Ocracoke Trip - Portsmouth Island visit

So, we've been coming to Ocracoke for 30 years and we've never made the trek to Portsmouth Island.  It's a small island about 5 miles from Ocracoke that was abandoned over 40 years ago.  The island and "ghost town" is now part of the Cape Lookout National Seashore and is maintained by a group of volunteers.  The original structures are all still standing and in what appears to be good repair.

Now, I've read many accounts that say, DO NOT ATTEMPT TO VISIT IN THE SUMMERTIME!  The mosquitoes will eat you alive. 

Sure, I understood.  So I packed up the dinghy with 4 cans of Deet bug spray, long pants and long sleeves and a lunch bag for our trip.  Perfect calm day.  Approaching the island.

And Ocracoke in the distance.

We could see some of the abandoned buildings.

We tied up to this dock to go ashore.

Once we stepped off the dock, the mosquitoes found us.  We had sprayed all our clothes, necks, hands with Deep Woods Off....the bugs were not affected.  It got much worse as we walked.

The bugs would fly in your nose and mouth!

We decided that we could not stay!  Quickly ran back to the dinghy covered in mosquitoes!

We will come back some winter day for a visit!!

The sea state was even calmer when we got away - so we did stop for a bit of clamming in the shallow waters.

Back to the boat and happy to be bug-free!!