Remember How Culture Works
I had to concede the programme to the staff last Wednesday but tonight we will be putting a challenge out there to the Bahamas and explain to them carefully why they will be beat this June if they come to the Turks and Caicos to race. If you are interested in why we will beat them on the waters off Grace Bay, just tune in to WIV Channel 4 How Culture Works at 9PM tonight… Wednesday night.

Congratulations to Dr. and Mrs Gilbert N.M.O. Morris
Last Tuesday Gilbert Morris informed me for the first time that his wife, Gale, was pregnant and had just gone into labour after a question about if he was coming to a writers’ group meeting at noon the following day.  I said, hunh?, it was sort of a surprise since she did not look pregnant the last time I saw her and usually people start acting sort of jubilant about that kind of thing.

Anyway, the next day, Tuesday the 13th, a little package was delivered by Gale to Doc’s family of four already, named Liberte-Adina Antoinette-Lucille Pearlmia Morris at 3:45 PM Eastern Standard Time.

Doc, who usually is very formal in his attire and studiously dour in expression, was all smiles, giggles, grins and hugs as well as shorts and short sleeved open to the chest, almost flowered shirt as he confusedly walked about The Market Place, he owns the Free Press, wondering what to organize next but seeming to only say that he was a daddy of the most beautiful girl in the world. And, he can’t wait for her to talk him into things… he has a list.

Volunteers For The Store-Office
We need minders of the office store at The Market Place Monday through Friday from 10AM-3:30PM. This can be in one and two-hour stretches but we need it to be consistent. Because of the demands of the many sloops we presently have I am unable to put in much time at the office, so if you have a few hours a week to assist our office work and sales, the kids and the programmes and the adults will definitely appreciate it.

We are about to bring in a lot of new nautical stuff to sell, and we do have a lot of communications about to be answerable by our great list of interested who would love to reorganize my disaster at office keeping.

We need volunteers. Please call me at 243 2093 or email me, Ross.

Volunteers For Sailing
We need sailors. There is a very extensive schedule of racing that needs crews and those who love to paint boats. We also need detail oriented coordinators to make these events into special memories for all those attending. The next upcoming proposed race will be this St. Patrick’s Day out in front of Grace Bay. We have ideas about a pub crawl type of race but need backup to pull it off.

Members of the Provo Sailing Club are of particular focus in achieving an active sailing presence here in the Turks and Caicos. All of us have to remember that sailing is fun but needs to have some sort of schedule that the public is aware of also.

Pat Staples is leading them into a potentially great year of salt spray, as is Goldray Ewing leading the traditional sloops with vigor, but we need new salts to enjoy taking home some turquoise sea time.

Call Pat at 941 5006 or Goldray at 331 4337 or Ross at 243 2093 if you want to sail…

Our Proposed Schedule of Events:
17 March
 -St Patrick’s Day Race 
6, 13, 20, 27 April
 -Chalk Sound SOS Sails
6-8 April
 -CARIFTA Games: demonstration sails
4, 11, 18, 25 May
 -Chalk Sound SOS Sails
5 May
 -Cinco de Mayo: Tiki Hut take kids for free rides
25-27 May
 South Caicos Regatta
16, 23, 30 June
 -Chalk Sound SOS Sails
6-12 June
 -Mariners’ Week (see schedule)
 -April Fools Regatta (in June)
July
 -Vessels available for student maritime heritage summer camps
August
 -Vessels available for student maritime heritage summer camps
4 August
 -Annual Provo Day Race
August
 -Fisherman’s Day Race South Caicos
August
 -Middle Caicos Day Race
7, 14 21 September
 -Chalk Sound SOS Sails
28 September
 -Youth Day Sails on Chalk Sound
5,12 19 26 October
 -Chalk Sound SOS Sails
October
 -Tourism Awareness Week: Tourist Race off Grace Bay
October
 -North Caicos Extravaganza Race
2, 9, 16, 30 November
 -Chalk Sound SOS Sails
24 November
 -4th Annual Conch Festival Race
7, 14 December
 -Chalk Sound SOS Sails

Weehoo from the Wahoo
The 2nd Annual Wahoo Fishing Tournament Committee raised funds to donate to a charitable organisation and this year the funds raised went toward the purchase of a very fast Wheeland Sloop design to further the youth sail training aims of the Maritime Heritage Federation.

The Committee purchased 24-foot 1 Can of Whoopass from builder/owner, William “Wing” Dean. Wing, whose father was Algernon Dean, a famous boat builder, is a member of the Federation and was happy to see his prize winning Sloop being used in the Sail Our Sloop Programme currently operating with one sloop in Chalk Sound.

The sloop was not quite ready for a presentation at the Tournament held in the middle of February at the Turtle Cove Marina, so Wing worked on her, restoring her deck and the sheer strake.

The presentation saw her painted white and blue in place of her traditional red and white on the Dean Beach.  Discount Liquors, who were the principle organizers of the Wahoo Tournament and the resultant sloop donation, donated refreshments, so the launch/ presentation crowd was a merry one.

The launch of the newly renamed Weehoo was scheduled for 2:00PM and the Sloop touched water at exactly 2:00PM. I was late by 2 minutes and others were late up to one hour. What is this on time stuff…where do they think we are?

The presentation accompanied a launch and inspired two other Sloops to be launched at the same time by the same hands on hand. The other two Sloops launched were Cable & Wireless’ Mobile Enforcer and Goldray Ewing’s Maroons I.

After a small sail around the boats moored off Sailing Paradise in Bluehills.

JJ points out his Father's sloop in old Turks and Caicos chronicle

Lectures Begin At Enid Capron
The Federation’s Primary Schools Maritime Heritage Programme moved into its second phase at the Enid Capron Primary School last Friday. The first phase saw almost eighty sixth graders aboard a Middle Caicos Sloop on Chalk Sound for an introductory sail. Now, in phase two, those children, gathered appropriately at the community centre building named after the famous mariner, Felix Morely, heard a history of the Sloop’s evolution and a chat about what it was like when J.H. Parker was a child aboard his father’s Family Pride.

One note is that J.H. Parker’s nickname is JJ...

Past speakers have included Norman Saunders, C. Washington Misick, Derek Taylor, Lew Handfield, Carlon Forbes, C Mac Donald Stubbs, James Dean, Victor Forbes,  Eldon Durham, Hammerhead Stubbs. The idea is to get local names to tell about their recentness in the normal using of the Turks and Caicos Sloops. The relativity of the needs for special skills and the perfection in the use of those skills are what made people proud of their lineage and therefore would take pride of accomplishment in studying about the related subject matter in school.

A test followed the lecture and the questions on the test were talked about in the session. Interest was peaked and there were plenty of questions in what was meant to be a one hour session that stretched to two hours and a lot of smiling. 

TCI Challenge Goes To The Bahamas
The Mariners’ Week celebration of the sacrifices of the mariners of the Turks and Caicos is being sent to the Bahamas in media form to let them know that we are waiting to compete with anything they send this way. With big money stakes that are meant to add that extra incentive to bring the Bahamians and their Sloops Providenciales this June the Mariners’ Week Committee is issuing challenges through the media, both written and spoken.
  
We are also starting to issue invitational challenges to the other Islands that have sailing workboat regattas to come sail with us or against us this June. The aim is to get a central location for a pan-Caribbean sailing workboat regatta and interchange of design and evolution concepts within the Caribbean Basin.

Jazz And An Iguana Sail
The TC Friends of the Arts are having a Jazz Night At Iguana on Saturday 3 March and the Federation is offering a small cruise on Chalk Sound as one of the Silent Auction prizes. The fundraiser is to purchase brass instruments for the TCI National Youth Orchestra and so is a worthy cause. The tickets have already been just about sold out, which shows how much people want any steps toward cultural activities here. You can call the Iguana at 941 8145 for further information.

THE WRITERS’ GROUP
Back in October our Federation initiated writers’ group was start to publish a collection of prose and poetry entitled, A Walk On Our Beach? Well, as with some things in certain areas, it has taken us a while to do the editing and design but the manuscript is showing us a 150-page work with some mood setting photography all about real time in the Turks and Caicos Islands.

The pieces are more a documentary in content about life here from people who have been intensely specifically studying the why and what of this culture. I write about sailing stuff, but the other writers are easy to interpret their concepts by who they are: Sandra Garland, Ed Williams, David Bowen, Gilbert Morris and Euwonka Selver.

The group is forming itself as a registered TCI ngo under the name, The Writers’ Group and hopes to initiate a community publishing venture for us who wish our fiction and poetry to be published. Only Group members will be eligible for the assistance and that is done through attendance and Group positive criticism of their works.

The Group is applying to the Community Conservation Fund for initial set up publishing funding with an intention of self-sustainability after its first works hit the streets.

If you want to write and get free and helpful critiques on your work get in touch with one of the above or me at 243 2093. We are serious about writing and assisting other writers and would be writers.

Dr. Runoko Rashidi Invited to Mariners’ Week
Author and Historian Dr. Runoko Rashidi has accepted a general invitation to come to the Turks and Caicos this June to lecture on pre-Columbian African migration to the Western Hemisphere. Dr. Rashidi co-authored African Presence In Early Asia (which focuses on the Dalits of India) with the award winning historian Ivan Van Sertima. Dr Rashidi travels extensively and has lectured to over 250 universities and with Dr. Van Sertima, is considered the foremost authority on African migration worldwide.

Dr. Rashidi has lectured in the Caribbean Basin with a special attention paid to English and Spanish speaking countries. He is a proponent of the one-blood theory of non-racism and has an interesting internet forum called Global African Presence.