Summer Season 2016 – Outer Banks, NC

May 2016, the anticipation for summer on the banks was in full swing.

The feeling of coming home to the strip of land you grew up on is quite unexplainable.

Yes, change happens.  There are more rental homes, more stores, and more people.  However, you still see the same old faces day to day.   Lives are based around the weather.  Similar to Baja, if you slow down here, there is a magic in the air.  A coastal community loaded with history.

Tourists were already trickling in.  We started work at our jobs immediately, while also renovating our new living situation.  The four of us, leaving the boat behind, were moving into my parents’ basement!

In our area, most homes are weekly rentals especially during the busy season.  Room mates are hard to find and honestly undesirable.

The deal was, we renovate this neglected room for temporary boarding.

Our belongings unloaded from the boat were piled into the middle of the room.

Within 24 hours we had the awful pink walls puttied, sanded, and painted.

We set up a small “galley” for simple cooking purposes.

Known for our seafood, we were coming into softshell bluecrabs.  When they molt their shells to grow, they go through multiple stages.  Harvested alive when they are most delicate, these are a local delicacy!  Hard to compare the quality to anywhere else, because within 12 hours they begin to “paper”, no longer being a true softshell.

Jimmys

Soft Shells at work.  Corn meal crusted and seared, black bean corn salsa, remoulade, and saffron rice.

My favorite is just a plain old sandwich.  Crispy outside, tender juicy crabmeat inside.  Yes, you eat the legs and all.

One of the biggest issues living aboard is the accumulation of BOOKS.  You don’t realize how quickly and how many start to pile up.  This is great, until you see that your water line is a few inches lower and the interior is getting more humid.  Books weigh a lot and definitely absorb moisture.  Claire and I sorted through our onboard library and managed to slim it down.  I built this bookshelf to house the books that had left the boat.

So with everything unpacked and the room finally set up to live in, we were ready for Summer 2016.

Southern Peach Gazpacho with smoked Blue Crab.

One of my additions to the menu at work.

Duck Confit below.

Snake at the door and a lost possum.

Monica’s berry and fresh cream birthday cake!

Massive scallop.  Hard butter sear.

A special I ran with gremolata crusted fish.

Another special with sea island red peas, bibb lettuce, and scuppernong buerre blanc.

The peak season lasts from June through August, with traffic inching up and down our narrow coastline every day.  Weekends being “change over” days, those are the worst.

Baby Emerald staying cool in her shaded pool.  Of course we miss our Splendid Isolation, but it was great to be living with family and friends again.  Below, a bit of sand and salt water for a dear old friend who has left us.

Real Wasabi root.  A sensational taste if you have not already.

Unlike “wasabi” powder which is merely bland powdered horseradish, citric acid, corn flour, and artificial coloring.

Quality tuna like this is caught right offshore.  No neon pink tuna here, beware of that stuff.

Literally some of the best seafood on the east coast of North America swims through our waters.  Due to the fact that the Gulf Stream comes from below, the Labrador Current comes from above, and our inland waters are constantly flushing.

Staying busy, we cleared and leveled a new entrance to our driveway.

tiny baby snapping turtle

Claire’s Mexican Sunflowers grew over 7 feet tall!

Our friend Evan demonstrating the pre-work routine.

The Volvo commonly seen cruising the beach road, showering off real quick before work. If there is any bit of swell, we ended up surfing about 1 to 3 times a day.  Consistent surf here to say the least.

The Yin and Yang of youth in this photo.

Below, heavy fronts sweep off our shoaly shores giving us the name “Graveyard of the Atlantic”.