Following Ida, or is it following me?

I know it has been a while since I posted but I just got busy and shortly I will backtrack and post some thing from the past couple of months but this is about right now.  On the 1st of November, my friend Jeff Oden and I went to visit a friend who just finished building a beautiful new home aptly named Ventana a las Olas in Rancho Santana, Nicaragua.  Hoping to get some good waves and a last shot of warm water before the winter. Nicaragua is known for consistent offshores all day long. October is rainy season and almost always ends at the 1st of Nov. This year they have not had one so we were hoping for even better than normal conditions. The other phenomena that will bring the onshores is a a tropical disturbance in the Caribbean. Well, 2 days after arriving Ida formed, bringing with it rain and onshores. We still surfed daily, had fun, and enjoyed good times with old friends but didn’t quite get the waves we had hoped for thanks to Ida.  She finally pulled out of the Caribbean and headed up to the Gulf our last couple of days and we finally got the offshores back with a nice head high to overhead swell. Now it should be noted that I was traveling with Jeff Oden who owns the Sea Gull Motel in Hatteras village, the same one that was wrecked by another storm with the name of Isabel. Even he will tell you to stay away from women who’s name begins with the letter I.  Leaving Nicaragua and flying to Raleigh we flew right back into the remnants of Ida as she worked her way up the Eastern seaboard. Just like the abnormalities in Nicaragua they continued for us at home.  Usually, Hatteras is hit with the worst winds and rain and as we drove past Rocky Mount heading east the wind and rain increased. Driving past at least 10 car accidents in 30 miles it wasn’t looking good for us as we just knew it would be worse on the coast, confirming that as we drove past the flooded farms around Columbia. As we crossed the Alligator river bridge we were surprised to see it only blowing about 15-25 out of the NE. As we crossed the bridge to Manteo it was only blowing about 10-15 and by the time we crossed Oregon Inlet it was barely blowing. There was plenty of swell in the ocean and as we drove by the S-curves the dune was down but very little water on the road at low tide. We were fortunate to get thru as later that afternoon the road was washed over and out. While the ocean was about as big, rough and mixed up as could be the weather on Hatteras Island was 70 degrees, light wind and sunny, while Virginia Beach, Nags Head and Wilmington were getting pounded with rain and wind it was as nice as could be here. On Friday the 13th we woke up to the same but that would soon change, about 9 am the winds came out of the north along with the clouds and even more swell driving up the sound tides to combine with even stronger Ocean swells at the high tide that afternoon. On Thursday the swell was really confused coming from all directions but on Friday it became more northerly with a wrap around swell on the south side that was as usual mostly closing out with the odd one here and there. Stayed pretty stormy here all day on Saturday but I heard Joey and Brett made it out late this evening at the lighthouse. It doesn’t look good for the road in Rodanthe as it has sustained extensive damage. I only have a small camera but here is a short vid I took of the surf on Friday evening. Posted on You Tube Enjoy the gallery and check out the pics on Island Free Press.  Don Bowers slide show and Daniel Pullen slide show