not unusual for my wife and I to relax in those chairs in the afternoon breezes.

While the wonderful mountains around our Roanoke Valley home gradually became off limits to us due to development, each day on the Crystal Coast seems to offer a new place to explore.

When you live on a mountain, you can see for miles, but unless you live next to a park or own some acreage to protect your home, eventually the view might be the only thing you can enjoy from your backdoor.

Navigable water is different than land since it is open to the public and invites exploration. While the trails I used to enjoy from our mountain spot in Roanoke have been cut by development, the water near our home in Cartert County has become a vast playground that I use year round. 

Exploring the water and the also public beaches keeps me outside more than I might be otherwise. On top of that we have some unbelievable trails just a couple of miles from us at the Croatan National Forest Access in Cedar Point.

I will give the Roanoke Valley municipalities credit for developing the Greenway Trails along the Roanoke River, but I still think they missed a huge opportunity when they passed on buying the mountain land where we used to hike high above the city.  There is a big difference walking a hundred feet from a major road and walking 500 ft in elevation above all of those roads.

In Reston the adjoining Fairfax County park isn't anywhere nearly as accessible as the water behind our home on the White Oak River in Carteret County. The trails are hard to reach, and there is some concern for safety even in a town as upscale as Reston. Of course there are advantages to living in a large metropolitan area. On our recent Reston trip we enjoyed a wonderful afternoon at the National Arboretum.

While what is outside a home is very important to me, there are people who treat their home as a cave and only rarely venture outside.  To them the environment around their homes is of little consequence.  They go from one heated or air conditioned environment to another. 

While I am not a huge fan of winter cold like we had this past year, I do for the most part embrace the heat. In general our coastal areas are spared from the worst of summer's heat except for a few weeks.  The cooling or warming influence of the area's waters helps to give us a temperate climate though it has it's up and downs.

The fact that I live in an area where it is easy to stick a kayak in the water and paddle down the river or to take a long walk on the beach means that a nice trip in a kayak or a long hike on the beach have just become part of me.

When you are looking for a place to live, knowing how you are influenced by the environment around your home can help you make a better decision on where to live.  It certainly worked for us.