Graveyard of the Atlantic

The Famous Cape Hatteras is living up to its reputation. The surf has been wild. It is so high and there are warnings about strong rip tides. We used to call that the undertoe. No one is in the water not even the surfers. The Weather Channel was on the beach filming and reporting yesterday at near high tide. I am not sure that this picture tells the whole story. The waves were shaking the pier and were almost up the the pier which is 10-12 feet off the surface.
Meanwhile everybody loves a lighthouse and this one is so famous they call it "America's Lighthouse." The Cape Hatteras Light with its winding stripes. Every lighthouse has its own paint signature so sailors know which light it is during the day. In 1999 the lighthouse was moved about 1/2 mile back because the sea was coming close and would undermine the foundation. In the right hand picture you see the base of where the lighthouse stood and the distance it was moved. There is a movie about the move at the sight. I visited the Chicamacomico Lifesaving Station Museum. Chicamacomico is a Native American tribe. It means "shifting sands." The Outer Banks are called the "Graveyard of the Atlantic." There have been so many shipwrecks that a poster of the wrecks is full with only a third of the actual wrecks. There were lifesaving stations every 7 miles. The phrase, "The book says you gotta go out. It don't say you gotta come back" refers to the U.S. Lifesaving Service manual.