Valentines Day

The gale-force winds of yesterday died down overnight and the temperature soared into the lower 60s - the perfect day for a ferryboat ride to Shackleford Island, home of those wild horses by the same name.  They are the same wild mustangs that inhabit Corolla.  A local guide explains:
  
Like the Ocracoke "Banker" ponies, the Shackleford horses have often been referred to as ponies because of their size, but they are true horses. DNA studies prove they are descended from the Spanish mustangs brought to the Carolina coast by explorers beginning in the early 1500's. Turned loose from shipwrecks, or left behind when explorers had to flee failed attempts at colonization, they spread out all along the barrier island chain as they grew in numbers.


We departed from a calm and picturesque Beaufort Harbor on the Island Express.  Unlike the ferryman in Hermann Hesse's Siddhartha, our captain was an old salt who looked like he had maneuvered many boats and ships in his lifetime.

He pointed out the sights to see - the commercial fishing fleet with its shrimp trawlers, nets outstretched like wings - as we left Beaufort and arrived on the uninhabited Shackleford Island and its pristine beaches.  We walked and walked, all along the shore and then following paths across the sand dunes toward the interior of the island.

We saw plenty of horse dung, some of it very fresh, but no horses.  We thought our search would prove fruitless when we climbed over a dune and suddenly Martha spotted two, then three of these beautiful wild animals.

We had been cautioned not to come closer than fifty feet, but they seemed not at all startled by our presence, continuing to graze on the sparse grass unperturbed.

We wandered among them quietly, afraid to speak above a whisper.  We were told later that the total population was about 120 horses; this group consisted of about a dozen, a "harem" living separately from the main herd.

There were other sights to see along the shore.  This interesting piece of rusted iron looked like part of an anchor:

We also found plenty of shells, including this whelk, which was the envy of some of the other passengers on the ferry who had come only to shell and did not see the horses.

I learned that this was a knobbed whelk (Busycon carica) because it fits into the right hand.  The lightning whelk (Sinistrofulgur perversum), as its sinister and perverse name indicates, fits into the left hand.  Now I know.

We stopped to have a snack on the Beaufort waterfront when we returned, and as we were sitting gazing at the water we saw dolphins leaping from the water, lots of dolphins, and a lot closer than we had imagined they would come into this harbor.

What more could we see on this Valentine's Day?  Horses, whelks, and dolphins.  And on the way back to the car we came upon these beautiful narcissus blooming along the sidewalk.

And now we are treating ourselves to dinner - for the first time since we have been here! - at Amos Mosquitos - a delicious conclusion to a beautiful Valentines Day.