It is hard to believe that this is October 31.  This morning when I got up the temperature was 72F.  Last night after dinner we stopped by Dairy Queen to share a pumpkin Blizzard.

We sat outside, and I was very comfortable in shorts.  This is pretty good weather even if we have not seen much blue sky in the last few days.

This morning we are having a very high, high tide.  The water is up on my dock at least six inches more than normal.

The winds are so quiet this morning that I would love to go out for some fishing early, but alas I have duty at our Bluewater GMAC real estate office in Cape Carteret.

According to the forecasts we are headed for temperatures in the eighties. It should be a nice evening for trick or treating.

I might have to try to get out on the water after work this afternoon.  Tomorrow we loose an hour and it will be dark not long after 5 PM so we might as well enjoy the daylight while we can.

This is a first attempt at providing an early morning White Oak River report.

I have two reasons for doing this.  One is that a friend and I are thinking about going fishing this afternoon, and I want an early reading on the weather out on the river.

The second reason is that I would like to keep a record of what the river is like at different times of the year.  The mind plays funny tricks so a written record is always better.
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The fog and clouds did not last very long this morning.  The sun, blue skies, and puffy clouds came out in plenty of time for the morning.

There was a pretty good breeze so I used that as an excuse not to go fishing.  The reality was that I had promised my wife that I would finish cleaning our upper porch, some of the siding, and help with window cleaning.

That is actually what I did for most of the day.  It needed doing, and it was a nice warm day to do it. There is no doubt that the temperature got into the eighties.  The sun on our front porch even shot the thermometer up to 91F for a few minutes,

We ran out to do a little real estate work just after 5 PM and ended up down by Swansboro when I snapped the picture of the late evening White Oak River at about 6:30 PM.
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You cannot complain very much when you wake up on October 28, and the temperture is 72F.

It looks like the forecast has us getting to 81F this afternoon.  It is a little breezy out there, but the winds are probably not over 10-15 MPH.

There does appear to be some blue sky trying to fight its way through the clouds.  We got one quarter of inch of rain over night so the storm was not a soaking one for our eastern side of the White Oak River.

The weather for tomorrow will be considerably different.  Today's low temperature of 72F will be tomorrow high temperature.

Lows tomorrow night will be in the fifties before we warm up again for the weekend.

I will take this weather over the blizzard that is developing in the northern plains.  I see my friend John who lives in the Denver area will find a foot of snow greeting him this morning.

I hope the snow stays west of the Mississippi.

Last night we visited Las fincas, the Mexican restaurant that just opened on Highway 24 across from Sanders Ford.

We were dining with coupons,  and in order to take advantage of the coupon we both ended up eating fajitas.

I had a huge sizzling platter of fajitas, shrimp, chicken, and beef, to go along with their handmade flour tortillas.  My wife, Glenda, had just chicken fajitas which was also a very big serving.

They came with the traditional beans, rice, guacamole, and sour cream.  We also got to enjoy some chips and salsa before the meal.  They were good chips.

I was very impressed with the meal.  The restaurant is very well done inside, it is certainly the nicest restaurant on the inside in Swansboro.

There is no a lot of parking out front but apparently there is more in the rear.  I have talked to at least one other person who brought a family, and everyone enjoyed their food.
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The good news is that it is still Birkenstock and shorts weather.  The bad news is that the White Oak River is very foggy this morning.

The temperature is about 60F which is a little cooler than the river I would guess.  We are supposed to warm up this morning.  Tomorrow we should be near eighty degrees.

From looking at the weather radar, we are getting a better deal than Morehead City which appears to be getting some sprinkles.  The fog does not appear to be extensive so perhaps it will not last long.

I did see one optimistic fisherman put his boat in the water this morning.

I will be sustaining myself with memories of last Thursday when the skies were as blue as they get and the water was unbelievably calm.

Yesterday was a cloudy day with some wind which helps if you are running a kite festival.

From what we saw and heard, Saturday was a near perfect day for the festival with steady winds blowing in from the water.

Sunday was an acceptable day with winds that sometimes were good and other times not as much as they needed.  Still everyone seemed to be having a great time.

There was music, it was warm on the beach, and the setting by the pier at the Sheraton in Atlantic Beach was very scenic.  That is not a bad scenario for the last week of October.

I was very impressed by how serious some of the kite people were.  Yet they were also having a lot of fun.  Two young girls were walking down the beach, and one of the guys flying a stunt kite chased them down the beach with the kite.

They were screaming and giggling at the same time. Later I saw them flying kites.  They were probably planning their revenge.  I am sure my reaction to being chased by a kite might have been a little different.  read more »

I recently commented that the ocean waters off Emerald Isle on last Thursday were so smooth that you could have rowed a bathtub out into the ocean.

In case anyone has bathtubs on their lifts or trailers, please leave them there.  I think the quiet seas have deserted us for a while.  I snapped the wave picture in Deerhorn Dunes on Emerald Isle yesterday afternoon.

Even the White Oak River was showing some whitecaps yesterday morning.

After the brief shower we had yesterday afternoon we found some blue sky at the beach.

The wind was blowing the mist off of the waves onto to the beach when I took this telephoto shot of the beach and the pier.  read more »

It is 75F this morning as 9:00 AM approaches.  That is definitely a good start to the day. It is also fifteen degrees warmer than it was a year ago at the same time of day.

We are headed to 81F this after with a 70% chance of precipitation later today.  I am not sure that I would bet a lot on the weather after yesterday.

At around 11:00 AM I went out to get some ice from the ice machine on Highway 58.  Before I stopped for ice, I dropped by Coastal Marine to pick a replacement for the Gotcha that I had lost the previous day.  As I got out of the car I noticed some dark clouds building to the south and east of us.

After we got home, I checked the radar and sure enough there was a surprise, narrow band of precipitation headed right for Bogue Inlet and then the White Oak.

Brian, one of my fishing buddies, and I had planned to leave at 12:30 PM for two or three hours of chasing red drum.  My boat was ready to go. I had already put the GPS on it and put in the drainage plug.
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I promised myself an afternoon on the water, and it will be one that I will remember for a long time for a number of reasons.

First off the weather was about as perfect as it could get.  You could have sailed a bathtub out Bogue Inlet into the Atlantic yesterday.  The water was amazingly quiet as you can see from the picture of Emerald Isle  that was taken well off of Hammocks Beach.

The White Oak River was even smoother.  There was hardly a ripple as we approached Swansboro.  When we came home three hours later, it was the same.

More importantly it was just as quiet after we left the inlet for the ocean.  A good fishing buddy had told me to go out the Inlet and fish in the channel just where it was filling in with sand.
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Seeing puffy white clouds and temperatures in the fifties is a much more auspicious start to the day than we had earlier in the week.  With yesterday turning out to be nearly perfect in the afternoon, today October 22, might be a memorable day.

It will certainly be one where lots of people, including me, figure out how to dedicate part of their time to being on the water.  I am sure the beaches will also be filled with four wheel drive trucks.

With temperatures set to be in the upper seventies today and tomorrow, I cannot blame people for rearranging schedules to make sure that they take advantage of this weather.

Certainly the fish are biting well.  I have heard reports of people catching just about every kind of fish that we chase down here on the coast.  That means I am looking forward  to trying my luck on the water.

As far as I am concerned fishing defines this season for the Crystal Coast.  It is part of the area's heritage and one of the reasons that a lot of people live here.  read more »

This is going to be a nice day, unless you need to get across the Emerald Isle bridge quickly.  I was at the Cape Carteret park on Anita Forte this morning when I snapped this picture.

I am not sure how long the project on the bridge is scheduled to last, but the wait to cross did not seem too long.

The weather is definitely improving.  When we got up this morning, the temperature was at 45F.  Just before noon, it is already up to 66F.  We should have no trouble making it into the seventies this afternoon.

There are no clouds in the sky which is also a good sign for a warmer afternoon.  It is a bad time of the year to be stuck inside since the outside warms faster than the inside of a building.

I am stuck on real estate duty this morning, but in my excursion outside, I noticed how warm the sun felt.  It was a little different than my brisk walk to the mailbox this morning when I had short on and the temperature was in the mid-forties.

I could still see a few boats on the water by the bridge fishing for spots.  Maybe once we get a few warm days, the water temperature will stabilize.

It is nice to see things getting back to normal.  I am especially fond of that 79F temperature that I see on the Friday forecast.

We all come to the coast for warmth, and when you get an early cool spell, we typically think winter is right around the corner.

The Accuweather forecast for the next two weeks on the coast looks great.  After today which has a forecast for 65F, there are only two days below 70F.  One is for 69F and the other is for 66F.  That is the kind of weather that we can all enjoy.

Long range weather is an inexact science, but usually the trends are right.  A warmer trend is all that I need to put a smile on my face.

I noticed a lot of the places in the western part of the state got down to freezing or very close to it.  I would say that puts us on track for some very nice fall foliage in the next couple of weeks.

Spending a night in the mountains after enjoying the fall leaves is a good way to make fall feel warmer on the coast.

My experience is that after a trip to the mountains fall on the coast feels like a welcome blanket of warmth.
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However, we all know that it can happen.  I have even fished in weather this cold with rain in late October.  That is one of those memories that stay with you.

Given the alternatives for weather, the Crystal Coast is not doing too badly.  The mountains of North Carolina and Virginia are ten degrees cooler this morning with their temperatures in the mid-thirties.  The Virginia folks deserve special sympathy since Va. Tech was soundly beaten by Georgia Tech's triple option play last night.

Fortunately the boys in Boone at Appalachian State managed to rally yesterday and bring home a win so their cold weather will not seem so stinging.

What is amazing is how fast the weather has changed.  A week ago we were in a heat wave with the temperature approaching the upper eighties.  This weekend we are starting Sunday morning with temperatures about one half of what they were on Saturday afternoon a week ago.

I have not seen the drop in surf temperatures but I bet it is impressive.
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The 22nd annual Carolina Kite Fest will be presented by Kites Unlimited on Oct. 24 and 25 from 10-5 at the Sheraton at Atlantic Beach. Saturday at 8pm there will be night flying. For info call 252-247-7011 or email info@kitesunlimitednc.com. Kites Unlimited is located in Atlantic Station Shopping Center in Atlantic Beach.

There will be a Halloween Extravaganza at the Swansboro Rotary Civic Center on Sat., Oct. 24. From 9am to 4pm there will be a craft fair and BBQ plates for $7. There will be a children's Halloween Party from 1pm to 4pm for ages K-5th grade. There will be games, goody bags and a haunted house. The price is $5. Then at 7pm there will be an adult Halloween party with a costume contest and a DJ with a cash bar. Cost is $5. For more info, call 910-326-1174.

The 28th annual Havelock Chili Festival and Big Boy Toy Show cooks up food and fun beginning at 5pm Friday, and continuing from 9am to 5pm on Saturday at Walter B. Jones Park in Havelock. In addition to the red chili competition there will be competitions for chili verdi and chicken wings. Proceeds will revert back into the operations of the event along with supporting community projects. For info contact the Havelock Chamber of Commerce at 252-447-1101 or visit www.havelockchamber.org.

There is not much even the tourism board can do about today's weather.  We got about nine tenths of an inch of rain yesterday, and so far today, the sun is only a memory from Tuesday afternoon.

We even have some fog trying to roll into Bluewater Cove from the White Oak.  I have tried to console myself by looking at nearby temperatures.  Roanoke, VA is eighteen degrees colder than our 59 degrees Fahrenheit.

Going lots farther afield, temperatures are thirty one degrees warmer than Fredericton, New Brunswick where we have also lived.  At least we did not just get whacked with a storm like California which got some hurricane force winds and heavy rains which at least helped out with their drought.

I have not given up wearing shorts though I was a little cool a couple of times yesterday in that 15 mph NE wind and rain.  As long as we can be close to the sixties, I am going to keep the blue jeans in the closet.
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Yesterday was another one of those days that I wish we could duplicate.

First off I headed out to let a contractor in a home that I had recently sold in Silver Creek. Then I motored on up to River Oaks Plantation to put a lock box on a home that I had just listed. 

Why is it that when you vary from your routine something always happens?  I almost always test the lockboxes before I leave our office.  Late Monday the office was a zoo so I just grabbed one and left.  Of course that meant that I ended up with a dead lockbox in River Oaks.

I did manage to snap this picture of a fisherman and another of the subdivision's dock on the White Oak.

By the time I got  back to Cape Carteret for a new lockbox, I was late for our real estate caravan.  I caught up as it headed over to Land's End on Coast Guard Road on Emerald Isle.

Eventually we ended up down as far as the Eastern Regional Access which is where I snapped the picture of the fishermen on the beach.  read more »

I am not sure why it happens, but every fall  have a hard time making it to the Mullet Festival.  Last year we tried going early but there was no marking.

This year we went late and there was even less parking than last year.  However, that did not seem to hurt the crowds.  We got to the festival really late, and there were still plenty of people there.

Before festival time, we had lunch at church after the service. It was an enjoyable meal complete with collards, chicken pastry, and black eyed peas along with multiple chicken dishes.  It was a veritable feast.
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Yesterday was an extraordinary October day.  For one thing, the official temperature was in the mid eighties.  Our porch thermometer read in the nineties.  It was a summer day in Oct.  I will bet it was hot at the Mullet Festival.

When we crossed the bridge to Emerald Isle, there were probably forty to fifty boats fishing for spots in the Intracoastal.  It was an impressive site.  When we came back, the boats had all moved.

When we got to St. Francis by the Sea for lunch, there coolers upon coolers of lobsters.  I think they told me that they ordered 980 lobsters from Maine.  It was such a nice day, I heard someone say they could have sold 1,200.

We enjoyed our lobsters, and that will hold us until year.  We like to eat lobsters once in a while since I cooked lobsters for my wife on our first date.

It is amazing, that after 36 years of marriage, I still have to get the lobster meat out of the shell for her.  Well at least she did not steal a claw this year.

This morning instead of waking up to 77 degrees and blue skies, our temperature is at 64 degrees and we are overcast.
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Summer seems to have returned.  When I walked outside this morning and the temperature was 76F with a light breeze and a few puffy white clouds, that was an inescapable conclusion.

When I checked the morning's weather at Weather Underground, I see my friends in Montana are enjoying a balmy 15F while our Canadian friends in Edmonton, Alberta are enjoying 23F and snow.  The Montana folks do not need any more snow since they got two feet earlier in the week.

It sure feels good to be living in the part of the country still wearing shorts and sandals.  Certainly yesterday was an October day to remember.

I could have mowed my yard, but fortunately it is centipede and can be ignored occasionally. So instead of mowing, my fishing buddy Dean and I headed out from the dock at half past noon.  We managed to make it back in around quarter to six.  That is my kind of full schedule.
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I can tell already that this is going to be my kind of day.  The skies are blue with no clouds, the temperature is right at sixty degrees, and there is no wind.

On top of that high tide is at noon in Bogue Inlet. This sounds like a day made for being on the water.
 
We had a great afternoon out on the water yesterday.  From the pictures I took yesterday,  there was not much to complain about except a colorful poison ivy pine.  As a side note, if a tree in your neighborhood has a vine that turns red, it is likely either Virginia creeper or poison ivy. 
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I knew when I saw the river this morning on our walk, that it was going to be hard to resist.

When we got back to the house, I could see the moon still in the morning sky.  I knew that was a sign that I had to fish today.

We joined some friends for wings at Fairway for lunch.  After solving the world's problems we headed off for bait and for some shrimp and crab for tomorrow's dinner.

Jimmy at Clyde Phillips told me that I would have to pick my own crab if I wanted it before Friday at noon.  I decided to wait since I would rather be fishing than boiling crabs and picking them.

We grabbed a bag of ice on the way home, loaded the boat and were headed down the river by 2:35 PM.  When we bought our shrimp, we had noticed the crowd of boats in Swansboro harbor.
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This fine morning here near the beaches of Emerald Isle, the weather has changed once again for the better. The Crystal Coast is looking great for today and at least tomorrow.  Our 6:30 AM temperature was 52F with just a very light breeze at times.  There are no clouds in the sky.

That compares to yesterday when we saw winds in the 10-20 mph range.  We also got hot yesterday afternoon with the temperature reaching 85F which is not bad beach weather for October.

The beaches that I checked were almost deserted, but there were a few hopeful fishermen gathered around the Cameron-Langston Bridge to Emerald Isle. I know they were hoping for spots, but from the spread out formation of the boats, my guess is that they did not find a major school.
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