Our trek off the magenta line of the ICW, found us at the Cape Lookout Bight where we spent six nice nights at anchor. What a beautiful place!  More to see and do here than we could do in a weeks time.  Miles of secluded, pristine beaches, and lots of different wildlife … large sea turtles, river otters, dolphin, wild horses, and numerous shells.  Did not try our hand at fishing, but lots of fish to be seen.

 

Caleb found this little guy.  Can you see him?

The sea shells you find here are incredible. Depending on which island you are on, you find different shells. My first day stash …

 

These are called Lettered Olives, my favorite. 

 

Two beautiful large conch shells we found in knee deep water on the ocean side. Both in perfect condition. Only took pictures though and left them behind for someone else to find.

 

A large sand dollar!

 

Caleb liked finding shells too (ha ha).

The east shore of the bight anchorage is Shackleford Banks island. A dinghy ride over to Shackleford Banks is where you find all of the Lettered Olive shells. The conchs are mostly on the ocean and the inland beaches of the bight.

Shackleford Banks is also where the wild horse herd lives … Very cool.

 

Scary!  But harmless (so they say).  They are the size of a medium cantaloupe.

 

Bubba Gump 🙂

 

Some really low tides left the dinghy stranded one day.

 

Crazy wicked currents, mixed with opposing wind direction had our keel wrapped twice.  First was at 5:30 a.m. Which we were able to unwrap ourself after waiting for sunrise and slack tide. The second was a little more complicated later that day. Since we have a bulb keel, the anchor rode did a double wrap on the tail of the bulb. Due to the double wrap on the bulb, the use of the dinghy to spin the boat around in the current, failed. After numerous dive attempts by the captain, we called Tow Boat US (thankfully, our towing insurance covered the cost for their help).  Some keel damage that we can tell, but will have to wait for a haul out to know the full extent. Not a show stopper though. Time to buy a sentinel for the anchor!

 

Beautiful sunsets, wicked storms, some nice sunny days, some welcomed cloudy days, and a full moon rounded out the weather for the week.

 

Really hate to leave, but on to the next stop.  A day in Morehead City for laundry and reprovisioning, then back to the magenta line of the southern ICW.

Goodbye Cape Lookout.