I'm considering sailing outside, around Cape Lookout, North Carolina
and offshore to Ocracoke Island, North Carolina, this summer.



Lee Huddleston wrote:
I have made that trip twice and I draw 6 feet. As has been suggested
by another poster, anchor in Lookout Bight before your trip. It is a
delightful anchorage.

Sure is. It can also get crowded in the summer, plus there
are patches of grass. My wife & I love Lookout Bight.

Back Sound is also a great anchorage, you can watch the
ponies on Shackleford.


Diamond Shoals are the shallows off of Cape Hatteras, not the ones off
of Cape Lookout.

Oops, you're right... I had a mental picture of the
lighthouse itself, which has a big diamond pattern on it.

... In normal weather these shoals are not dangerous as
long as you have a current chart

Agreed, but it's not like navigating thru shallows in
sheltered water. There is often a 'heave' effect in the sea
and current that sets towards the shoal... I like to cross
it with at least 15' under the keel, whereas most other
places I'm comfortable with far less.


... and do not rely exclusively on GPS.


Good advice anywhere IMHO.



The trip up to Ocracoke is a straight shot without any unusual dangers
or problems. Of course you will want to go when the wind is anywhere
other than from the north.


More good advice


Ocracoke Inlet is another story. First of all, it is critical that
you pass through it at slack tide. My first passage from ocean to
sound was attempted at night with the tide ebbing, and I was
singlehanding. The current was very strong. Most important, and
dangerous, the tide does NOT follow the channel. It often runs across
sandbars and cuts straight across the channels. I overlooked an
unlighted bouy and got too close to the edge of the channel and the
tidal current swept me right out of the channel and pinned me up
against a sandbar. I could not move the boat and the current was
pushing me more and more up on the bank. I eventually had to call
TowBOAT/US.


You were lucky the current didn't pile up sand around your
keel. I've known a couple of boats trapped that way.

The second time I made the passage was also at night. But this time
was at slack tide and I had two crewmates. In addition, I now knew
that there was a mix of lighted and unlighted bouys. One crewman
stayed on the bow with a spotlight locating the bouys. The other
crewman helped me keep track of the depth while I concentrated on
steering. We took it VERY slowly. Sometimes we only had a few INCHES
of water below the keel. It took us about two hours to just get
through the inlet. The next day while we were walking around Ocracoke
two locals sitting on the country store front porch declared that we
were crazy for coming it at night.


I've done some crazy stuff but I'd rather sail back & forth
all night outside than run almost *any* unfamiliar inlet at
night. There have been a lot of boats lost on those
sandbars, and the tidal current sweeping across the channel
is every bit as big a problem as you say here. One thing I'd
recommend... go in when the tide is approaching low, slow
current, but don't go in if it's going to start running
strong behind you. You do not want the current shoving you
forward at 3 knots when you're trying to slow down!



Ocracoke is a delightful island community and well worth the trip.

No no no! It's horrible, very hot, lots of mosquitoes, and
the natives keep trying to feed you this dead pig stuff they
call "barbeque." In fact don't even come to North Carolina
at all.

Fresh Breezes- Doug King