May 3, 2011

Houses beyond the island marsh.

Tangier Island. A quiet place, removed from the hustle and bustle of the world. Imagine a New England fishing town taken from the shore and plopped down on its own little island, left to its own for decades. The people are all very friendly and glad to have you. The inlet is littered with docks, crab traps stacked on shore, and small motor powered crabbing boats. The houses are almost all whitewashed, a few handfuls of paper homes all placed along narrow paved roads. There are but a few trucks on the island. On a cool spring evening, the small streets are buzzing with golf carts, teens and children on bicycles, and those out for an after dinner stroll. Everyone here knows everyone else on the island, so do not be surprised if the town’s people give you a taken aback stare before saying hello. There are a few small restaurants and gift shops on the island, but the shops are only open in the summer for the short tourist season. Signs all around the island give insight into the island’s history. My favorite was the large purple painted house that was apparently imported from Dublin for a Tangier resident.

We pulled into Parks Marina for the evening. Mr. Parks is eager to talk with travelers. He and Gary hit it off beautifully. We were not the only travelors to find safe harbor at the Parks residence. Mr. Parks is kind enough to feed the stray cats on the island. Among all the feline visitors walks Mr. Parks’ big old dog (whom Kris and I lovingly dubbed the “Dingy Dog”). He keeps watch over the dock, and greets you with a slow tail wag. Bathrooms are provided in the dock house for your convenience. It’s a slow paced, sleepy place to be, and it suited us just fine for the evening. Tomorrow we are off on my last leg of the trip, up the Chesapeake further to Annapolis, MD.

May 1 – 2, 2011

We traveled up out of the Palmilco Sound, down the ICW, and out into the Chesapeake Bay. On the ICW, the cool air and lift bridges that we came upon along the way reminded me of the Erie Canal. We even went through a lock!
A word to the wise, however. The bridges and the lock on this stretch of the ICW are interestingly timed. There are hours during the working week that most bridges are closed, due to heavy traffic. If you are planning on passing through here, I recommend that you do it on the weekend, as the bridges will typically open open upon request on Saturday and Sunday.
As we grew closer to the Chesapeake, more and more buildings and developed areas popped up along the ICW. Near the north end we encountered numbers large tug boats, huge cargo ships, and some military ships as well. Once we’d entered the Chesapeake, the crab traps began dotting the water. They lead us all the way up to our last stay before Annapolis: Tangier Island, VA.

We stayed on Roanoke island for our Outer Banks visit. Roanoke Island was one of the first places in North America to be settled by the English. It was first discovered by the British in 1585 by Richard Grenville on a mission organized and financed by Sir Walter Raleigh. When Richard left the island, he left behind several men with the promise of sending settlers soon after.
Here is the Wiki article on the rest of the history of Roanoke:

Elizabeth II

In 1587, Raleigh dispatched another group of 150 colonists to travel to Roanoke and preserve the newly found land of Roanoke. They were led by John White, an artist and friend of Raleigh who had accompanied the previous expeditions to Roanoke….On July 22, 1587, White and his men arrived back at Roanoke and set out on a mission hoping to find the Englishmen that Sir Richard Grenville had left behind the year before. They had found nothing except for what they thought may have been the bones of one of Grenville’s men. On July 23, 1587, White appointed his men to dive off of the North end of the Island in another attempt to find the remains or evidence of Grenville’s men. They were counting on these men to help with the affairs of the new colony, but when all of their efforts turned up nothing, they gave up without hope of ever seeing Grenville’s men living.[1]
On July 30, 1587, White and his men traveled to the neighboring Island of Croatoan in an effort to determine the disposition of the people of that Island and to see if they could find an ally in them. At first, it seemed as though being allies was not an option, but as they began to converse and negotiate fine details of the history of relations between the two Islands, it became apparent that they would be able to trust and rely on one another.[1]
On August 18, White’s daughter Eleanor gave birth to the first English child born in the Americas, Virginia Dare. Before her birth, White re-established relations with the neighboring Croatans and tried to re-establish relations with the tribes that Ralph Lane had attacked a year previously. The aggrieved tribes refused to meet the new colonists. Shortly thereafter, a colonist named George Howe was killed by natives while searching for crabs alone in Albemarle Sound. Knowing what had happened during Ralph Lane’s tenure in
the area and fearing for their lives, the colonists persuaded Governor White to return to England to explain the colony’s situation and ask for help. There were approximately 115 colonists—the 114 remaining men and women who had made the trans-Atlantic passage and the newborn baby, Virginia Dare—when White returned to England.

Because of the continuing war with Spain (Anglo-Spanish War), White was not able to mount another resupply attempt for three more years. He finally gained passage on a privateering expedition that agreed to stop off at Roanoke on the way back from the Caribbean. White landed on August 18, 1590, on his granddaughter’s third birthday, but found the settlement deserted. His men could not find any trace of the 90 men, 17 women, and 11 children, nor was there any sign of a struggle or battle. The only clue was the word “Croatoan” carved into a post of the fort and “Cro” carved into a nearby tree. All the houses and fortifications had been dismantled, which meant their departure had not been hurried. Before he had left the colony, White had instructed them that if anything happened to them, they should carve a Maltese cross on a tree nearby, indicating that their disappearance had been forced. As there was no cross, White took this to mean they had moved to Croatoan Island, but he was unable to conduct a search. A massive storm was brewing and his men refused to go any further. The next day, they left.

The end of the 1587 colony is unrecorded (leading to it being referred to as the “Lost Colony”), and there are multiple hypotheses as to the fate of the colonists. The principal hypothesis is that they dispersed and were absorbed by either the local Croatan or Hatteras Native Americans, or another Algonquian people; it has yet to be established if they did assimilate with one or other of the native populations.”

Ye Old Pioneer Theater.

We stayed in the town of Manteo, named after early settler’s Croatoan guide. The town is in Dare County, NC, named after the first born British child in the colonies. The town was quiet as most things open up in the summer for the tourist season. The people of Manteo are a pleasant and friendly. Kris and I chatted for a good hour or so with one of the workers at Ye Old Pioneer Theater, an independently owned movie theater that has been in business since 1918. The marina we stayed at was right across the water from the replica of the Elizabeth II, the ship the colonists brought over to the new world. One thing is for certain, Manteo is filled to the brim with history.

The Outer Banks are famous for long beaches, sandy dunes, and…wind. On a nice breezy day you can see kites of all colors and shapes flying up and down the beaches. The ocean is dotted with windsurfers and kite boarders, kits and sails zipping through the air. In this wind swept place, on the desolate dunes, the Wright brothers became the first men to fly on their own power. Here the breath of the skies plays constantly over the ever shifting landscape.

Kris is airborne!

Our first wind adventure brought us to Jockey’s Ridge, the largest dunes on the Banks. It’s here that Kitty Hawk Kites gives hang gliding lessons. Kris took to the skies here a few years ago. Today, however, the gliders were furled and put away, as the winds were gusting up to 45mph. That couldn’t stop Kris from flying his power kite! With the sand stinging our skin, the power kite took to the sky. Kris made several jumps and drags. The kite lifted him up into the air about 9ft at one point. After 20 minutes of flying, Kris put the kite away, his body sore and a smile on was his face. Now that was some crazy flying!

A replica of the Wright brothers\’ first flier.

We headed north to the Wright Brothers Memorial. Here we saw replicas of the brothers’ 1903 glider and 1904 flier. The flier was the first power driven airplane that was successfully flown by man, if only for 12 seconds. We saw the dunes were they flew, now a great grass covered field. The winds were ripping across the land. It was easy to see why the Wright Brothers chose this place to test their airplane, with the steady winds and the wide open spaces.

Kris and the power kite field.

Kris couldn’t get enough of the wind sports, and when he got a chance to take a kite boarding class, he had to take it up. The weather was glorious in the morning when we dropped him off at the Kitty Hawk Kite site, but by noon and wind had died down. Kris had learned everything about flying the kite in the water, but he hadn’t gotten a chance to actually get on the board. Sadly, the actual kite boarding will have to wait for another day. Still, it was an excellent way to round off our wind driven adventures.