Wake up and check the hurricane forecast. That's how our life has been the last couple of days. We cancelled our last reservation in Wilmington, SC yesterday (no problem) and started to make alternate plans for our return trip home leaving here on Tuesday. Each day the hurricane path changes, so we're holding off making any reservations after Tuesday until we know where Hurricane Dorian is going. We have discussed multiple options and flexibility is the key, keeping in mind what areas may be evacuating. Gas availability may a;so be an issue. Time will tell. We hung out for the morning and left around noon to make the 5 minute drive into Wanchese. In town, we started looking for the Wanchese Marine Industrial Park which is the hub of the North Carolina fishing industry.
Wanchese is the southern home of the Hot Tuna fleet from the fishing show. Hot Tuna does their fishing in the summer months out of Gloucester, MA and spends the winter months fishing out of Wanchese.
We did see some commercial fishing boats in Wanchese Harbor and a couple of fish processing plants.
Bob also wanted to check out some of the famous boatbuilders in Wanchese that he has read about in his boating magazines. Bayliss Boatworks is the largest in the area and they are known for building sportfishing boats with the Carolina flair for offshore fishing.
Other boatbuilders in the area are Briggs Boatworks, Blue Devil Boatworks and Ricky Scarborough Boats. There were quite a few based in this area.
We spent some time looking at the boatyards and some of the boatbuilding that was going on.
Then we made a stop at O'Neals Sea Harvest. O'Neals is a restaurant and seafood market.
The place was popular for lunch because everything comes in fresh, right off the boat. The store section had fresh crabs of all kinds and other kinds of fish and seafood.
The guys in the back had just finished filleting a yellowfin tuna.
The fresh tuna fillets were placed right in the refrigerator case to sell. Now that's fresh!
We bought a chunk of fresh-caught yellowfin tuna and some ocean scallops which Bob will cook for us for dinner this weekend. We took those back to the trailer to put in the fridge and then drove 5 miles in the other direction to Manteo.
We were looking for a place to have a bite to eat with a view of the water and found Stripers.
We had some calamari and enjoyed a view overlooking the marina while monitoring the latest hurricane report on TV there. We also ordered a meatloaf sandwich to go. (I would have the meatloaf with all the fixings(which I love) for dinner and Bob would eat his fresh tuna. He doesn't like meatloaf and I don't like rare tuna.
Back at the trailer, we sat outside by the water with a cool breeze blowing. People were out and about and enjoying the pool, but back at our camper it was quiet. Being here on the Outer Banks where the hurricane might be coming next week is surreal. No one seems to be concerned about the hurricane coming here and no one is talking about it…at least not yet. I took a walk along the walkway that follows the shoreline of the lake and spotted 2 crabs nestled in among the reeds.
One skirted away as I approached, but the big one hung out long enough for me to snap this picture and notice he was missing a claw.
Our neighbors returned and between their barking dogs and noisy kids, we were still able to enjoy a bit more time outside before going in to cook dinner. Bob had his tuna and I had my meatloaf and all was good. Auggie and I took our walk as the sun was dropping below the treeline. When we returned, I sat outside to watch the sky turn amazing shades of blue, pink, yellow, and orange.
We watched some TV and enjoyed the evening. Last night, we went out to look at the stars and there were millions. We'll check it out again tonight as long as the skies are clear.
