By CATHERINE KOZAK, JEFF HAMPTON, KRISTIN DAVIS AND LAUREN KING By Catherine Kozak, Jeff Hampton, Kristin Davis and Lauren King The Virginian-Pilot Tropical Storm Hanna paid a quick visit to the Outer Banks and checked out before noon Saturday, leaving a stiff breeze and rough surf behind.

OCRACOKE, N.C. _ It was just a few miles off the No. 1 beach in America that the pirate Blackbeard sailed his Adventure into battle against Lt. Robert Maynard's British Navy sloop Ranger in 1718.

By Hendricks, Melissa Like the contents of an hourglass, every grain of sand on our national seashores is easily manipulated by outside forces.

n British Cemetery. The cemetery is home to the graves of four British crewmen, two known and two unknown, from the HMS Bedfordshire. The converted 162-foot trawler was torpedoed off the Carolina coast by U-558, a German submarine, in May 1942, during World War II. N.C. 12 in Ocracoke. Free.

n British Cemetery. The cemetery is home to the graves of four British crewmen, two known and two unknown, from the HMS Bedfordshire. The converted 162-foot trawler was torpedoed off the Carolina coast by U-558, a German submarine, in May 1942, during World War II. N.C. 12 in Ocracoke. Free.