Focus North Carolina » Main spots

Spot check ... Still the Graveyard of the Atlantic or a promised land of empty barrels?© 2009 - Kenny Onufrock/Transworldsurf

The outer islands of North Carolina’s coast descend south from the Virginia border to Cedar Island. Isolated and vulnerable, the slender, skeletal string of islands juts into the Atlantic at Cape Hatteras, where the powerful, cold waters of the Labrador Current and the warm trough of the Gulf Stream converge.

Known previously as “The Graveyard of the Atlantic” a moniker earned from pirates — most reputably Blackbeard — who used the shallow sandbars and intricate inlets to prey on unsuspecting vessels. Many seasons and storms have passed since Blackbeard fought his last battle at Ocracoke Inlet, but the Outer Banks’ history still stirs through the sea oats in the salty breeze.

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