Changing views

The tide has been unusually low recently. So low that, walking through Springer's Point, I saw a rocky area which is usually covered by water. Roy Parsons told me that it was "stone rock" (see my first blog, dated Nov. 15, 2006). The sunken boat just off the nearby point has also been much more visible. (This one is nothing exciting like a historic shipwreck; it is what's left of a boat which caught fire in Silver Lake - when there was concern that the flames might ignite other nearby vessels, the Coast Guard towed it out to the spot where it burned and sank.)

The times I've gone to the edge of Silver Lake to touch salt water, I've had to walk really far out before I even reached it. And when I walked on the beach recently, the color of the sand near the water line seemed different than usual. My guess is that particular area is usually under water, or at least moist, so seeing that sand drier than normal made it seem to be a different color. (Of course I'm no expert, and I frankly have no idea what caused the unique look...it could just as easily have been something to do with the quality of the light, or a trick of my own imagination with no foundation in reality!)

The last several days have been windy (classic March weather around here), so the water is beginning to rise as it gets blown from the sound toward the shore.

All of these differences reminded me of a question my friend Mike asked me shortly after I moved to Ocracoke. He wondered if going to the beach very often would get boring. I tried to explain that the beach is different every day - some days the ocean is wild, others it is calm; sometimes there is a lot of seaweed on the beach, other times there are bubbles skimming along the surface of the packed sand; every now and then something new washes ashore, or part of an old shipwreck is re-exposed; some animals are around every day (shore birds of one type or another are always present), others, such as dolphins, are seen less frequently (and whales even less often - I personally haven't seen any of those but have spoken with people who have). What a blessing it is to have the opportunity to observe the beach in all its many "moods"!