Cape Lookout National Seashore is one of ten National Seashores in the US, and it’s legitimately one of the most beautiful places we’ve ever anchored. Being able to anchor in a place like this is one of the most special parts of the cruising life. We’re surrounded by beautiful sand dunes, the water is super clear, and we have good protection from pretty much every direction. We’ve seen an incredible number of loggerhead and green sea turtles, a couple dolphins, and a loon swam over and hung out with Windara. I also saw what I think might be a sooty shearwater, plus there are a lot of oystercatchers, terns and gulls.
We haven’t really had great weather – most days have been cloudy – although we did get more sun than the forecast called for. Unfortunately we also got more wind, which meant we didn’t really get to go ashore much. All the clouds and distant storms made for some gorgeous sunsets, though, and I broke out our conch horn to send off the sun. One of these days, I’ll get consistently good at it!
When the wind settled back a little, we headed in to check out the lighthouse before work and got absolutely drenched. The waves weren’t bad – only around a foot – but it was a short chop and with the current running out, there were some good rips going. But it was worth it. The Cape Lookout lighthouse is really pretty and has a nice keeper’s house and summer kitchen. From the lighthouse, we took the boardwalk over to the ocean beach. Heavy surf pounded the shore casting plumes of spray skyward, while shorebirds fed along the ocean’s edge and the lighthouse peeked out from behind the dunes. There were lots of interesting shell fragments, but I didn’t find too many whole shells (I suspect because that section of beach is easily accessible). It was magical to have that stunning shoreline and the lighthouse all to ourselves. I would have liked more time to walk farther down the beach, but it worked out perfectly – we were already headed back to Windara by the time the first tour boat of the day appeared.
The next afternoon, we were able to dinghy over to Shackleford Banks, and there were four horses grazing down by the beach. When I’d taken about a million photos, we headed across to the lighthouse and dinghied along the shore back to the boat. We saw some of the remains of the old fishing village and I wanted to go ashore and check out more, but there’s really no place to land a dinghy and you’re not able to tie up to the dock as it’s for NPS vessels only. Hopefully next time we visit, we’ll have more opportunity to explore ashore.
We had a couple neighbors throughout the week, but there’s plenty of room so that even when there were four boats in our area, it didn’t feel like we were on top of one another. The Coast Guard brought their cutter, Steelhead, in and tied up to their mooring for a day, and it was kind of disconcerting to have them right there. Don’t get me wrong – I very much appreciate the Coast Guard. But in the same way you get nervous when you see a cop car behind you even though you’ve done nothing wrong, the proximity of a Coast Guard boat always invokes that “please don’t decide to come inspect me” vibe.
This morning we got up and had a lazy morning enjoying our coffee and soaking in the sights one last time. We’d thought about going ashore but decided instead that we’d head out a little early and take our time sailing over to Beaufort. I’m looking forward to getting back into Beaufort, but I’m already looking forward to our next visit here.
