- Hi, everyone.

Welcome to "North Carolina Weekend".

I'm Deborah Holt Noel, and this week we are on the island of Ocracoke for a true Outer Banks experience.

Recently I got to spend a couple of days on this historic and enchanting island and I want you to join me on my Ocracoke adventure.

[sea birds chirping] [ferry horn blares] Your trip to Ocracoke Island begins only one of two ways, either by private jet or by ferry.

Guess which one I chose?

[light music] Ocracoke is a barrier island surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean and Pamlico Sound and lies at the southern tip of North Carolina's Outer Banks.

So the adventure begins before you even arrive.

The Swan Quarter Ferry is one of three ferries to Ocracoke.

Explore the decks or unwind in the lounges for a relaxing two and a half hour journey.

[bright music] [waves susurrate] [sea birds squawking] Once on the island, capture the culture and cuisine of Ocracoke at Howard's Pub, a must see for visitors.

- Howard's Pub is an iconic destination in our little paradise, Ocracoke Island.

We've been here over 35 years.

We feature our homemade fries, burgers, great seafood, steamed shrimp.

We appeal to everybody, the locals, people that come to visit for the day.

Howard's Pub has license plates and memorabilia from all over the world.

Some people will come and sit out on the screen porch and bring their deck of cards and play while they're dining.

We've got the tower upstairs where you can come have a nice spot and see what's going on on the island.

- Next I headed to my weekend stay, a spacious vacation rental by Ocracoke Island Realty.

What I love most is that this unit is right on the water and it has this expansive deck where you can relax, unwind, and enjoy a breathtaking view of the Pamlico Sound.

Interestingly enough, it was on these Pamlico waters that the notorious pirate Edward Teach aka Blackbeard met his brutal end in 1718.

That year is memorialized in the name of Ocracoke's only local brewery.

- The idea is for it to be a fun environment and something that people can come and have a good time and make memories.

And we have a lounge area outside that overlooks the South Point.

We kind of go all over the map with making beers.

We decide to make beers based on a beer we like to drink.

Another one is a beer that inspired us.

We try to make a broad spectrum of beers.

- [Deborah] Of course, a flight is a great way to sample and choose a brew for you.

And to pair with your beer, you'll wanna try the menu of Plum Point Kitchen.

Chef Aaron Gallagher offers wood smoked meats and creations from Asian to Creole.

And you have got to try the pretzel with lump crab meat.

- A little bit of peppers and onions in that.

Bit of bay seasoning, a little bit of white pepper, spread that out over that pretzel, douse it heavily with cheddar cheese and Parmesan and it ended up being one of our number one sellers.

- To cap one of your nights in Ocracoke, you've gotta do a bonfire on the beach.

This is tradition.

[waves susurrating] One of the best ways to familiarize yourself with Ocracoke is just to drive around and explore.

So I'm picking up my friend Helena Stevens and we are going on a scud.

- Scud is just driving around a little aimlessly to see what's going on in the town.

It's something very popular around here and it's a term that Ocracokers use for driving around the town.

Being able to get up and be out in nature on a National Park, going out to the beach and putting your feet in the sand within five to 10 minutes of where you live on a daily basis, is pretty incredible.

Highway 12 is the main road through Ocracoke and you'll come into that road when you're getting off the Hatteras Ferry.

You're gonna find everything from hotels, shops, places to eat, little boutiques you can go into.

It's really fun to explore.

- [Deborah] When you're on the island, you'll hear folks refer to places on Back Road.

Well, it's a strip called Back Road and right along here you'll find everything from rentals and boutique shops to coffee, ice cream and fine dining.

One of the most iconic attractions on the island is the Ocracoke Lighthouse.

- The lighthouse here is really special.

It was built in 1823 and it makes it the oldest lighthouse in all of North Carolina, that is still operating today.

It does still come on every single night.

The light is maintained by the Coast Guard still as an active aid to navigation.

We can see that it's a solid white color, but that's the day mark of the lighthouse.

Every lighthouse is gonna be painted differently so that you can differentiate it between each lighthouse, so mariners can tell which lighthouse they're seeing during the day.

- [Deborah] There's some historic preservation happening around the cottage where the light keeper and family used to live, but the Ocracoke Lighthouse is still in operation.

Ranger Polk allowed me a rare peek inside, just enough room to fashion a ladder to the top.

87 steps to be exact.

Along Back Road, look for a gallery shop called the Village Craftsman.

In addition to unique handcrafted gifts, you'll find books including several authored by a longtime resident, historian and descendant of Ocracoke's first landowner.

Hello Philip.

- Hey!

Hey, Deborah.

- It's good to see you.

- My name is Philip Howard and I've lived permanently on Ocracoke for over 50 years, but my father was born and raised here.

My dad was born here in 1911.

My great-great-great-great-great-gr bought the island in 1759.

- [Deborah] Philip met me at the British Cemetery, an honored landmark just beyond Back Road.

- After Japan attacked Pearl Harbor in December of 1941, the German Kriegsmarine sent U-boats over to attack shipping, mostly commercial shipping, merchant ships along the East Coast and it took the United States quite a while to figure out how to respond to that.

But one of the things they did in the early months of 1942 was they enlisted the the British Navy to provide armed trawlers to come over here and help patrol the waters.

And one of those patrolers was the the Bedfordshire, and it was torpedoed in May, May 11th actually, of 1942.

37 members of that crew died and they're buried here at the British Cemetery.

- [Deborah] I'm curious, is there any African American or enslaved community history tied to Ocracoke?

- Yes, there is.

Before the Civil War, I'm not sure exactly how many enslaved people were on Ocracoke, but it varied and it was significant.

There were no plantations here, but they all worked on the water, either as stevedores or mullet fishermen or what have you, domestics and such as that.

But when the Civil War broke out, all the enslaved population of Ocracoke left the island.

People who are from Ocracoke are called O'cockers.

One of the names for Ocracoke in the long history of the island was O'Cock, and that's persisted and people are still called O'cockers.

So you pretty much have to be born and raised here to be called an O'cocker.

And every year there are fewer and fewer people who have that traditional, what is called the Hoi Toider accent.

You can find it around, - [Deborah] I asked Helena where I might find this accent called Brogue.

We soon found ourselves before Chester Leon, an Ocracoker with deep island roots.

- My family came here in the 1600s.

I'm one of the few, I'm not the only one.

There's several of us.

Two of my family members were part of Blackbeard's crew.

There's a few pieces from the lighthouse and there's a, probably the only private collection that belonged to Blackbeard or the crew is in this house.

There is four pewter plates that definitely belonged to Blackbeard.

They're identical as on the Queen Anne's Revenge and they've been looked at at least 10 times by Sidco, the team who pulled up Blackbeard's boat.

They have a certain group, they like to get me, to talk to me about Ocracoke history and then they'll talk to me about the Brogue.

And there's words that we use that some people are not used to.

- [Deborah] What words?

- Like mommuck, that means to get on somebody's nerve, to aggravate somebody.

Or like sit on on the pizer, or I might feel quamished, and some of those things people that are not familiar with, you know?

- [Deborah] I also explored the southern end of Ocracoke, which was once a fishing village.

I stopped by Ocracoke Seafood Company to learn more about this area.

- This is the fish house.

I love sorting fish, all the different kinds of fish.

They can find the best fresh, local fish caught this morning.

We clean it, we can vacuum seal it.

We also have shrimp, we have oysters, clams, all local Eastern North Carolina seafood.

- [Deborah] The fish house is not only a helpful resource if you're fishing on Ocracoke, it's also a fascinating spot to watch the fish processing and also check out the pelicans who boldly hang out for fish scraps.

But if you wanna see a show, make your way back up Highway 12 toward the ferry to Smacnally's Waterfront Grill around four o'clock when the charter boats come in.

- We caught blackfin tunas and wahoo.

- Love it.

Love it.

It's kinda like a show here on the dock.

- I just enjoy going every day.

I don't care what I'm catching, as long as we're going.

- [Deborah] I didn't do a fishing excursion this time, but that did not stop me from posing with the heroes and the big catch of the day.

On my visit, I definitely wanted to get out onto the water.

- I like to tell people that my boat is to modern sailboats that you see around here, sort of what a stagecoach is to a Toyota or a Buick.

It's a very old fashioned design, it's a schooner.

And our most popular trip is the sunset cruise that we do every evening.

Alright, this would be a good time.

Deborah, if you wanna steer- - Can I take... - [Captain Rob] If you wanna steer, come on back and take... - What do we call it on a ship?

- It's the helm.

- I'm gonna take the helm.

- Or you can call it the wheel.

We like to time it before sunset and we stay out until the sun actually goes down in the water.

We'll sail out into Pamlico Sound, down past the Ocracoke Lighthouse, I'll tell you about that, past Springer's Point and through a place called Teach's Hole, named for the pirate Edward Teach, better known as Blackbeard.

- [Deborah] Captain Rob is an authority on Blackbeard and will share as much or as little as you want.

Let you take the helm of the Windfall too.

And if the mood strikes, recite some pirate poetry.

Captain Rob, how long have you been doing this?

- All me bloody life, mate.

Me mother was a mermaid and me father was King Neptune.

And I was born on the crest of a wave and rocked in the cradle of the deep.

Seaweed and barnacles is my clothes and the hair on my head's hemp.

And every bone in me body's a spar.

And when I spit, I spits tar.

I is hard, I is, I am, I arr.

[Deborah laughing] - [Deborah] After a day of adventure, sit down dining is a welcome option, and the cuisine at the Flying Melon is exceptional.

- We like to have a nice, airy environment.

My mom helped design the restaurant.

She took a lot of inspiration from a light saving station.

That's why we have the tower here at the entrance.

We have a really diverse menu.

We have lots of local seafood, but we also do really good steaks.

And we have a lot of new American cuisines, some influence from New Orleans.

We're doing the Baked Oysters Bienville.

They're made with locally farmed oysters.

The company's called O'Cock Oyster Company, so we bake them with a topping of mushrooms, shallots, shrimp, brandy, cream.

When we move to entrees, we're gonna do our locally caught big eye tuna that's going to be served with a root vegetable medley and an avocado cream sauce.

The filet mignon is an eight ounce filet cooked to order with a brandy cream sauce and green peppercorns, very visually pleasing.

- [Deborah] While on Ocracoke, I was invited to an annual event that captures a tradition core to sustaining the people who inhabited this barrier island.

The Ocracoke Waterfowl Festival celebrates hunters who became craftsmen to take advantage of the bounty around them.

- We had to have a way to lure the ducks and fowl and geese and shorebirds in.

So they would make the blocks out of wood most of the time, hand chop 'em and put 'em out to lure the migrating birds.

The art of carving continues today through what you see here on in this show, making folk art and collectible decoys for the tourist trade and so forth.

So it still continues today, just in a different way.

- [Deborah] I could not spend a weekend in Ocracoke without slipping my toes in the sand.

Ray Stallings with Outer Bank Shuttle picked me up and drove me out South Point Road to a beach unlike any other.

No beach umbrellas, no boardwalks, no hotels, just pure sand, waves and the sound of the shore.

- Most 'em just appreciate the beauty of the place.

You know, because the Outer Banks is unique, I think, as far as the beach goes, compared to other places.

It's not developed.

And you got a lot of places like this, especially on Ocracoke.

There's no houses, no buildings, no structures, just all natural.

It's part of Cape Hatteras National Seashore and that's the way it should be.

- Vehicles driven on this beach must have a special permit.

With all permissions in place, the four-wheel drive is a fun way to explore the open shore and find the perfect spot for a highly popular Ocracoke pastime, shelling.

And take your time.

Ray is always close by, and there's no telling what you'll find.

[seabird squawking] Here, you'll sample the fresh local seafood you crave and discover the natural gifts of a designated national seashore.

But I think the essence of Ocracoke is kinship of community.

And I feel lucky to have experienced it.

[water lapping serenely] To plan your visit to the enchanting island of Ocracoke, go to visitocracokenc.com.