Posts Tagged ‘OBX’
Outer Banks Sold Homes Report for September 2009
September on the Outer Banks saw 95 residential homes sold. This was down 3 from the month of August. When compared to the month of August we saw less homes sold, but more pieces of land. The month of September ended up having 2 more sales that August due to the number of closings on vacant land.
While under 100 homes sold in September it does seem as if there are a number of people interested inpurchasing homes in the Outer Banks. Hopefully a strong October is to follow to keep the progress of the last 5 months going. It does seem as if home prices are starting to stabilize along the OBX.
Just spoke with a fellow agent who has a client that has a home that are looking to giveaway. The home does have to be moved off the property, but if you move it…its yours. For more information email Dawn – Dawn@seasiderealty.com
Free Outer Banks Home
OBX could become source of wind energy – WRAL.com
Buxton, N.C. — Gov. Beverly Perdue and other state leaders were on hand as researchers gave a presentation introducing an Outer Banks community to the idea of massive offshore wind farms.
Researchers from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill described a new study that found 2,800 square miles of coastal water, including the Pamlico Sound, could generate industrial-scale wind energy.
“I believe North Carolina has the capacity to position herself to be a leader in global energy,” Perdue said.
The public meeting in Buxton was packed, with islanders making up about half the crowd.
Researchers said that if all the usable waters are fully developed, offshore wind farms could supply 130 percent of all the power used by North Carolina in 2007. The industry could also create as many as 9,000 local jobs by 2030.
“This is among the best wind resources on the East Coast,” said Dr. Harvey Siem, a marine-sciences professor at UNC.
Siem said that a pilot site could be in the Pamlico Sound, about 10 miles west of Avon and northwest of Buxton.
Researchers also discussed the potential impacts of a wind farm on the coast’s economy, quality of life and environment.
Senate leader Marc Basnight, D-Dare County, said that he wouldn’t fight offshore wind farms, although he is sensitive to concerns that wind turbines could disrupt the tourism industry on which the region depends.
The wind turbines would be 300 to 500 feet tall and could be visible from the coast.
“Change does not come easy to me or to the people of this island,” Basnight said.
He wouldn’t want to turbines to break up views of the sun rising from the ocean, Basnight said, but global warming could inundate the region if alternative energy sources aren’t exploited.
Tourists at the meeting viewed wind energy favorably but said they had the least stake in the question.
“I think wind turbines are probably a great source of energy,” visitor Colin Christen said. “It’s up to the locals to decide that kind of thing.”
Wind generates about 1 percent of the country’s electricity but is the fastest-growing type of renewable power.
Along North Carolina’s coast, the Outer Banks Brewing Station uses wind to generate about 10 percent of its power. The National Park Service uses wind to power at the Coquina Beach Bathhouse and plans to do the same at Jockey’s Ridge State Park.
The UNC study, which was commissioned by the General Assembly, recommended that the state “aggressively pursue” offshore wind farms. Researchers said the state should study what upgrades to the electrical system might be needed, loosen regulations on development in state waters, create incentives for wind power and continue to study coastal winds.
Technology will also need to be improved to strengthen wind turbines against hurricanes. Turbines being built today are designed to withstand up to a Category 3 storm.
The Examiner took a look at a Labor Day forecast for the Outer Banks. Let’s hope they are correct.
OUTER BANKS (OBX)
Swimming like a fish in the largest fishbowl is not such a bad idea to enjoy your Labor Day weekend. It may be chilly but still to reach the 80′s over the weekend as the Outer Banks can bring a peaceful ending to a long summer breeze. Experience the clean air, the ocean wide and the gulls that fly pass squawking, not a bad way to end the summer.
Route 12 can be met may different directions, that is if you are coming from the Atlantic Ocean. There are only two ways to truly enter Route 12 of the Outer Banks, either take a ferry (1-800-byFerry) or drive from the north peak. This is one of the enjoyments of life that normally takes a couple of days, such as all three days of Labor Day weekend, Saturday, Sunday and Monday. The Outer Banks Labor Day traffic should not be a serious issue.
Great look at vacationing in the Outer Banks by the Examiner.com
BS News producer Jack Halsbond was behind the wheel of The Early Show’s Winnebago, traveling the country in July and August as part of the “Great American Vacation” giveaway road trip. Read his Web-exclusive road diary.
The “Great American Vacation” giveaway on the Outer Banks of North Carolina featured a lot of terrific people.
Mo and Beth Vandesteene, who manage the KOA Campground in Rodanthe, make sure that every detail is taken care of. We though that we were receiving special attention until the other campers quickly informed that that’s the way they treat all their guests.
At the KOA’s Cape Hatteras Campground, you will met some genuine folks such as Manny and Angela Negreiro who with their son and daughter, Nathan and Ariana, and German Shepard Zeus came up from Florida.
The Cyr Michaud and Wilson families’ traveled down from Ontario in French Canada and have been doing so for the past 20 years. Their children have literally grown up at Rodanthe. They were camped out in front of our Winnebago. There were lots of different people from diverse backgrounds with a common interest in living life to the fullest. On the Outer Banks, that’s the way it is.
On Manteo, another island on the Outer Banks, we visited the Roanoke Island Festival Park where we gave away another Caribbean Island dream vacation. Thanks to the efforts of many and with the considerable help of Carolyn McCormick, managing director of the Outer Banks Visitors Bureau and Scott Stroh III, Executive Director of Roanoke Island Festival Park we enjoyed another spectacular morning. As the threat of rain passed into brilliant sunshine, we were treated to the sights of the original inhabitants of the Outer Banks.
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I thought this was a great blog post from the Washington Post. Turns out the Outer Banks has its own version of the Loch Ness Monster: Tom Cruise. And because it is impossible for me to actually escape celebrity infiltration of my life, even while on vacation, I wasn’t surprised last week when my 17-year-old niece came back from a plane tour of North Carolina’s beaches with breathless tales of Tom Cruise owning the property JUST TWO HOUSES DOWN THE BEACH FROM OUR RENTAL! OMG! If you thought that was good, check out the rest of the post.
I just laughed when I saw this. It was good to see local agents get quoted in the post. It really is funny. You always get to hear people talk about what celebrities own homes in the OBX. Heard Morgan Freeman owns a home and well as Bill Cowher. It seems as if the local celebrity gossip will never die.
New director hired at Outer Banks Visitors Bureau
By Catherine Kozak
After a summer without a person heading Dare County’s major industry, the Outer Banks Visitors Bureau has hired a new managing director to be the face of tourism.
Lee Nettles will start work in September, according to a statement issued Thursday by the Visitors Bureau. He is coming to Dare County from the Wilmington/Cape Fear Coast Convention and Visitors Bureau.
“As we navigate this challenging economy, it is provident that we chose someone who comes from a coastal heritage with tourism experience,” Renee Cahoon, chairwoman of the Dare County Tourism Board, said in the statement.
There is an excellent article in National Geographic naming the Outer Banks as one of the ‘Drives of a Lifetime.’ As anyone who has made the drive from Corolla to Ocracoke can attest the Outer Banks is quite the picturesque driving trip. The author John Briley names some of the best known top spots to stop along your drive. He also gives a great recommendation that the best time to do it is often in the Fall. Nothing beats a good fall driving trip along Route – 12. By September the humidity is usually gone and it is possible to cruise with the windows down enjoying the warm salt air that permeates the Outer Banks.
Stand on the metal walkway that encircles the lantern room of the Cape Hatteras Light, some 165 feet above ground, and you’ll sense that this towering sentry, which has been saving lives since 1870, is still vital to today’s passing mariners. Looking east, you watch the relentless swells of the Atlantic Ocean paw away at the beach, continuously redrawing the contours of this coast. Panning south, you see Cape Hatteras National Seashore sweeping out toward Cape Hatteras Point, which knifes into the ocean like a giant arrowhead. Even on a calm day you can make out the froth of the treacherous waters just beyond Diamond Shoals, where the northern Labrador Current clashes theatrically with the Gulf Stream.
This lighthouse is among four that dot the main stretch of North Carolina’s Outer Banks. All were built during the 1800s and still cast their beacons today—guiding white-knuckled seafarers through famously ornery waters. Over the centuries, some 1,500 ships have perished here, earning the Outer Banks the moniker Graveyard of the Atlantic.
Nature still rules this tendril of barrier islands, despite the creep of development in some Outer Banks towns. Marsh grasses bend to light breezes in Pea Island Wildlife Refuge; just up the road, long-billed herons, ibises, oystercatchers, and plovers feed in the tea-colored waters of Pamlico Sound; and out in the Atlantic, surfers and sea kayakers frolic in the breakers.
Overview
This 114-mile drive cruises from Corolla to Ocracoke Village. Start at the northern end of Highway 12, literally where the pavement turns to sand at the Currituck Banks Estuarine Reserve. Follow it to Route 158, which is the bypass road for Highway 12 and travels through Kitty Hawk, Kill Devil Hills and Nags Head. Rejoin Highway 12 at Whalebone Junction (the entrance to Cape Hatteras National Seashore), and stay on it all the way to Ocracoke Village, including the car ferry from Hatteras Village to Ocracoke Island. The route, mostly two-lane, runs straight and flat, linking communities of weathered beach houses, offering ocean views amid the dunes, and serving up extended vistas of the sound.
Start at Currituck Beach Lighthouse, Corolla
The Currituck Beach Lighthouse (1101 Corolla Village Rd., Corolla; +1 252 453 4939; www.currituckbeachlight.com) is not the lonely northern outpost it once was: Beach houses have knuckled in around the 162-foot-high sentry. But the sense of history is still strong at the light itself and at the adjacent keeper’s house, which is now a museum shop. Climb the tower’s 214 steps to scan the Currituck Banks estuarine reserve for wild horses (you’ll need binoculars).
Wright Brothers National Memorial
Driving south, the first major stop is major indeed: the site where air travel was born. The Wright Brothers National Memorial (Hwy. 158, Kill Devil Hills; +1 252 441 7430; www.nps.gov/wrbr) encompasses more than 400 acres and marks the places where brothers Orville and Wilbur Wright made their first four powered flights. A full-size replica of their Flyer is on display in the visitors center. Another exhibit hall interprets the region’s history. Photos show Model Ts parked in sandy lots next to beachfront homes and women in dresses emptying fish nets. Also covered is aviation history, from gliders to the space shuttle.
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This release from the Outer Banks Visitors Bureau shows tourism in the Outer Banks up 1.9 percent for 2008 as compared to 2007. It will be interesting to compare the 2008 numbers with 2009. Below is part of the press release.
The Outer Banks Visitors Bureau reported that domestic visitors to and within Dare County spent an estimated $777.41 million dollars in 2008. This is an increase of 1.9 percent from 2007, according to county-by-county data released by the North Carolina Division of Tourism, Film and Sports Development.
“These figures reflect what we on the Outer Banks of North Carolina have always known, that tourism is our lifeblood,” said Renee Cahoon, Chairwoman of the Dare County Tourism Board. “The better we are at promoting tourism, the better our economic development will be.”
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That is the question that has crossed many people’s lips on the Outer Banks in the last couple days. A couple days of winds out of the west have left the ocean water of the beaches of the OBX in the low 60′s. As of this morning the Duck FRF, was showing temperatures of 61. The winds effect is known as upwelling. Upwelling occurs in the Outer Banks when the winds from the west blow the warm surface watere back and it is replaced by the colder water underneath. For a more complete explanation here is is explain by 2 scientist from NOAA.
Winds powerfully affect the oceans and are an important force in creating currents. From global circulation of entire oceans to microscopic patterns of turbulence, winds move water and its resident animals and plants in complex and interesting patterns.
When the wind blows parallel to the coastline, an intriguing and biologically important event occurs. Affected by the rotation of the earth, winds can move water at right angles to the direction the wind is blowing, a phenomenon known as the Coriolis effect. Along a coastline oriented North-South, like much of the west coast of the U.S., winds that blow from the north tend to drive ocean surface currents to the right of the wind direction, thus pushing surface waters offshore. As surface waters are pushed offshore, water is drawn from below to replace them. The upward movement of this deep, colder water is called upwelling.
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