Posted on 12/30/2018

Outer Banks 2018 Year in Review

The year in review.
The year in review.

As 2018 comes to a close, it's time to look back over the year and some of the stories that we covered in our Joe Lamb Jr. & Associates blog. There were some tough choices that we had to make about which story to highlight for each month, but here it is—our 2018 recap.

sledding

January-Two Winter Snowstorms

Generally speaking the Outer Banks experiences one snowfall every winter. Two within two weeks of each other in the same month? Unheard of...until 2018.

February-Pea Island Bridge Named for Lifesaving Service Hero

Naming the bridge for Richard Etheridge is appropriate.

Etheridge was the captain of the Pea Island Lifesaving Station from the 1880s through the 1890s. 

The Pea Island Lifesaving Station was the only all African American crew in the Lifesaving Service and was consistently rated as one of the best on the Outer Banks.

March-Nor'Easters Create Perfect Winter Surf

Maybe it was the back to back nor'easters that created the perfect conditions for the waves that rolled in on Wednesday. Maybe it was the wind shifting just enough to the west to stack those massive waves, so they were no longer an unreadable swirl of currents.

Whatever it was, something happened yesterday to create an almost perfect winter surfing day. 

April-Record Breaking Bluefin Tuna

Caught on the last day of 2018 of the North Carolina bluefin tuna trophy season, there is a new state record for the largest of the tuna family.

Weighing in at 877 pounds the tuna was landed on March 17—that's St. Patrick 's Day. It does take a while for the weight to become official, but here it is a little less than one month later and there is a new record in the books.

May-Permit Needed for Carova Beach Parking

Heading to the Carova area of the Currituck Banks? If so, be sure to get a permit before parking on the beach.

Beginning this weekend—Memorial Day—a permit is required for anyone who is parking on the Carova beach. The very important word in that sentence is parking. In other words, if a family is planning on driving to the 4WD area, and stopping to go swimming or fishing, a permit will be needed. 

(The jury is still out on how successful Currituck County's permitting experiment has been.)

June-Fourth Outer Banks Microbrew Opens