On Friday, April 14, 2006, 13 of us embarked out of Ocracoke to the town of Portsmouth at the tip of Northern Core Banks Island. Portsmouth was once the largest seaport in North Carolina but today is just a ghost town. The last permanent inhabitants left the island in 1971. Parts of the town have been reconstructed and are set up as a walking museum for visitors to peek into  the lives of these hardy people. We left just after 9:00 on a boat, captained by Rudy Austin. We got there at 9:30 and was given a map and a rendezvous time and location.

The plan was to view restored town then take the “short” walk to the beach for fishing and shelling.  We were met by  a volunteer caretaker, Peg, who pointed us to the attractions and explained the history of the island. The first building was the visitor center and it had displays of the people, history and how they made their living, as well the only flush toilets on the island. This fact was not lost on the group. As we started the self guiding tour, Peg volunteered to take our fishing equipment and food supplies to the Life Guard Station as that would be the last stop before we made our way to the beach.

The town was interesting, there was an old school house, dentist office, post office and general store and there was a church that is still used for weddings today. Peg explained that it was a great day to see the island because the mosquitoes were not bad yet. In the summer sometimes mosquito netting is needed to get through the tour.  The town was enjoyable and by the time we saw our final stop on the tour we had spent 30 minutes and had 4 hours left. And we made another discovery, over half of our food supplies were consumed by one member of our party, Chris, my son, the eating machine. Snacks for 13 were now to about 7 and most of those were brown cheese on cheese crackers. It is debatable if those are fit for human consumption. Desperation was starting to set in as we had allotted at least another hour in the place that had the flush toilet.

According to the instructions we had 1.5 mile walk to the beach then a mile walk to the pickup spot. The walk to the beach also had the only other toilets and these were of the compost variety.  It was through a wooded area that had a small cemetery of two Sea Captains. There was also evidence of large burrowing animals with the emphasis  on the word large. We later found out these were Russian Rats or Nutria and they normally grow to about 16-18 pounds but can get to 25 or more. Peg told the kids that they only come at night and she wishes they could see one.

From the life guard  station to the beach we had to carry our own equipment. Now we were equipped to do a variety of things and had supplies to survive the entire 5 hours without help from the Indians like those people of the Lost Colony. When we got to the toilets, my brother, Hugh, realized he didn’t have his bait bucket and gave his wife, Alice all of this fishing equipment and I do mean all. My brother brings all his fishing equipment with him. He has two tackle boxes that have over several pounds of sinkers, lures, tools and almost anything else you could need for fishing but hooks. Alice was now making her way to the beach with an estimated 200 pounds of fishing equipment (including his ice fishing gear). When we cleared the woods we came to the area called the flats. This was a large area that that had blowing sands coming off of the ocean whipping through it. It was very spectacular to see and in the distant you could make out small dunes. Kevin, my brother-in-law said he thought there was houses there. He was definitely seeing a mirage and I would have bet that he was the first casualty.  As we started to cross, the blowing wind and sand were almost completely against us this was making the walk considerably more difficult and instinctively everyone switched into survival mode as they made their way and if anyone couldn’t continue the Russian rats would be feeding well tonight.

One by one, we made it to the beach only to find the beach was 500 yards to the water. As everyone made there way across the sand it was littered with some of the most spectacular shells and sand dollars. It was a beachcomber’s dream. When we got to the water’s edge everyone collapsed and we started to count the missing.  The missing included the 4 of the 5 teenagers, Kevin, Shannon, Chris and Brendan. Brendan had made it almost to the end of the flats but went back to help his dad. Meghan had wisely choose to go into the survival mode and make the crossing of the flats with the most people as a  kind of defense against the Russian Rats. 

At around noon we spotted the a baby blue object in the distance and it was surrounded by the color green. As it got closer we realized it was Hugh, riding with the volunteer caretaker, Peg on her 4 wheel drive Gator machine. Hugh was holding his bait bucket and seemed to be enjoying the trip over the flats and across the beach immensely, thus infuriating Alice who had drug his Pacific Salmon fishing gear the entire way.

Still missing was Kevin, Shannon and Chris. Kevin and Shannon we were worried about but everyone was still mad at Chris for eating half of the supplies so we figured he would fit in very well with the rats. Soon after, we saw them crossing across the sand and heading toward us and the group was united.

Now by this time, we were not sure where we need to meet the boat and the map we were given was long lost. We thought we had to go north but not sure where. We debated whether to remain or try and find the rendezvous point. We were now rationing the Vanilla wafers (2 per person per hour) and getting desperate. Then Mary, my wife,  remembered the Lost Colony which was also dropped off by a boat and had to hold out until they returned. She remembered that they carved CROATAN in a tree and when the Captain, Sir Walter Raleigh returned he knew where to find them and they all were rescued. Meghan wrote CROATAN in the sand and we headed north.

We walked along the shoreline to the north and then headed west when the island stopped and we stopped when we got to the only likely place that boat could land. While not being sure this was the place there were signs that boats had landed before. Most noticeably was that there was another group waiting for the boat and they had been left off at the same place.

We proceeded to hunker down and wait for the rescue. We talked about what we would do when we got back. Flush the toilet, not walk for a week and clean the sand out of our ears were the most mentioned items. I tried to encourage everyone by reminding them we had the CROATAN in sand and we would be saved like the Lost Colony. Then Chris, remembered that the Lost Colony wasn’t saved by it, in fact they were lost that is why they got the name. No one knows what happened to them. They could have been killed by the Indians or captured by the Spanish, moved inland and got lost and died out or wiped out by a hurricane. My sentimental choice is that were eaten by the Russian rats, but that is the animal lover in me. Now we were approaching panic. Would we ever see the lily white porcelain  of a Kohler again?

Suddenly, a small boat appeared and headed toward us. The lifeless bodies that were strewn in the sand suddenly sprung up and ran toward the beach. We were saved and after short trip back to Ocracoke we all got to use flush toilets again. Definitely a trip I would do again.