Chandler Sawyer pointed the bow of his 21-foot Carolina skiff toward the distant silhouette of the Currituck Beach Lighthouse and headed across the sound.
The sun, still low on the horizon Tuesday, shimmered across the water. An osprey flew overhead.
A warm wind blew in the faces of Sawyer and passenger Sharon Meade as the boat bumped across the waves. No traffic. No construction delays. No traffic lights. Just open water.
What a way to commute to work.
"It's a magnificent sight in the morning," said Meade, curator for the Outer Banks Center for Wildlife Education in Corolla.
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Sawyer, an education specialist at the center, and Meade are carrying on a long Currituck tradition of crossing the sound to get to work. Sawyer leaves his skiff at a dock in Waterlily that once harbored many working boats. Now his is the only one.
Before N.C. 12 opened to Corolla in 1984, mail, supplies, construction materials, visiting duck hunters and their guides traveled to the Outer Banks by boat. Sawyer's grandfather, Travis Morris, sold Corolla real estate in 1970s by taking clients across the sound. With the paved road came easier access, and boat commutes dwindled.
But in the past 20 years, a development boom has filled Corolla with large rental homes, restaurants and shopping centers. N.C. 12 is still a two-lane road for much of the way but carries thousands of vehicles a day. Lines of traffic back up for miles at times during the summer months, doubling the trip from the mainland to two hours or more.
The four-mile boat trip takes only about 15 minutes. Sawyer and Meade drive in the winter when it gets dark early and traffic is light.
The pair typically start boating across in May and continue until late fall. The biggest hitch is when the weather turns bad.
In August, Meade and Sawyer got caught in a thunderstorm. The wind blew 30 mph, and lightning cracked around them.
"It's a lot of 'hold on and pray' in those circumstances," Sawyer said.
If fog shrouds the view, Sawyer uses his compass. The trip to Corolla has a bearing of 115 degrees, a little south of due east. The trip back is 295 degrees. If the motor breaks down, Sawyer can use a cell phone to call for help, which could mean his grandfather. Sawyer hasn't had to call yet, he said.
A rain storm quickly blew in late last summer, this time without lightning, catching Sawyer and Meade on the water.
"Man, there were some big ol' rollers," Meade said. "We were laughing. We don't care - we'll be there in 15 minutes. One hour and 15 minutes dry or 15 minutes wet, 15 minutes wins every time."
Reach Jeff Hampton at (252) 338-0159 or jeff.hampton@pilotonline.com.
MANTEO - Michael Berry played in the sturdy little cookhouse when he was a boy.
It was in Rodanthe then, where the owner used it for storage. Berry knew it only as a place to play, a faded old building whose walls he once helped paint. Now he knows more.
He knows it was built in 1930, that it once sat perched on the beach six miles south of Oregon Inlet and that it was part of the Pea Island Life-Saving Station, the only one in the nation with an all-black crew.
His grandfather, M.M. Berry, served as a captain.
The family connection has made Michael Berry's work in the past week doubly meaningful. After leaving his National Park Service job in mid-afternoon, Berry would head to the cookhouse to hang pine paneling, put in new wood floors, clean up old trim and put it back in place. It will open at its new home in Manteo on Monday as the Pea Island African American Heritage Center Museum at Collins Park.
A year and a half ago, the cookhouse was worn down, overgrown and full of old papers and little creatures. But a couple of people had a plan to move it from Rodanthe to Manteo, restore it and open it as a museum.
Eugene Austin, whose grandfather and great-grandfather served at the Pea Island station, along with Carole Scott of the East Carolina Pathway to Freedom Coalition, and Dellerva Collins, a Manteo town commissioner who died in November 2005, were behind those efforts.
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The Town of Manteo paid for the cookhouse's exterior facelift. With donations, community volunteers like Berry, Austin and at least a dozen others have done the rest.
"We're trying," Berry said Wednesday evening, pausing from his work for a moment. "It's come a long way. It really has."
The flooring had arrived but hadn't gone in; Austin and Alton Hardy of Manteo worked on the trim on the other side of the 483-square-foot building. They were determined to get the work done by the end of the week so the museum would be ready for the pictures, paintings and artifacts on loan from the National Park Service.
There's an old telephone, its workings inside a wooden box with two bells; a rusted compass with an attached kerosene lamp used on the beaches; a telescope that still shines; a faded breeches buoy; a worn canvas stretcher; flares and a little brass flask that held gunpowder; a megaphone; and signal lanterns.
The 60 men who made up the Pea Island crew from 1880 to 1947 saved at least 200 lives, Scott said, plucking men, women and children from stormy seas and sound. They were strong and dedicated and respected, living a remote and perhaps lonesome life.
You can't really put their contributions into numbers, Scott added, not if you think about all those who were born and touched because of the lives they saved.
"These men did the job and they did it extra well," she said, "and they did it without recognition."
Reach Kristin Davis at (252) 441-1623 or kristin.davis@pilotonline.com.
Science students at Manteo Middle School helped turn two rather unattractive detention ponds into rain gardens last fall. They planted flowers and bushes and trees with names like aster, silky dogwood, red chokeberry and seashore mallow. They sowed grass and laid rock.
They learned that rain gardens are a pretty way to capture storm water before it runs into yards and roads, collecting pollutants and ending up in the waters in which they swim and surf and play.
Jan DeBlieu of the North Carolina Coastal Federation got the grant for the project and oversaw it. She wants to take on more ventures like that, o nes that educate and help the environment.
But it's tough, DeBlieu said. The federation hired her as a sort of coastal watchdog to the area in 2003. She's a staff of one, working out of her home office in Manteo. Her coverage area stretches from the Virginia state line south to Ocracoke - a vast, fast-growing area with complex environmental issues, she said.
By January, the number of coastal federation staff members on the Outer Banks is expected to grow by two and a half. The 8,500-member nonprofit publicly kicked off a $3 million fund raising campaign last week that would add a full-time habitat restoration specialist, a full-time public educator and a part-time administrator on the Outer Banks.
The campaign has collected half of its goal from foundations and is now targeting individual donors, said Olivia Holding, the Coastal Federation's treasurer.
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"It's the largest non profit in the state working on coastal issues," said Ginger Webster, who lives in Dare County and serves on the campaign's steering committee. "But that's misleading to this area. It's underrepresented."
The Coastal Federation has a three-pronged mission: advocacy, environmental education and restoration.
"Filling all three of those roles is wearing me out," DeBlieu said. "I work way more hours than I should, and I feel like I'm doing only half of what I should."
Wetlands are being destroyed and development has injured the coast's delicate ecosystem, she said.
With more staff, DeBlieu wants to replant wetlands, close up storm-water ditches that send polluted water into sounds, and work with developers on environmentally friendly ways to build.
She especially wants to involve more schoolchildren in coastal projects. They can help with wetlands restorations and the building of living shorelines, which protect against erosion without damaging wildlife, DeBlieu said. "I want to make them more aware of the coastal environment."
At Manteo Middle, rain gardens act as a permanent outdoor classroom, said Kathy Mitchell, the horticulturist at the North Carolina Aquarium on Roanoke Island who designed them.
Some 600 native plants went into the gardens, one of which sits near the school's entrance and one of which is near the visitors' parking lot. Students help with the upkeep, and classes will continue to study what's in the gardens and what function they serve.
"Teachers are still telling us their students feel a connection to those plants," Mitchell said.
Reach Kristin Davis at (252) 441-1623 or kristin.davis@pilotonline.com.
'The Lost Colony' on Roanoke Island enters its 70th season
Performers practice during a rehearsal for 'The Lost Colony,' which opens for the season Friday at Waterside Theatre on Roanoke Island. CHRIS CURRY/THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Back when the oldest outdoor symphonic drama in the nation was in its infancy, costumes were made from bed spreads and it was cast with inexperienced local performers.
Seventy years later, "The Lost Colony" is bedecked by an award-winning Broadway costume designer and is directed by an acclaimed British theater veteran. Actor Andy Griffith long ago cut his teeth on it, and stage great Lynn Redgrave recently dazzled audiences in a guest appearance.
Still, the story of the ill-fated 1587 settlement on Roanoke Island, the first attempt by the English to colonize the New World, is true to playwright Paul Green's original script. And the play has not strayed from its roots in the island community.
Opening night is Friday. Although most of the cast is new, the artistic staff is returning members of the production, including some hometown veterans.
" 'The Lost Colony' was here because of the community," said executive director and producer Carl Curnutte. "It's great to have the community still participate in the show."
Robert Midgette, for instance, recently retired as a coach and teacher at Manteo High School. The production's fight director, Midgette has been involved in the play for 36 years, 26 years of them in the role of Chief Manteo.
Then there's choreographer Barbara Dare Hartwig, a professional actress, singer and dancer. The daughter of Manteo's prolific Lost Colony performer Marjalene Thomas, Hartwig started her entertainment career at age 6 playing a child in the play.
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"It was great because my mom was in the show when I first started, " she said, "so it was kind of a family affair. And I was thrilled with my $6.50-a-week check."
As part of the 70th anniversary celebration, a reunion weekend is being held for alumni and their families on July 6 to 8. Even British Prime Minister Tony Blair sent a letter of congratulations to the play's producer, the Roanoke Island Historical Association, for the show's impressively long run.
Broadway actress and television soap star Eileen Fulton, also an alumna, will make several guest appearances this season in the role of Queen Elizabeth I during the first week of July.
In British theater director Jane McCulloch's second season with "The Lost Colony," she said she sees being both English and a woman to be an asset in her interpretation of the story.
McCulloch, founder of the prestigious English Chamber Theatre, is the first woman to direct the show, and she brings her classical training to bear.
"This play has its roots in England, so that does help a little bit to be from England," she said. "I'm very pleased to be directing this play because it is about strong women: Elizabeth I and Eleanor Dare. So the play in a way revolves around these two very strong women."
Rather than the emphasis on the male swashbucklers that previous directors had favored, McCulloch said that she has the powerful women lead the story, while retaining all the spectacle of the production.
But she said that everything she directs on stage comes from playwright Paul Green.
"I'm totally, totally faithful to his script," McCulloch said. "It's a truly amazing story."
The touches that she added last year will be a little better this season, McCulloch said. Quirks with scenery and sound have been ironed out. More grunts and moans will be heard during fight scenes, and the natural background noises from wind, birds and storms will be more apparent.
Some changes will be evident in the principal characters, the director said. For instance, Ananias Dare, Eleanor's husband and the father of Virginia, the first English baby born in the New World, had been "wimpy," McCulloch said. "This year he's going to be puffed-up and pompous."
The heroic John Borden character will be "more of a thinker, more of a dreamer."
The villainous ship pilot Simon Fernando will be appropriately "swarthy and piratical." Dame Coleman will be "very fiery."
And the romance between Eleanor and John will reflect the couple's importance to the colony.
"I think it's a very powerful relationship," McCulloch said. "I don't want to make it soppy."
Curnutte said the show will have new fog machines. And the snow machines this year will work correctly, he promised.
"We've learned about wind direction," he said, explaining with a laugh that - somehow - that was not factored in last year. "It snowed beautifully back stage, but not onstage."
Despite the occasional production flub, audiences last year were larger - up
8 percent from 2005 - and there were only three rainouts, Curnutte said.
"We had very positive feedback," he said.
William Ivey Long, the play's production designer, has won four Tony Awards on Broadway and has just been nominated again for "Grey Gardens." It's the 11th time he's been nominated.
But after 37 summers with "The Lost Colony," - his first year was as a colonist boy at age 8 - he said he still gets inspiration from the dedication and talent put into the Roanoke Island production.
"It started here with who I knew here," he said about his career. "It's a fun thing we're doing right now, and live outdoor theater is really endangered.
"I love seeing this type of theater. I love working with the next generation of theater."
Reach Catherine Kozak at (252) 441-1711 or cate.kozak@pilotonline.com.
NAGS HEAD - Less than a month after Basnight's Lone Cedar Cafe burned down, rebuilding at the site has already begun.
By Thursday, a number of pilings had been sunk for the foundation. The lot has been cleared and graded, a building permit for the foundation has been issued, and the Nags Head Board of Commissioners has approved the site plan.
State Sen. Marc Basnight meant it when he said on the day of the May 1 fire that he intended to rebuild. As the longtime state Senate leader, the Manteo Democrat has a reputation as a man of action when it comes to politics. He apparently also is with his family business, which had just started its 12th season at the soundside location on the Nags Head-Manteo causeway.
Ronnie Ballance, Nags Head's chief building inspector, said demolition and foundation permits for the project were issued May 2. The demolition permit was closed May 18.
"Marc seems to be, like anybody who wants to get his business back up, in a hurry," Ballance said.
When a person is trying to start a construction project as quickly as possible, permits can be applied for and issued in increments, said the town's planning director, Tim Wilson. It's the same idea as design-build projects for road and bridge work.
With the foundation permit in hand, that work can be done while information is gathered for a permit for the next phase.
"At least that gets him working," Wilson said.
The next request he expects will be for a permit for construction of the shell - walls, floors and the roof. Requests for other permits - electrical, plumbing and mechanics - will likely follow in sequence.
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The new two-story restaurant will be about 15,000 square feet and seat about 300 patrons. The former restaurant was about 9,000 square feet and was only one story. The new building will still take up about the same space on the 1.73-acre lot.
"The footprint is almost identical with the previous restaurant," Wilson said. "In terms of the height of the building, it's not any issue with zoning."
Wilson said the new building will have the Nags Head architectural features, like dormers and porches, that zoning regulations now require.
"It's actually going to look a little nicer," he said.
Construction costs have been estimated at $1.2 million, Ballance said.
An investigation into the cause of the fast-moving blaze has not been completed, Town Manager Charles Cameron said Tuesday. Two calls seeking an update were not returned Thursday.
The State Bureau of Investigation was called by the Nags Head Police Department to help in the investigation. The federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is also assisting because it was a commercial establishment.
Cameron said it is "not unusual for a big fire" for investigators to take a number of weeks to determine the cause.
No one was injured, but the destruction of the eatery, which was run by Basnight's wife and daughter, put about 100 restaurant staff out of work. A fund raiser to help the employees is being held from 4 to 8 p.m. June 3 at Pirate's Cove. The minimum $25 donation per person will be placed in a fund managed by the Outer Banks Relief Foundation.
When the new restaurant is completed, it will have less wood inside - that is, flammable material - and will include a sprinkler system, Ballance said. The old building, he said, was not required to have one. Basnight made it clear that whether or not it would be required, and despite the $60,000 to $70,000 cost, he was installing a sprinkler system, Ballance said.
A sign on the Lone Cedar Cafe site says the restaurant will reopen in late summer.
"I think anything is possible," Ballance said.
Reach Catherine Kozak at (252) 441-1711 or cate.kozak@pilotonline.com.
By JEFF HAMPTON, The Virginian-Pilot 
