Caribbean Compass Yachting Magazine August 2015

— Continued from previous pageSo, when you are in the Grenada area turn your radio to 66i and give a shout out toChrystal and the other volunteer net controllers who wake up early to give you theinformation you need.Carry Identification in CuraçaoCuraçao is a sailing destination with friendly people and an abundance of highqualityfacilities that make this a popular summer destination outside the hurricanebelt. Yachting visitors to the island are reminded that you should have identificationwith you when you go ashore.Last year, a visiting cruising couple was detained for several hours by police andcharged as ¨undocumented” when it was discovered at a traffic checkpoint thatthe man did not have his passport with him and the woman, although she was carryingher passport, had only copies of their ship’s papers with her rather than theoriginal documents. As explained to them by the Ombudsman of Curaçao, the couple’srental car was “stopped during a rigorous police action called ‘Ta Basta Awor’(‘It’s Enough’)” that was aimed at curtailing gang-related crime.We haven’t heard of any other cruisers having this problem, but we take this opportunityto remind cruisers to carry proper ID while ashore. While it is impossible foreach individual crewmember to have the original ship’s papers in their possessionwhen more than one person goes ashore, yachting visitors heading ashore inCuraçao are advised to carry their passports or other official ID with them, and tobe able to present the original ship’s papers when and if required.For more Curaçao information, see related item in Business Briefs, page 8.C. COLLEYWin a Sail or Resort Stay and Help Hands Across the SeaSunsail, in cooperation with the American Sailing Association (ASA), is giving away aweeklong catamaran charter cruise for four people in Grenada. The charter comeswith provisioning and ASA-certified sailing instruction courtesy of LTD Sailing. The purposeof the giveaway, valued at US$12,000, is to support the mission of Hands Acrossthe Sea, a non-profit organization dedicated to raising literacy levels of children inthe Caribbean.The runner-up sweepstakes entrant will win a seven-night vacation for four valued atUS$2,700 at The Verandah Resort and Spa in Antigua courtesy of Elite Island Resorts.Enter the sweepstakes any day in September 2015 by watching a one-minute videoabout Hands Across the Sea at http://asa.com/hands-across-the-sea.php. Entrantswill be encouraged to make a tax-deductible charitable donation in order to enterto win these fantastic destination prizes. Airfare is not included.Charlie Nobles, executive director of the ASA, says, “The Caribbean is a gift to sailorsand the sailing industry, so we are proud to partner with Sunsail, LTD Sailing and EliteIsland Resorts to support Hands Across the Sea’s goal of improving literacy levels inthe Caribbean, where economic conditions make children’s books virtually unaffordablefor both families and schools.”Established eight years ago by lifelong sailors and husband-and-wife team, Tom andHarriet Linskey, Hands Across the Sea has grown into the most effective organizationof its kind operating in the Eastern Caribbean. The organization works directly withschool principals, community leaders, and US Peace Corps volunteers to deliverbrand new, high-quality books to Caribbean schools.Tom Linskey tells Compass, “Back in 2007 while cruising the Windwards and Leewardswe visited schools (Harriet is a former teacher) on Union Island, Dominica, and Nevisto see if we could help in some way. On each island, school principals and teacherstold us the same thing: child literacy is a serious problem. At almost every school,reading books for children are in very, very short supply. Most children do not growup with books in the home (too expensive), and many children are reading belowgrade level. Schools have their own government-mandated textbooks and curriculum,but government budgets don’t stretch to providing reading books — the kindof books that excite and engage kids, the kind of books that can help open thedoor to a lifelong love of reading. It deeply disturbed us to see such bright, eagerchildren growing up without books, without a love of reading, and we wanted to dosomething about it.“But how could we give Caribbean kids access to high-quality, new and as-newbooks? Pondering all this as we sailed up to the US, we began imagining a way toget great books and vital school supplies to Eastern Caribbean schools on a widescale. With fantastic help from corporate ‘angels’ such as Harte-Hanks (warehouseservices), AIT Worldwide (trucking), and Tropical Shipping (ocean shipping), all thewhile working with the nonprofit Boaters for Books, in 2008 we sent our first shipment— 25 boxes of books and ten boxes of teaching resources — to three Caribbeanschools. Back then, it seemed like a lot — it was too much, after all, to carry on ourboat. In the eight years since that first shipment, we’ve sent about 173,000 new andas-new books and 345 boxes of teaching resources to 268 schools, reaching58,000 children.”—Continued on next pageAUGUST 2015 CARIBBEAN COMPASS PAGE 5