Caribbean Compass Yachting Magazine April 2017

APRIL 2017 CARIBBEAN COMPASS PAGE 6
COURTESY SMITH FAMILY
— Continued from previous page
… set sail in April 2007 in their
43-foot Gitana, Cape, along with
Bethany and her younger brother,
Bryn. They explored the Atlantic
coasts of Spain and Portugal before
spending three seasons in the
Mediterranean and a year in the
Canaries — working and homeschooling
as they went. They spent a
further two months in West Africa,
doing humanitarian work in The
Gambia, before crossing the Atlantic
to the Caribbean in March of 2012.
Their account of their passage from
The Gambia to Tobago in March
2012 was awarded The Qualifier’s
Mug by the Ocean Cruising Club for
the most ambitious or arduous qualifying
voyage by a new member as
submitted for publication in the OCC
journal or newsletter in 2012. (See
Sarah’s account on page 32 at www.caribbeancompass.com/online/march13compass_online.pdf.)
Bethany and Bryn stood full watches for the whole crossing.
Bethany had her 14th birthday during the crossing, and Bryn was 12, making them
the youngest full OCC members.
The family then cruised the Caribbean islands extensively, writing about their travels.
(Bethany, her mother and her brother all contributed articles to Caribbean
Compass. See Bethany’s “A Teen’s-Eye View of Tobago” at www.caribbeancompass.com/online/july12compass_online.pdf.)
Bethany continued the family’s tradition
of doing humanitarian work by participating in relief efforts for Dominica after TS
Erika. After cruising with her family, she crewed and raced on other boats before
taking a position on Germania Nova. Bethany’s seagoing qualifications included
STCW 2010 Basics & Security Awareness, MCA Navigational Watch Rating Certificate
and a Slinging and Banksman‘s Certificate.
DEREK WALCOTT
The St. Lucian poet, playwright and Nobel Prize winner, Sir Derek Alton Walcott,
died on March 17th at age 87. Walcott, famous for his monumental body of work
that incorporated Caribbean history, won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1992.
He made his debut at the age of 19 with a collection of poems, and the publication
of his collection of poems In a Green Night in 1962 was a breakthrough. Walcott
won the TS Eliot prize in 2011 with his collection White Egrets.
Walcott was educated at St. Mary’s College in St. Lucia and the University of the
West Indies in Jamaica. He moved to Trinidad in 1953, where he worked as a theatre
and art critic and founded the Trinidad Theatre Workshop. A 1981 MacArthur
“genius” grant cemented Walcott’s links with the US, and teaching positions at
Boston University, Columbia, Rutgers and Yale followed. Walcott was Professor of
Poetry at the University of Essex in the UK from 2010 to 2013.
Walcott also had an accomplished theatrical career, being the writer and director
of more than 80 plays that often explored the problems of Caribbean identity
against the backdrop of racial and political strife.
The epic poem Omeros — a Caribbean retelling of The Odyssey — has been
hailed as the poet’s greatest achievement.
Barbados Cruising Club Hosts Special-Needs Kids’ Swim
In March, a new group of children from Barbados’s School House for Special Needs
joined the Bright Water Kids Foundation programme and started learning to swim at
the Barbados Cruising Club, headquartered at Carlyle Bay. The Bright Water Kids
Foundation is a charity dedicated to improving the lives of Barbadian children by
providing swimming lessons, water sports and fun sea-based education. The
Barbados Cruising Club is a proud sponsor of the foundation.
Visit www.brightwaterkids.org/ for or more information on The Bright Water Kids
Foundation.
Visit www.barbadoscruisingclub.org for more information on the
Barbados Cruising Club.
Hello, Annapolis!
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open 7 days a week from 8:00 am to 4:00 pm
T: 787.863.0313
F: 787.863.5282
E: sunbaymarina@aol.com
Parcelas Beltrán, Bo. Sardinera,
Fajardo, Puerto Rico
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