Blessing of the Fleet honors local Outer Banks watermen… WITH SLIDESHOW

Photos by Don Bowers

Despite the cancellation of this year’s annual Day at the Docks due to Hurricane Lee, Hatteras village carried on one of its most treasured traditions from the festival by holding the annual Blessing of the Fleet on Saturday evening, September 30.

Though the rainy weather resulted in lower-than-normal attendance, boats of various sizes and purposes nevertheless lined up at Hatteras Harbor to participate in the parade of boats, and the ensuing Blessing which honors fallen watermen and bestows well-wishes on those who work on the water

The first Blessing of the Fleet was held on September 18, 2004. Orchestrated a year after Hurricane Isabel devastated Hatteras, cutting a new inlet that separated the village from the rest of the island, the original event was held as a celebration of the spirit of the villagers, and their efforts to recover after the historic storm.

This first event was so well received that the celebration was expanded the following year to include the Day at the Docks festival – an event that has become a September tradition for Hatteras village in the years that followed.

This year’s parade of boats was once again led by Ernie Foster, and the participating vessels included representatives from the U.S. Coast Guard as well as the North Carolina Department of Transportation’s Ocracoke Express passenger ferry. For the first time ever, a bagpiper was also present at the event, adding a solemn but inspiring tone to the proceedings.

After laying a wreath into the open waters per tradition, the fleet returned to the Hatteras waterfront where Pastor Toni Wood of the United Methodist churches in Buxton, Frisco, and Hatteras, paid tribute to the local watermen who work on the water every day.

The Blessing included the reading of the names of the Outer Banks’ working watermen who had passed away over the past year, and who were honored during this year’s event. These friends and loved ones included: Paul Dunn, Buddy Burrus, Murray Bridges, Charles Daniels, William “Punk” Daniels, Capt. Billy Baum, Oley Hooper, Waylon Jenette, Belton Gray, Robert O’Neal, Jimmy Ruhle, and two women who worked tirelessly in the never-ending struggle to save local commercial fishing communities, Susan West and Kathy Ruhle

Despite the cancellation of Day at the Docks, the dedicated turnout for the Blessing of the Fleet demonstrated that the spirit of the festival remains strong, as a tribute to local watermen and Hatteras Village’s inherent life on the water.