The Sand Charm  

I just killed Blackbeard and a few skeletons no Sand Charm but i did get some Sea cudgel.
I did not see notice anything different,not like someone said about black backdrop on chat screen,everything was basically normal,no fog or rain either.I took about 5 trips back n forth and nothing,then the next day first trip the pirates boarded.I really did not hear much of the different music,but was funny,i was fishing and saw the boat coming closer,so i knew it was them.

Forgot to check log,but the AOE GA nuke Blackbeard did was quite potent to a level 80 Galkan,if i was not Galkan,i might have been wiped in one shot.I went down to about 400 hp from pretty much full,and my Mithra whm who was standing rather far away also got hit and went to near death about 70 hp left lol.Only took one AOE hit though,i don't even think he tried to cast another ,if did i may have interupt it.
They didn't seem to link at all,i killed several one at a time,i believe they all use Aero spells and i couldn't find my baraero,otherwise might not be too tough a fight at all,even for a 70-75,with outside healing.

I've travelled this boat so many times i'm sea sick, is there a certain day/time/moon that the crossbones are more likely to appear?

After about my 9th boat trip today pirates finally pop. I also had the joy and pleasure of Silverhook popping too. Luckily I was avoiding him until my health was in the yellow from trying to get the sand charm from the crossbones. He proceeded to aggro me from across the ship and beat my THF55 ass to death. Now I lay dead in Mhaura waiting for a kind soul to Raise me.

heres the correct way to trigger this quest.please ignore other posts there wrong asis the guy who wrote this giude.1st spk2 grimr 2nd spk2 blandine and finally spk2 celestia G8. there its simple

I flagged this quest tonight, went out fishing on the boat (alone). Countless rides later with my inventory 1 short of being full of fish I'm thinking 'just one more and then bedtime'. As it zones I see the chatbox on black... oooh pirates! I'm lvl 35 MNK with only fishing gear and my Impact Knuckles... I provoke one crossbones all the way up the stairs to the back to avoid a major linkage. Just manage to kill him without dying myself, and... ding, sand charm. Not a bad end to my night :D

I was on my way back to mharu to finish of a quest.
Decided to take it easy on the boat ride, rahter than teley over to mea.

And the ship got attacked by pirates.
I Know that I could not take on Silverhook.
S I just decided to wack a few skiltions pulling them with dia.

On the 3rd mob it droped.
Did not have a clue what it was for so came here to check it out.

So happy now, thats another map I'll be getting XD

ok this has become some bullsh*t, I've seen the sea horror more times than the pirates I think I'm gonna take peoples advice and start going on specific days cuz I've been riding for like 10 times a day once a week and I get nothign

what is need to to start this quest, all she says to me is "I'm waiting on my husband.... I'm use to waiting..."

I already have a sand charm, to trade her.

It took about 12 total tries of riding the boat to finally get the pirates to attack. I did this over the course of about a week (3 tries a day). When the pirates did attack, the day was Watersday, at about 14:00. I had heard that darksday at full moon was the best time to go, but in this case it wasn't. Perhaps the time of day doesn't matter. Anyways, as a level 75, I soloed the Crossbones easily. I had to kill 5 of the mobs before one finally dropped the Sand Charm. Luckily, there was only 2 other people on the boat and they were too low level to fight the pirates - so I had the mobs all to myself. Still, whenever I did kill one, another one or two would pop in.

I got mine on the first Skeleton on Lightingday with the moon at 74%. Hope you all get it, I waited 5 days for those suckers to pop.

I occasionally take the ferry at the New and Full Moons to fish. During the New Moon in particular, it is not uncommon to get pirates during on the trip from Mhaura to Selbina. Been lucky enough to not encounter Blackbeard yet, but I lost track of how many Crossbones I've killed with no drop on the Sand Charm.

Until today that is^^

I've known about this quest for quite a while. The only time I ever saw pirates was when I was too weak to kill them. After I became stronger, I've never been able to catch them. The other day, I hop on the boat, to escort some low level players through Buburimu, and the pirates pop. I killed them all, solo, and the sand charm dropped. A lv22 war got the drop.. The next night, I was on the boat again, from boredom.. Pirates spawned again. I was so happy at a second chance that I was spamming death at every skeleton I saw. a new NM (Silverhook) appeared, cast Flood on some poor victim and killed 'em 1 shot.. then came up and proceeded to beat me down like the sea horror beats on newbies... I got a second sand charm, and death, in one fast trip.

I've noticed something about getting the pirates to show up. They've spawned for me on sunny days and not the cloudy/foggy weather you would normally expect for undead.

Anyway, look at the ship's captain when you board. I don't remeber the name exactly, but if the guy has a short name that start's with an A or S or something you won't get the pirates. If it's long and confusing looking, you've been jacked, and are gonna face the pirates.

Hope I helped.
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Liriel 50DRG/25THF
Bahamut Server

Does weather affect the arrival of the pirates? like does it have to be rainy or something?

they poped for me ride from seblina to mhaura on watersday. just try it out unless u wanna spend 5hrs huntin them >.>

Nope. Weather is no indication, neither is time of day. Just ride the ferry over and over...I finally got pirates, now that I need the things for the map. I now have screenshots of me slamming a whole ship full of pirates at 10:00 AM in game time, with blue skies, on ice day. Not a hint of fog, except at the start of the trip. Normal undead weather does not apply, the skeletons are summoned by mages on the pirate ship. ^_^ Hope this helped....
-Dakren

The order is wrong, your suppost to talk to Blandine , then the 2 sailors and to Blandine again before talking to Celestina who is in the goldsmith guild.

Edited, Fri May 6 18:23:48 2005

i dont kno 3 RL day fought crossbone 3 times first time 6 kills 2nd 10 kills 3rd 13 kills still no charm the first 2 times there was other charecters fighting 2 and they got charms 3rd time by myself and no charm i wasnt using THF while doing this but neither were the 2 charcters who got the charms the first 2 times o well ill post again when i get

Wasn't even aware of the quest myself. Was just on the ferry and pirates showed up..Got Sand Charm on the second crossbones i killed. Guess I was lucky.
49 Dark/Thief

Could I solo this as a BLM52/RDM26?

my friend had never even seen the pirates before and I had been struggling to get this charm for a while so we agreed to take the ship over and over until they pirates finally showed themselves. One the third ride, it was dark and very foggy. I knew this had to be it! And lo and behold! There they came! Everyone else was either fishing or too low level to fight so me and him had them all to ourselves and it was awesome! (lv.50 paladin, that's me and he was a level 50 monk. Ultimate undead killing team!) We bowled them over like pins and in the end got a sand charm each. What an awesome evening!

THere is an npc in Norg that was rescued by the pirates a year ago tht lost his memory. Seems like this has to be her husband but there dosn't seem to be a quest to get him his memory back. Anyone try giving the sand charm to him instead? I feel like a jerk knowing who he is and not helping him.

1. - Talk to Blandine, located at the middle of H-9/I-9. She will talk about waiting for her husband.
2. - Talk to Zexu, located at the bottom left corner of I-9. You will have to pay the 100 gil to enter to the ferry side of the counter in order to talk to him. This will trigger a cutscene with him and Grimr talking about how sad it is to see Blandine waiting for her husband.
3. - Go back to the other side of the counter and talk to Blandine again. This will trigger a cutscene where her daughter, Celestina, enters and tells her mother to stop waiting.
4. - Talk to Celestina, located in the Goldsmith's Guild at G-8. She will tell you about her father's ultra-rare sand charm, and how it had been seen on a pirate since he's gone missing.
5. - Board the ferry for Selbina and pray for a pirate attack. Kill crossbones until one drops the Sand Charm.
6. - Return to Mhaura and trade the Sand Charm back to Celestina to finish the quest.

Do not forget to lot on the Sand charm before the boat docks.

Edited, Mon Jul 26 18:29:36 2004

Blandine is located at I-9.

We couldn't get the two bums on the dock to talk. So we talked to everyone else in town. Bhoro-Guhoro and Kupupu, a pair of tarus in front of Orlando's Antiques, spoke of pirates. We then went and talked to Blandine and a cut scene started. Celestina appeared and told her to move on. Went up and talked to Celestina and she asks you to get the Sand Charm in hopes that once seeing it her mother will finally move on.