Whatever happened to... The couple with the pirate ship?

In the end, the pirates' life wasn't the ticket for Lori and David Braithwaite.

And so, soon after hurricanes Fay and Gustav forced them to beach their galleon, "Pieces of Eight," in Key West last month, they sold it to a Florida marina operator and headed home to Hampton Roads.

There was no royal pardon or hangman's noose awaiting them at the dock, but three years of swashbuckling came to an end for Capt. "Devious Dave" and "Lootin Lori."

"We really enjoyed it," David said last week. "It was good and fun and exciting, and we learned a lot."

They had decided before the hurricanes made life really thrilling to sell the ship "for a number of personal and professional reasons," he said.

The Braithwaites had plowed the profits from the sale of a family business into the vessel. It was Lori's idea, and running a pirate cruise seemed a lot more fun to David than buying into a fast-food franchise.

Lori had grown up in Florida, where such ships were a staple of the tourist trade. David was hooked when he saw his first replica galleon there.

They came home and crafted a business plan, then looked for a ship.

Unable to find or afford to commission one that fit their needs, they and a friend built their own - welding together 90,000 pounds of steel trucked from Mississippi into a 65-foot-long eye-catcher.

They christened it "Pieces of Eight," assembled a cast and a script and scourged the Virginia Beach Oceanfront in 2006 and 2007. Then they moved their Jolly Roger and cannons to Florida in search of a year-round business.

After a season sailing out of Fort Myers, this spring they tried Key West, which is where they were docked when Fay and Gustav drew beads on their boat.

Summers were slow in Florida, winters a no-go in Virginia. The ideal would have been sailing each location during its busy season, but the cost of duplicating all the advertising and other expenses was prohibitive, David said.

After the storms passed, the Braithwaites put "Pieces" back on the water and sailed it to Fort Myers.

There, they sold it to the folks who own Salty Sam's Marina, where they had previously operated the boat. Some of the crew stayed on and are busy getting all the necessary permits to resume the business.

The crew hopes to be back on the prowl by Oct. 11, in time for the Fort Myers Beach Pirate Festival, said Jeanette Goff, a bilge rat whose husband, Stephen, is first mate.

The Braithwaites, who have children in high school and college here, are trying to figure out what to do next.

"We have no idea yet," David said of his plans. "We're going to take a little time and decompress."

Tony Germanotta, (757) 222-5113, tony.germanotta@pilotonline.com