Third place winner in the 2024-2025 NCPA Editorial Contest in the Online Division for General News Reporting.
By Connie Leinbach
Ocracoke sometimes brings people together in serendipitous ways, and Chris and Brynley Farr discovered that when they competed with Chris’s sailing muse in the holiday boat parade.
Six boats all decked out with holiday lights the evening of Nov. 29 circled Silver Lake harbor amid the cheers of onlookers scattered among the docks.
There were more boats than the event has typically seen in the last few years, probably because this year the Ocracoke Seafood Company organized it and offered cash prizes — $500, $200 and $100 – judged by off-islanders selected from the spectators.
The Farr’s catboat “Tiggy” won first prize, said Sara Teaster, who organized the Oyster Roast at Ocracoke Seafood Company earlier in the day and the boat parade.
One of the six boats belonged to Steve Earley of Chesapeake, Virginia, writer of the blog “The Log of Spartina.”
The blog catalogs Earley’s adventures sailing the East Coast in his open sailboat, “a gaffed rigged yawl designed for camp/cruising.”
Farr said that about 10 years ago he happened upon Earley’s seafaring blog and got inspired to do something similar.
“He was writing about traveling the North Carolina coast and camping (in a tent) on his boat and I thought, ‘That’s the craziest thing.’ We were into boats, but I don’t want to spend the night on one.”
Earley wrote about Ocracoke, “and we didn’t know the place existed,” Farr said.
In researching what kind of sailboat to get, Farr discovered the catboat, which is an American design, and which has one mast in the front of the boat.
At 19 feet and with a cabin, it’s perfect for his needs and is easy to trailer.
To have its own vacation away from their Lake Murray, South Carolina, home, the family has been coming to Ocracoke for Thanksgiving week for the last five years and entered the parade each year.
They rent a house on Howard Street, but one or two nights during the week, Farr and his three boys, W.H., 10, Jack, 8 and Christopher, 5, indeed spend the night on the boat.
While also an avid sailor, Brynley stayed home with their toddler daughter, Maple, when the guys stayed on the “Tiggy,” but the whole family participated in the boat parade.
The family likes sailing the Outer Banks and Down East NC for the large sounds, which offer faster sailing than the narrow, current-swept rivers of coastal South Carolina, Farr said.
A few years ago, Farr introduced himself to Earley via email and the two developed a friendship.
“Steve texted me about two weeks ago that he’d be in Ocracoke for the boat parade,” Chris said, and the families visited on Thanksgiving.
Earley, who responded for this story via email, said he has spent up to five weeks sailing on his open sailboat – in the Chesapeake Bay, the sounds of North Carolina, Maine coast, and from Charleston, South Carolina to Florida via the ICW in the winter.
When his daughters were young, his family had summer vacations on Ocracoke for 14 years.
“I’ve sailed into Ocracoke many times over the years,” he said. “It is a favorite destination.”
“It’s really special that Steve’s blog was how our family first discovered Ocracoke and then all these years later to have his family and ours both here for the holiday parade,” Farr said about Earley.
Earley was touched by the audience for the boat parade.
“We had people clapping and cheering us on even before we left the dock,” he said. “The people along shore were so into it, waving and shouting ‘Merry Christmas!’ It was a fun celebration, and we were so happy to be part of it.”
The second-place winner was Virginia Gallagher and Derek McEntee’s “Marshmellow,” and third place was Farris O’Neal’s boat “Cap’n B.”
Farr said the first prize was overwhelming and that he donated it back to the fish house.
“For them to continue what they’re doing, for the oyster roast and the hospitality,” he said.
Other entries were the Rucker family, with their skiff “Knot my Problem,” decorated in vintage Christmas statues including Frosty and Santa.
“Journey” by the Gyger-Galarza family, sailed out with a 47-foot tall, lighted Christmas version of the Ocracoke lighthouse that spanned the entire height of their mast.
Teaster was happy for the turnout at both events.
“It takes so much time, effort and expense to create this holiday tradition for the enjoyment of all,” she said, “and enjoy it we all did.”
