Presents the "soul of the Turks & Caicos Islands" with in-depth features about local people, culture, history, environment, businesses, resorts, restaurants and activities.
TIMES
OF THE
SAMPLING THE SOUL OF THE TURKS & CAICOS ISLANDS WINTER 2018/19 NO. 125
SAILING TO FREEDOM
Sloops Aid Slave Escapes
THE LAST STAND?
East Caicos Reefs
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water sports. For others, it’s the awesome 45,000 sq.
ft. waterpark with surf simulator. There’s 5-Star Global
Gourmet TM dining at 21 incredible restaurants, and
non-stop bars and entertainment —and it’s always
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contents
Departments
6 From the Editor
13 Eye on the Sky
From Fluffy Cotton to Terrifying Towers:
Low Cloud Formation
By Paul Wilkerson
18 Around the Islands
Kids First!
Edward C. Gartland Youth Centre
By Katherine Withers Green
50 The Sporting Life
Fit at Fifty
By John Galleymore
Photos By Brilliant Studios
72 Food for Thought
The Secret Garden
The Frenz Deck
By Dominique Rolle–Caya Hico Media
76 About the Islands/TCI Map
81 Where to Stay
82 Classified Ads
84 Dining Out
86 Subscription Form
Features
22 Magnificent Mauby
TCI’s National Tonic
Story & Photos By B Naqqi Manco
38 Sailing to Freedom
TCI Slave Escapes in the 1800s
By Ben Stubenberg
TIMES
OF THE
ISLANDS
SAMPLING THE SOUL OF THE TURKS & CAICOS ISLANDS WINTER 2018/19 NO. 125
On the Cover
Photographer Marta Morton spends a lot of time looking
up and out, when she’s not busy running Harbour
Club Villas (www.HarbourClubVillas.com) with her
husband Barry and son Michael. More often than not,
she takes the occasion to pull out her small Canon
SX720HS “point and shoot” camera (with a great 40X
optical zoom) and photograph the beauty she sees
around her. In this case, it was a lovely early Winter
sunset over Grace Bay Beach, with the high cirrus
clouds tracing a feathery pattern in the sky. For more
of her exceptional photography, turn the pages of this
issue.
Green Pages
28 Hope for TCI’s Future
East Caicos Reefs
By Kathleen Wood, Don Stark and
Marsha Pardee
33 Ban the Bag
By Amy Avenant
34 Battle of the Reefs
By John DeBuysser and Heidi Hertler
72
Astrolabe
60 Morning in the Garden of Good and Evil
Story & Photos By Matthew A. Williamson
65 A Glimpse of the Past
By Jeffrey Dodge
DOMINIQUE ROLLE—CAYA HICO MEDIA
4 www.timespub.tc
TurksAndCaicosProperty.com
Babalua Beachfront Villa - Cascade
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the most splendid private pools in the country. A top performing vacation villa and a mustsee
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Long Bay Beachfront Land
Buyers looking to build on a prime parcel of beachfront land, look no further. This sizeable 1.10-
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Bernadette Hunt
Cell ~ 649 231 4029 | Tel ~ 649 941 3361
Bernadette@TurksAndCaicosProperty.com
Bernadette has lived in the Turks and Caicos
Islands for over 21 years and witnessed the
development and transition of the islands
into a significant tourist destination. Based
on independent figures her gross transaction
numbers are unrivalled. Bernadette has
listings on Providenciales, Parrot Cay,
North and Middle Caicos and is delighted
to work with sellers and buyers of homes,
condos, commercial real estate and vacant
undeveloped sites.
Turks and Caicos Property is the leading
independent real estate firm in the Turks and
Caicos Islands with offices located at Ocean
Club West Plaza, Ocean Club West Resort
and Le Vele Plaza on the Grace Bay Road.
Bernadette’s reputation and success has been
earned over time through her dedication,
enthusiasm and passion for real estate. Her
personal experience as having practiced law
in the islands for more than 10 years together
with owning and renovating a number of
properties means she is well-placed to advise
her customers and developers on what to
anticipate in the purchasing and construction
process.
Bernadette delights in working in the real
estate industry and her humor and energy
make her a pleasure to work with.
Grace Bay Beachfront - Point Grace
Point Grace is one of few boutique hotels in Turks & Caicos and offers both luxury and exclusivity
nestled at “the Point” of Grace Bay Beach. Suite E202 is 1,551 sq. ft. and is located beachfront on the
second floor. The condo is a two bed two and two and a half bath split level suite. It also features a
spacious terrace overlooking the stunning turquoise water of Grace Bay and is an exceptional value.
Please contact Bernadette if you would like
to find out more about owning real estate in
the Turks & Caicos Islands.
US$1,295,000
from the editor
MARTA MORTON—WWW.HARBOURCLUBVILLAS.COM
This landscape overlooking South Side Marina on Providenciales shows how sunlight paints a picture in the sky at the end of the day.
Let There Be Light
This year, the Islands went back to observing Daylight Savings Time, after a two-year hiatus meant to extend
the early evening sunlight for visitors and residents. With the time change, comes my annual hibernation to an early
bedtime as the darkness sets in, unwelcome because I am a certified lover of light, especially sunlight. Thankfully,
the late fall/winter season brings an astonishing quality to the light in the Turks & Caicos Islands—so achingly beautiful
at times that it seems a preview of heaven. Mornings begin with a rose-pink glow in the east that blooms into
a shimmering, clear brilliance lasting well into mid-day. As afternoon sets in, the scene begins to melt into a tawny
golden glow from which it is nearly impossible to look away.
I hope you’ll find in this issue plenty of illumination for your mind, body and soul in the eclectic mix of stories
and photos, ranging from a discussion of clouds, to the importance of the East Caicos reefs, to a fascinating study
of slave escapes and the Caicos Sloop, to a new dining experience for foodies.
Christmas is, for me, a time of great joy as we celebrate the True Light—Jesus Christ—entering our world to
bring the love, grace and salvation we all so desperately need. To God be the Glory for His daily help, strength and
comfort.
Kathy Borsuk, Editor
timespub@tciway.tc • (649) 946-4788
6 www.timespub.tc
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PG advert_Layout 1 5/10/17 9:10 AM Page 1
TIMES
MANAGING EDITOR
Kathy Borsuk
OF THE
ISLANDS
ADVERTISING MANAGER
Claire Parrish
“Escape to the extraordinary.”
CONTRIBUTING WRITERS
Amy Avenant, Kathy Borsuk, John DeBuysser,
Jeffrey Dodge, John Galleymore, Katherine Withers Green,
Heidi Hertler, B Naqqi Manco, Marsha Pardee,
Dr. Michael P. Pateman, Dominique Rolle–Caya Hico Media,
Don Stark, Ben Stubenberg, Paul Wilkerson,
Candianne Williams, Matthew A. Williamson,
Kathleen Wood.
CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS
Brilliant Studios, Robert Ormond Challis, E. Neale Coverley–
TCNM Collection, John DeBuysser, Edward C. Gartland
Youth Centre, Richard Green, Heidi Hertler, Agile LeVin,
B Naqqi Manco, Marta Morton, Michael Morton,
Dr. Michael P. Pateman, Tom Rathgeb, Dominique Rolle–
Caya Hico Media, Matthew Slattery, David M. Stone,
Ben Stubenberg, Paul Wilkerson, Candianne Williams,
Matthew A. Williamson.
CONTRIBUTING ARTISTS
NOAA, RA Shaw Designs, Wavey Line Publishing
PRINTING
southeastern, Hialeah, FL
Times of the Islands ISSN 1017-6853 is
published quarterly by Times Publications Ltd.
Copyright © 2019 by Times Publications Ltd. All rights reserved
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Submissions We welcome submission of articles or photography, but
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While every care has been taken in the compilation and reproduction of
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subject to change without notice. The publisher accepts no
responsibility for such alterations or for typographical or other errors.
WORLD TRAVEL AWARDS 2015 - CARIBBEAN’S LEADING BOUTIQUE HOTEL
TCHTA STAR AWARDS 2016 - HOTEL OF THE YEAR
TCHTA STAR AWARDS 2016 - RESTAURANT OF THE YEAR - GRACE’S COTTAGE
PROVIDENCIALES TCI • US TOLL FREE 1.888.209.5582 • T 649.946.5096
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12 www.timespub.tc
eye on the sky
PAUL WILKERSON
These low clouds seem to be tracing the path of the causeway between North and Middle Caicos.
Clouds are both loved and hated. For travelers to the Turks & Caicos Islands, it generally invokes worry
over the prospects of rain and lack of sun-bathing time. For Belongers, it usually is a much different story.
Clouds are welcomed for the shade they bring on a sweltering day, the beauty they offer when contrasted
against the electric-blue waters surrounding the Islands, and the promise of rain that is such a lifeline to
residents of these small islands. Without these whimsical wisps of moisture, the Islands would be uninhabitable—a
dry and arid environment with little in the way of ground cover. It would be a challenge of
survival for the toughest of land species.
From Fluffy Cotton
to Terrifying Towers
How are low clouds formed?
By Paul Wilkerson
Times of the Islands Winter 2018/19 13
MARTA MORTON—WWW.HARBOURCLUBVILLAS.COM
Above: These cloud images were shot overlooking Flamingo Lake in Providenciales.
Below: This image of an Arcus shelf cloud was captured from the deck at Harbour Club Villas. Note the characteristic rising cloud motion in
the leading part, while the underside appears turbulent.
But how do these clouds form, and why do they tend
to form over some of the same areas day after day across
the Islands? To understand how this happens, we need
to first understand the “whats” (atmosphere and geography
requirements) before we get into the “hows” (actual
formation of clouds), and the “when” (likely times to see
these clouds form).
Let’s take a look at the “whats” first. The Turks &
Caicos Islands are completely surrounded by the Atlantic
Ocean. In general, high pressure exists over areas that are
cooler (water) than adjacent areas (land). Low pressure
generally exists over the warmest areas (land) surrounded
by cooler areas (water). For the TCI, the waters in general
are cooler than the land mass during the day, while at
night the water generally is a bit warmer than the land.
So during the day, low pressure typically exists over the
Islands (rising air), and at night, high pressure is usually
situated over the Islands (sinking air). This scenario plays
out during calmer weather periods.
It is also important to understand that winds will gen-
MICHAEL MORTON—WWW.HARBOURCLUBVILLAS.COM
14 www.timespub.tc
This image explains the concepts of sea breeze and cloud formation.
erally blow from high pressure towards lower pressure,
which during the day is from the ocean to the land. At
night, we normally see the reverse situation—winds blowing
from land out to sea.
One final factor that will play into cloud formation
has to do with the amount of moisture in the air. And
we know based on geographic location that there is an
abundance of moisture in the atmosphere generally at all
times over the Islands.
Now let’s discuss the “hows” of cloud formation.
Clouds are a conglomeration of trillions and trillions of
molecules of water vapor. Generally unseen to the naked
eye, yet felt on the skin as humidity, water vapor once
compacted into large areas reveals itself as clouds.
How is it we see these clouds? In the Caribbean, we
can thank the salt in the ocean for this! In order to see
clouds, we depend on what is called Cloud Condensation
Nuclei, abbreviated as CCN. These are particles of dust,
salt, pollution, and even sand from the Saharan Desert.
Water vapor by nature, will need something to condense
to in order for us to see it visibly. These CCN stick to
water vapor, which is the single most important item we
need for cloud formation. For the Islands, salt water evaporates
off the surface of the ocean and rises into the air
as the CCN needed. However in order to see these as
clouds we need something else to occur.
During the day, as the land heats up and low pressure
develops over the land, the warm air rises in convective
currents off the hot ground into the air above the Islands.
As the winds blow off the water and arrive on land, they
get naturally deflected up as they encounter topography
and the much warmer air that is also rising. As this wind
and air rises, it naturally begins to cool once again. And
as that air cools, it also condenses. Those trillions of
molecules of water vapor become visible as tiny water
droplets. And in mass, they are visible as the fluffy white
clouds we see across the Islands.
If you would like to see this in action on a smaller
scale, boil a pot of water on the stove. As the water boils,
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MARTA MORTON—WWW.HARBOURCLUBVILLAS.COM
In the TCI, our fair weather clouds will form like clockwork, usually during the morning and throughout the primary heating of the day.
steam snakes off the surface of that water into the air
above the pot. That water is evaporating into the cooler
air of your home and then condensing into visible streaks HarbourPaul Club:Layout Wilkerson 1 is 8/17/16 an American 10:16meteorologist AM Page 1 and tourist
who frequents the Turks & Caicos Islands. Along of steam . . . small clouds!
with
To wrap up the concept, we need to talk about the
“when.” Have you noticed that, in general, at night in the
Islands it clears up the later it gets? If the Islands are dominated
by fair weather overall, this will happen nearly on a
nightly basis. At night the land cools more than the water.
Because of this, air sinks over the Islands and inhibits
cloud formation in general. Our fair weather clouds will
form like clockwork, usually during the morning and
throughout the primary heating of the day. This cycle will
continue daily until there is significant high pressure over
the Islands that can suppress this process through the
process of sinking air. Or, if there is significant low pressure
close to the Islands these beautiful balls of cotton
can turn into towering menaces that produce lightning
and thunder through the process of significant rising air.
Clouds are one of the most fascinating wonders on
earth. Next time you are on-island, you likely will catch a
mesmerizing reflection of the ocean on the bottom of the
clouds. In those moments, reflect on the amazing world
16 www.timespub.tc
we live in and how Mother Nature takes care of the people
that depend on her. a
his wife and two daughters, the Wilkersons stay actively
engaged with Islanders throughout the year with his
Facebook page Turks and Caicos Islands Weather Info.
Harbour Club Villas
Turtle Tail Drive, Providenciales
Six one-bedroom villas.
Dive operators at our dock.
Bonefishing in the lake.
Fabulous beaches nearby.
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E: harbourclub@tciway.tc
T: 1 649 941 5748
See our website
for details.
www.HARBOURCLUBVILLAS.com
Times Kevin_Times Kevin 9/18/18 10:51 AM Page 1
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Times of the Islands Winter 2018/19 17
18 www.timespub.tc
around the islands
These photo collages show the huge variety of activities that TCI children and teens participate in at the Edward C. Gartland Youth Centre.
Kids First!
Edward C. Gartland Youth Centre celebrates a decade of caring about kids.
By Katherine Withers Green ~ Photos Courtesy Edward C. Gartland Youth Centre
In November 2008, the Edward C. Gartland Youth Centre opened its doors to the young people of the
Turks & Caicos, becoming the first teen-orientated facility in the Islands. The brainchild of the AIDS
Awareness Foundation, this intrepid project started as a safe haven, a spot to engage our youth with afterschool
activities and community outreach projects, and a way to get kids moving, thinking and caring.
Times of the Islands Winter 2018/19 19
I remember as a child growing up in the TCI how
important education and information became in the fight
against HIV. On paper the Edward C. Gartland Youth
Centre (ECGYC) ticked all the right boxes—stamping
out stigma and misinformation, creating a secure place
for young people to participate in, learn about and create
safe relationships with their peers—but the reality
became so much more than this. Now celebrating its
tenth successful year, the ECGYC has become one of the
most essential parts of the TCI community, and an indispensable
resource for the young people of our Islands.
What began with after-school tutoring, arts and
crafts and beach clean-up days has grown to encompass
15 different term-time programs, as well as more than
20 summer camps ranging from music to maths clubs,
cultural dance, water-based eco-camps, self-defense and
their extremely successful basketball camp—to name but
a few! The Centre is a roaring community success story.
The amazing team behind its creation and the hard-working
people who continue to bring incredible opportunities
to our children are truly the heroes of today, supporting
the fact that TCI’s most important resource is our youth.
In celebration of a decade’s worth of love and effort,
I asked the Edward C. Gartland Youth Centre staff, led by
Director Roxann Wake-Forbes, what stories they’d most
like to highlight so that readers could learn more about
their work. Unsurprisingly, they gave us the names of a
couple of kids—now all grown-up —who attended ECGYC
Food for Thought is a new charity set up to provide
daily breakfast to government school students –
starting with the primary schools in North Caicos,
Middle Caicos, South Caicos and Salt Cay.
We estimate that just $200 will allow us to provide
breakfast to one child for a whole school year.
If you would like to donate or learn more please
email foodforthoughttci@gmail.com
or visit our website foodforthoughttci.com
and have flourished into awesome community members.
Sometimes it’s easy to forget that when you attend
a fundraiser, watch a school dance recital or donate
to a silent auction, on the other side of that gesture is
a child who will perhaps get that much closer to their
dream. From passing an important exam at school, to
being sponsored to be part of a national sports team, to
being given the courage, skills and ability to start their
own business, at the end of the day the true value of the
Edward C. Gartland Youth Centre lies in the successes of
its kids. Our kids. The next generation of TC Islanders
forging their way in the world.
Wellington Williams
Most everyone knows Wellington, his cheery smile and
creative talents are legendary, as almost everywhere you
go you’ll catch a glimpse of his handmade jewelry. It’s
delicate, pretty and absolutely authentically local!
Wellington started attending the Youth Centre from
age 12, and he says, “My experience there was everything
to me. I think my favourite thing about the Centre was
that they always focused on being the best you that you
can be! They encouraged me to just try as many of the
programs they offered as I could, to expand my knowledge,
open up different paths and career opportunities.
This ‘just try’ attitude still helps me today in my business.
I have the confidence to take chances, try out new ideas
and get that positive outcome.”
Wellington now runs his own company, The
Wellington Collection, and recently opened his first store
at The Saltmills selling his beautifully designed jewelry
using local sand, conch and even recycled beer bottle
glass. He’s an inspiration to the younger generation,
showing what can be achieved with hard work and the
care of the community. And he’s always giving back—his
latest project is friendship bracelets that support local
charities, from the Turks and Caicos AIDS Foundation to
the Provo Children’s Home and of course there’s one just
for the Youth Centre too!
William Elliot
First off when I contacted Will-O (as he likes to be called)
about this article he responded with a very enthusiastic,
“You know I’d do anything for the Centre!” which speaks
volumes for how much this place means to the kids who
attend. He explained to me that what he loved most was
the chance to truly be himself. That it gave him a place
to express his creativity and meet new friends—many of
whom are still a big part of his life today. Will was just
20 www.timespub.tc
13 years old when he started attending ECGYC, using his
time there to study hard and participate in the Basketball
Camps—and now he’s studying in Manchester, England
for his Business Management Bachelor’s Degree and playing
for his university’s basketball team.
These stories highlight how essential the Edward
C. Gartland Youth Centre is to our Islands. When youth
become engaged in community activities they become
empowered, they realise their voices and opinions are
being considered, they feel a part of the bigger picture,
and all of a sudden our community becomes a place
where both youth and adults share the common interest
of making their shared space a better place.
It’s clear the ECGYC has helped dozens of kids
develop the skills to be effective leaders, given them a
sense of belonging and purpose, and created meaningful
positive relationships with adults outside of their families.
This shows youth that they are cared for not just
individually but as a whole, as a part of what makes the
TCI what it is.
With only three full-time and one part-time member
of staff, the centre relies on volunteers to help deliver
programs and, as a nonprofit organization, hosts several
fundraisers through the year to keep its doors open. The
annual Art Show in January at The Shore Club, the Wine
Cellar Golf & Fishing Tournament and the Beach Bonfire
and BBQ at Bay Bistro are just some of the ways they can
achieve this, along with donations from private donors
like you.
You cannot put a price on the benefits of a centre like
the one we are lucky enough to have here. There are a few
community leaders who have shown unwavering support
from the ECGYC’s creation to today, including founder
Galmo “Gilley” Williams and chairman Terry Drummey
from Hemingway’s. Both have been there every step of
the way, committing their time, money and hearts to this
wonderful cause. But everyone who attends an event, volunteers
time or makes a donation is part of what makes
it all work.
What the future holds for the ECGYC depends on
our community giving back. Their goals? Similar youth
centres on the TCI’s other islands. All it takes is a quick
glance at the smiling faces of all the kids whose lives
the EGYC has touched and changed to imagine the possibilities
if they could expand their reach all over Turks
& Caicos. We can’t wait to see what the next ten years
brings! a
Please help to provide FREE spay & neuter to the animals of TCI
For more information, visit www.ecgyouthcentre.com.
Free Spay Neuter Program
Times of the Islands Winter 2018/19 21
feature
Opposite page: Simple leaves, reddish petioles and tiny waxy yellow flowers make smooth snakebark Colubrina elliptica a subtly attractive
tree. It is a useful landscaping tree, remaining small and clean.
Above: Holding court from his home in Lorimers, Middle Caicos, Alton Higgs is a renowned local bush doctor and herbalist.
Magnificent Mauby
The unofficial national tonic of the Turks & Caicos Islands.
“Bush doctor,” I corrected my students, “not witch doctor. He makes herbal medications, he doesn’t fly
around on a broom.” We approached the low, flat house, so shrouded in a tangle of fruit trees and wildly
scrambling ornamental vines that it looked as though it was being coaxed down for a nap in the undergrowth.
Hanging baskets and shelves swinging from tree branches filled gaps in the foliage, as did a hefty
growth of flowering plants on the ground.
Story & Photos By B Naqqi Manco, TCI Naturalist
Times of the Islands Winter 2018/19 23
A number of roughly-painted
signs in loopy cursive festooned the
yard’s front fence, made from a bluegreen
net: “Roaming goats and cows
are a nuisance and forbidden by law to
enter this yard. You hear!” and “Speed
limit 20 MPH. You hear!”. “Hurricane
Relief Unfair” stated one, while two
more bore appeals to re-open old
field-roads to important cultural sites
and to give island-born children a status
to grow the nation had decidedly
more public-sector-aimed themes.
But the most important sign was
the two-foot-round circle of polystyrene
painted with a sketch of a house
and in burgundy letters: “He is here.”
(The other side, which could be seen
when the sign was swung around and
fastened with wire, stated “He is not
here”.)
Indeed, there he was, slung low
in his homemade seafoam green
hammock, a hand dangling so the
knuckles grazed the carpet of dead
leaves beneath, looking every bit as
enshrouded in greenery as his house:
Mr. Alton Higgs, the bush doctor and
herbalist of Lorimers, Middle Caicos.
My two British students, studying
conservation science, had a challenging
time with the sort-of language
barrier—they were new to the Caicos
Islands’ accent and lexicon. As Mr.
Alton stood from his hammock to
greet us, he invited us into his home
as he always did, to “Have a drink of
the God Bless!” I saw my students
mouth the words in silent curiosity. I
knew what was coming.
As we entered his living room, the
walls smattered with family photos,
religious iconography and awards of
recognition for personal and cultural
achievements, along with handmade
basketry and strings of sea beans,
and the floor padded by brightly
coloured hand-braided flotsam rope
rugs, Mr. Alton disappeared into the
From top: This sign is the Middle Caicos equivalent of “The Doctor is In.”
Alton Higgs’s pharmacopoeia includes mauby drink (in the juice jug at left) and mauby pills
(in the glass bottle at center).
kitchen and came back with a sweating pitcher and several large mismatched
plastic cups. I managed to take the smallest cup . . . I was experienced at this.
As the chilled liquid plunged from the pitcher into each cup, slightly
frothy and red-amber with just a hint of cloudiness, I could see my students
were uncertain. I took the lead and tossed back a hefty gulp of the drink. Its
intense bitterness shocked my tongue and made the inside of my check feel
24 www.timespub.tc
Island Organics_Layout 1 8/26/18 9:52 AM Page 1
rough. I gulped it and gasped, knowing that the aftertaste
about to form was far more pleasant than the initial gush
of acridity. My students had a visibly more challenging
experience, but they seemed to know that this was some
sort of a test. I’m not sure whether they figured they were
being tested by Mr. Alton or me, but they sallied forth
with strained gulps and a series of blinks and smacking
of tongues. In a ritual repeated several times over by my
students throughout the years, they had just had their
first taste of the unofficial national tonic of the Turks &
Caicos Islands, mauby.
This unofficial national tonic is something of a
regional specialty. Throughout the Caribbean Basin, from
Florida through the Islands, Central America into northern
South America, mauby is a cultural phenomenon.
Mauby beverage (in Spanish maví, pronounced similarly)
is made from one of two plants, more often the smooth
snakebark tree Colubrina elliptica. This small, attractive
tree in the buckthorn family grows throughout the New
World tropics in lowland forests and tolerates a wide
range of soil types and rainfall levels. Its close coastal
relative Colubrina arborescens, in Turks & Caicos often
called bastard-mauby or soap bush due to its historic use
as a natural washing-up detergent, can also be used to
make mauby.
In many parts of its range, mauby is prepared by
boiling the bark of these trees and adding sugar, spices
and other herbs and allowing the brew to ferment. This
was likely the origin of the drink—as a substitute for
potato beer when a blight killed Caribbean potato crops
in colonial times. While some ferment the brew strongly,
in Turks & Caicos it isn’t traditionally fully fermented.
Nowadays, it’s even made into a soda pop. In Trinidad
and Tobago and the Dominican Republic, it appears as
popular carbonated beverages, and has been compared
to root beer. In Barbados, Mount Gay produces a mauby-flavoured
rum.
Although its past purpose was likely inebriation, it
has other purported benefits today. In Turks & Caicos, it
is said to give strength and “clean the blood.” In Barbados,
it is used as a cooling drink and to treat arthritis, hypertension,
high cholesterol, diarrhoea and diabetes. In the
Dominican Republic, it is sold in rum bottles full of wood,
bark and leaves as the intoxicating Mamajuana, used to
cure all sorts of ailments.
Along with those benefits, it is also touted as a
severely effective tonic for the increase of stamina, and
as a decidedly powerful aphrodisiac. Its reputation for
stamina extends into the survival of stress related to
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From top: While most mauby collectors cut the main trunk of a tree
and strip all of its bark, old bark naturally peels off and can be collected
without harming the tree. Only the bark and wood are used
medicinally in TCI, but bush doctors in other areas use the fruit capsules
and shiny seeds to enhance the brew. Plant health officials in
Trinidad inspect a large consignment of mauby bark destined to be
turned into a popular beverage. The shipment originated in Haiti,
which, with the Dominican Republic, is the leading exporter of mauby
bark.
meeting the constant challenges in serving terms as an
elected official—at least one former Chief Minister (the
position now called Premier) used to occasionally order
a gallon of mauby from Middle Caicos to be sent up to
Grand Turk on the plane. It’s used for aphrodisiac purposes
in the Turks & Caicos and in Haiti as well (one
Haitian friend told me, “That’s why there’s eleven million
of us!”) and its popularity in some areas of Puerto Rico to
feed the demand for manifestation of machismo resulted
in the total disappearance of the trees, necessitating the
few remaining to be fenced for their protection.
Fortunately, its harvest in TCI is low and sustainable,
with bush doctors coppicing trees rather than removing
them, so new branches grow back from the trunks. While
there’s somewhat a revival of interest in bush medicine,
trees are no longer under the pressure they once were,
with many people opting for modern conventional drugs.
But the benefits of mauby are well-studied, and it’s not a
bunch of magical hocus-pocus.
The magic in plants is in their expertise as master
chemists, and the trees that produce mauby must be
some of the most achieved laboratory professors of all.
They produce hundreds of compounds that facilitate their
respiration, protection, photosynthesis, repair and reproductive
cycles.
Studies into the compounds they produce have
revealed that these trees are pulsing with cocktails in their
sap. With twice the tannins of red wine, the Colubrina trees
work hard on producing chemicals. Polyphenols protect
the trees from ultraviolet light damage and allow toughening
of tissues that have been attacked by pests and
diseases. An array of antioxidants is present in mauby,
some unique to the plant. Phenolic acid has been shown to
fight prostate cancer in medical studies in Sicily, and flavonoids
and anthocyanins help regulate chronic diseases
through inhibiting genetic inflammation and inflammatory
T-cells, as well as controlling immune cell activity.
Medical trials have shown these compounds effective in
treating asthma, arthritis and a variety of other inflammatory
diseases. Flavanols help block fat retention and
show anticancer properties. Several of the many alkaloids
present in mauby show antitumor qualities. Saponins,
which make the suds favoured in the soap bush, also
have anti-inflammatory effects. Isoflavones are present in
higher concentrations than in soy (known to help prevent
breast cancer) and stilbenes present in mauby are known
to inhibit formation of Alzheimer’s disease.
Studies done at University of the West Indies Trinidad
and Tobago found significant reduction in blood pressure
26 www.timespub.tc
during two weeks of daily mauby consumption compared
to placebo; similar results were noted along with lowering
of pulse rate in a study carried out in New York. Indeed,
the benefits of Mauby are well documented and continually
bring studied.
Before you rush out to your nearest bush doctor and
imbibe a quart of mauby to solve your every health problem,
remember that plant medicines are not inherently
safer than drugs from the pharmacy. Mistakes in species
identification, preparation methods and dosage can have
significant effects, and mauby is known, with so many
compounds in it, to contraindicate some medications
dangerously. One should always be certain to discuss
additions of medications, including bush medicine, to
one’s health regimen with a physician. Unfortunately, it’s
getting harder to find bush doctors these days, and the
art is gradually losing pieces as bush doctors stop practicing.
Fortunately, Mr. Alton has always been willing to
teach about bush medicine, and that’s why my students
would visit him. His knowledge of medicinal plants, which
is traditional and passed down from generations before,
is now being analysed in laboratories and found to have
significant potential. About 80% of our modern medicines
originate in plants, and we have a lot more plants to
investigate—there are lots more compounds to describe.
That crossover between fieldwork and lab work is important,
as is sharing benefits fully with the countries that
own those genetic and cultural resources.
While our approach was conservation rather than
medical development, the traditional uses of plants are
fascinating, and my students always come back to me
with lists of questions, usually on the botanical names of
the often-colourful local names Mr. Alton uses. But one
student I had, of the posher and formally educated ilk,
came back with a question that took some time for me
to digest. This student wanted to know who Marge was.
“Marge?” I asked. My student explained that Mr. Alton
kept mentioning someone named Marge when talking
about certain plant medicines. I asked for more information
and recognised the pattern. “It’s not a person’s
name. It’s not Marge . . . it’s marriage. I can understand
how it sounds like Marge to you.” My student looked distraught,
searched through notes, and began explaining
more. “Yes,” I explained, “You marriage plants to produce
some medications. It means combining them. Marriage
them.” My student looked rather taken aback, even horrified,
and scoffed, “Marriage? But that’s not a verb!” a
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Times of the Islands Winter 2018/19 27
green pages
newsletter of the department of environment & coastal resources
head office: church folly, grand turk, tel 649 946 2801 • fax 649 946 1895
• astwood street, south caicos, tel 649 946 3306 • fax 946 3710
• national environmental centre, lower bight road, providenciales
parks division, tel 649 941 5122 • fax 649 946 4793
fisheries division, tel 649 946 4017 • fax 649 946 4793
email environment@gov.tc or dema.tci@gmail.com • web https://www.gov.tc/decr/
DAVID M STONE
East Caicos reefs represent a significant reservoir of coral reef biodiversity that could prove to be resilient to climate change.
Hope for TCI’s Future
Climate change resilience and East Caicos coral reefs.
By Kathleen Wood, Don Stark and Marsha Pardee
In January 2017, the Turks & Caicos Reef Fund (TCRF), in association with SWA Environmental and Marine
Environmental Services (MES), received a Swift Small Grant from the European Union’s BEST 2.0 Project.
Entitled “East Caicos KBA’s Corals and Coasts: A Key to Safeguarding TCI’s Future,” the project’s primary
objectives were to study the coral reef ecosystems at East Caicos and to develop preliminary conservation
management recommendations.
Coral reef ecosystems across TCI and the wider Caribbean region are suffering from the ravages of
climate change, poor fishing practices and impacts from land-based development; however, preliminary
studies, conducted in May 2017, revealed that East Caicos coral reefs were healthy, with high levels of
live coral cover and limited evidence of disease or coral bleaching. The research team had cause for hope
that East Caicos could be a reservoir of coral climate resilience in this changing world.
28 www.timespub.tc
green pages newsletter of the department of environment & coastal resources
RICHARD GREEN
DAVID M STONE
DAVID M STONE
Then disaster struck. On September 7, 2017,
Hurricane Irma slammed into the Turks & Caicos
Islands as a Category Five storm. A mere fortnight later,
Hurricane Maria pounded ashore, adding insult to Irma’s
injuries. On South Caicos, the inhabited island closest to
East Caicos, more than 90% of buildings were damaged
or destroyed. Although thankfully, no lives were lost in
TCI, the catastrophic storms inflicted a scale of human
suffering on TCI not seen in recent memory. The East
Caicos research team was concerned that a similar level
of devastation may have been visited on the natural environment,
particularly on East Caicos reefs.
Project background and history
The scientific research conducted at East Caicos is among
the most extensive ever undertaken for coral reef ecosystems
in TCI. Initially, aerial and open-access satellite
imagery were analyzed to identify potential areas of interest
for investigating in person.
Then preliminary field studies were conducted by
dragging a snorkeler behind a boat and recording observations
of the seafloor. Using this method, 442 survey
points were assessed. Following preliminary field studies,
the marine habitats at East Caicos and their ecological
characteristics were assessed to create preliminary maps
using open-access (QGIS) GIS software. This information
was then shared during a workshop with stakeholders,
where preliminary conservation zones and management
recommendations were developed. All this took
place before the arrival of the 2017 hurricanes, and the
research team had to wait for almost a year before they
could discover if their original optimism regarding the
exceptional ecological qualities of East Caicos reefs had
been dashed to pieces in the turbulent storms.
In August 2018, the research team, aided by Explorer
Adventures, the Department of Environment & Coastal
Resources (DECR), the School for Field Studies (SFS) and
TCI residents from the dive and scientific communities,
were finally able to conduct in-depth monitoring at sixteen
dive sites and five snorkel sites across the north
shore of East Caicos. The quantitative surveys examined
From top: The East Caicos research team heads out to begin conducting
monitoring at 16 dive sites and five snorkel sites across the
island’s north shore. The team found that the reefs were healthy and
thriving.
Times of the Islands Winter 2018/19 29
green pages newsletter of the department of environment & coastal resources
From top: Divers conducted in-depth surveys on the reefs’ coral cover,
diversity, algal cover, coral recruitment rates, fish biomass and diversity.
On the reefs along East Caicos overall fishing pressure is light, maintaining
a healthy diversity of fish!
coral cover, coral diversity, algal cover, coral recruitment
rates, fish biomass and diversity.
To the team’s extraordinary relief, East Caicos reefs
are still vibrant and thriving, in spite of the impacts
of Hurricanes Irma and Maria. Live coral cover on all
reefs averaged approximately 20%, with the instance of
diseased or bleached coral being negligible. Results confirmed
the research team’s earlier observations, that East
Caicos reefs represent a significant reservoir of coral reef
biodiversity that could prove to be resilient to climate
change. These are important findings for TCI, the region
and the world.
Coral reefs and climate resilience
Why are East Caicos reefs doing well when other reefs are
struggling to survive? Resilience is the capacity to recover
from or adapt to impacts and/or change. Although coral
reefs have been in existence for approximately 500 million
years, they are struggling to keep pace with the rapid
environmental changes that humans are inflicting on
the planet. Corals are particularly sensitive to changes
in temperature and water chemistry. Warming water,
coupled with pollutants from human development and
agriculture have been catastrophic to coral populations
on a global scale, and scientists estimate that most of the
world’s coral reefs will be gone by the end of the century.
Resilient populations, such as those at East Caicos,
may be all that are left to repopulate the world’s
oceans, if they can survive.
East Caicos corals stand a better chance than most
for a number of reasons. The main factor is probably
the fact that there is no land-based development at East
Caicos; therefore, land-based pollution is negligible,
allowing offshore reefs to enjoy close-to-pristine water
quality. Diverse fish populations are also a critical factor.
Herbivorous fish maintain healthy coral populations
by eating competing algae and creating space for corals
to grow and prosper. Although East Caicos is an important
fishing area for South Caicos fisherfolk, fish species
that are critical to coral reef health, particularly herbivorous
parrotfish, are not targeted. Furthermore, overall
fishing pressure is light, due to prevailing weather conditions,
which allow for fishing only a few days of the
year. A final factor protecting East Caicos reefs may be
cold water, which upwells from the depths of the adjacent
7,000-foot-deep Columbus Passage, bathing north
shore East Caicos reefs in cool water and protecting them
to some extent from the rising ocean temperatures that
are killing off corals worldwide. In spite of these factors,
which offer East Caicos reefs a fighting chance, they are
still vulnerable to human activities.
Developing a conservation
management plan
With the exception of only a small portion of marine habitat
contained within the Ramsar Nature Reserve, none
of the coral reefs surrounding East Caicos have any
conservation status. East Caicos’ remoteness and inaccessibility
have thus far protected it from major development
MATTHEW SLATTERY
DAVID M STONE
30 www.timespub.tc
green pages newsletter of the department of environment & coastal resources
This peaceful scene on East Caicos exemplifies the need to keep it as an area of natural beauty in the Turks & Caicos Islands.
AGILE LEVIN
DAVID M STONE
schemes, but with other land areas rapidly developing
in TCI, East Caicos is viewed as a reservoir for future
major development. Many development proposals for
East Caicos have been suggested, such as trans-shipping
and cruise ports. Another project that may be detrimental
is the proposed “link road,” which will connect all the
Caicos Islands via causeways and bridges. The link road
will undoubtedly open up the island to large-scale and
uncontrolled development, as land grabbers flock to get
a piece of newly accessible land. Industrial commercial
fishing interests have also engaged from time to time
in large-scale trap fishing off East Caicos. Such practices
threaten the integrity of coral reef ecosystems via physical
damages to the reefs and indiscriminate trapping of
all fish species, including those important to coral reef
health.
In order to address these issues, the project developed
conservation management recommendations for
four conservation zones at East Caicos. These recommendations
were presented to stakeholders on South Caicos
in September 2018 and have been delivered to DECR and
Scientist Kathleen Wood analyzes water samples collected by divers
on the East Caicos reefs.
Times of the Islands Winter 2018/19 31
green pages newsletter of the department of environment & coastal resources
the TCI Government (TCIG). Interested parties can view
the final project report and recommendations at www.
TCRF.org.
Specifically, while traditional fishing should be
allowed to continue, the research team recommends a
ban on commercial-scale trap fishing across the northern
coastline of East Caicos. The team is also recommending
that the island be developed lightly, focusing on ecotourism
activities, which benefit small business owners
and operators, rather than on large-scale developments,
which will benefit only a few wealthy elites. The link road
should also bypass East Caicos, if the island’s intact but
fragile ecosystems are to stand any chance of survival.
Most importantly, these reefs need to be monitored over
time to identify any changes that may be occurring.
In order to ensure long-term monitoring takes place,
an NGO/Public/Private partnership has been outlined
between the TCRF, DECR and Explorer Adventures to
conduct regular monitoring at the established permanent
monitoring sites at least every two years. The ratification
and implementation of the recommended conservation
zones and management plans falls within the remit of
the TCIG. History will record if decision-makers are able
to set aside short-term political and financial expediency
to save East Caicos coral reefs for the world’s future generations.
We can but hope. a
Special thanks to the Explorer Adventures Fleet, operators
of the Turks & Caicos Explorer II for supporting this
effort by providing the vessel for completing the quantitative
survey work in August 2018. Thanks are also offered
to the DECR, the School for Field Studies and Timothy,
Marley and Vonne Hamilton for their assistance with this
project.
This document has been produced with the financial
assistance of the European Union. The contents of this
document are the sole responsibility of Wangeningen
Marine Research and the Turks & Caicos Reef Fund and
can under no circumstances be regarded as reflecting the
position of the European Union. a
32 www.timespub.tc
green pages newsletter of the department of environment & coastal resources
Ban the bag
Single-use plastic shopping bags will soon be removed
from supermarkets and shops across the TCI. The government-approved
import ban will come into effect
from January 1, 2019, with a ban on the use of singleuse
plastic bags by retailers to come into effect on May
1, 2019. There is a list of alternative bags which can be
used by retailers from May 1, 2019, on which reduced
custom tariff rates on some will be applied.
Although some residents and visitors are waiting
with baited breath for the plastic bag ban to kick into
gear in the TCI, others find themselves anxious about
what this would really mean for them and their households.
I’m here to tell you ‘“Fear no more!”
Let’s start with the “Why?” Why do we want to get
rid of these convenient little carriers? They are useful
for many reasons beyond carrying groceries out of the
store: They double as bin liners, are great for picking
up your dog’s doo-doo, save any fragile hairstyle from
the rain and are recyclable. Right? Wrong!
They may do all of the above, but their harm far
outweighs their usefulness. On average, it is estimated
that one person can use up to 170 plastic bags every
year. Of this, 150 million end up as litter, as only 3%
of them are currently being recycled and 200,000 bags
are dumped in landfills every hour. In China, 3 billion
single-use plastic bags are used every day. Worldwide,
about 2 million plastic bags are used every minute!
“So what,” you might ask? More frequently we are
seeing marine animals wash up on shore, with bellies
filled with our convenience. Ocean Crusaders estimate
that 100,000 marine creatures each year die from
plastic entanglement and these are the ones found.
Approximately 1 million sea birds also die from plastic.
A plastic bag can kill numerous animals because
they take so long to disintegrate. Plastic does not
biodegrade, no matter how many times we stamp “biodegradable”
on the bag. That means that as it breaks
up in our oceans, it has the potential to exponentially
harm! And not only sea creatures.
The World Economic Forum’s research has revealed
that 90% of our table salt is contaminated with plastics,
and—which may be even more alarming—microplastics
(the name we’ve given to the VERY tiny pieces that have
broken down, but not degraded) are now being found
in our poop! The full implications of this are yet to be
seen, but we can just look at what it is doing to our
marine and terrestrial friends and wonder if we would
suffer a similar fate?
However, there is hope! Our region has not seen a
massive reaction to plastics, in comparison to the rest
of the world, but TCI is one of the leaders on the frontline
of the war against plastic! Resorts and restaurants
are now serving drinks with paper straws (or no straws
at all) and are banning the single-use plastic water bottles,
instead offering guests a reusable souvenir that
may be filled up at water stations around the resort. So
those are the “big guys” making a change, but we, the
little guys, the individuals, have a responsibility too.
Not just to our environment, or ourselves, but to the
generation to follow after us. The plastic bag ban is a
simple and easy way to ensure that we are all (whether
it is convenient or not) becoming custodians of our natural
environment.
It’s all about a change of habit. Speaking from experience,
once you break your old habit (using single-use
shopping bags) and get into the routine of putting the
re-usable carriers in your car, after using them for your
regular shop, then it really is “as easy as that.”
I am here to give you the permission to moan and
groan, but keep an open mind and remind yourself that
your inconvenience may mean the world to the planet’s
future. Start packing your car with those re-usable bags
today, making it a habit for a lifetime. a
By Amy Avenant,
DECR Environment Outreach Coordinator
Times of the Islands Winter 2018/19 33
green pages newsletter of the department of environment & coastal resources
JOHN DEBUYSSER
A typical South Caicos coral community includes lobed star coral and boulder star coral, lettuce coral and the massive starlet coral.
Battle of the Reefs
Comparing South Caicos and East Caicos coral communities.
By John DeBuysser and Heidi Hertler, Ph.D.
Coral reefs are one of the most productive and biodiverse ecosystems on Earth, supporting 25% of marine
species and over 850 million people while composing only 0.015% of the ocean floor. These habitats
are of such importance to ecosystem function and worldwide economy that 2018 has been declared the
International Year of the Reef.
In the Caribbean region, coral reefs provide an estimated $3.1 to $5 billion to the Caribbean economy
through fisheries, shoreline protection, and tourism. The Turks & Caicos Islands (TCI) are fortunate to
have this beautiful and productive resource at our back door, supporting the local tourism and fishing
industries. The tide of tourism is rapidly flowing into the TCI, with numbers of visitors steadily increasing.
What we do now to preserve these habitats benefits the economy and sustains this resource for future
generations.
34 www.timespub.tc
green pages newsletter of the department of environment & coastal resources
Worldwide coral reefs are threatened by climate
change, ocean acidification, and anthropogenic disturbance.
Tropical reefs have lost more than half their
reef-building corals since the 1970s. Experts have established
a historical baseline of 53% live coral cover for
the Caribbean; today there is less than 20%. Although
coral cover in the TCI was recorded to be 20% in 1999,
it could not be determined if this area was following the
Caribbean trend. TCI reefs are fortunate to have low algae
cover compared to the rest of the Caribbean, allowing
stronger coral recruitment and resiliency to disturbance
events.
The resiliency of the Turks & Caicos’ reef ecosystem,
particularly those surrounding South and East Caicos, is
bolstered by a relatively extensive network of marine protected
areas and low anthropogenic impact, respectively.
In total, these 34 protected zones cover an area of 705
km 2 and comprise 11 national parks, 11 nature reserves,
7 areas of historical interest, and 4 sanctuaries. The
Admiral Cockburn Land and Sea National Park is one of
these areas off the southern shore of South Caicos. The
park was designated for its excellent reef habitat and representation
of the greater TCI reef system. This area has
minimal pressure from development or tourism, providing
excellent utility as a study area to establish baselines
for TCI reef health.
The School for Field Studies Center for Marine
Resource Studies (SFS CMRS) is located in South Caicos
and ideally situated to study and monitor local reef systems.
SFS is a US-based academic institution that provides
multidisciplinary, field-based environmental study abroad
opportunities to undergraduate university students.
East Caicos is the TCI’s largest uninhabited island
and lies to the north of South Caicos. The reefs of East
Caicos are important historic fishing grounds yet are
largely without survey or assessment. This past August
the TC Reef Fund, in cooperation with Explorer Ventures
and funded through an EU BEST 2.0 Swift Small Grant
(“Understanding East Caicos KBA’s Corals and Coasts:
A Key to Safeguarding TCI’s Future”), hosted scientists
aboard the Turks & Caicos Explorer II, including SFS CMRS
faculty Dr. Franziska Elmer, to conduct the first mapping
and habitat surveys of the area.
East Caicos’ coral reefs are not within a protected
area, though the island’s remoteness, uninhabited status,
and limited history of commercial and agricultural use
School for Field Studies staff and students conduct underwater
assessments of permanent transects at South Caicos reef sites.
have protected the marine ecosystems from significant
degradation and make it ideal for comparison to other
systems around the TCI.
Benthic surveys of South Caicos reefs have been completed
by SFS staff and students in the fall and spring
for the past six years. Ten permanent transects are surveyed
and photographed. Coral Point Count with Excel
Extensions (CPCe) was used to analyze photos by identifying
species under randomly selected points. Over 44,000
spatially random points on the photographs were analyzed.
This year the survey of local reefs was expanded to
include East Caicos. Similar to South, 49,500 points were
surveyed along transects on the north side of East Caicos.
Data was grouped into live coral (stony corals), soft
corals (gorgonians), sponges, algae (macro and coralline),
and unsettled substrate (sand, pavement and rubble).
We observed a slight decline in live coral cover on South
Caicos from 2015 to 2018, though this difference was
found to not be significant. East Caicos averaged 12%
live coral cover as compared to South Caicos’ 4% live
coral cover. Conversely, East Caicos was found to have
significantly greater macro algae cover as compared to
South Caicos, which featured more bare rock and rubble
substrate. The presence of bare substrate without
HEIDI HERTLER
Times of the Islands Winter 2018/19 35
green pages newsletter of the department of environment & coastal resources
algal competitors suggests this can be good habitat for
coral recruitment, hopefully poising South Caicos for an
increase in coral cover.
The South Caicos coral community is dominated
by lettuce coral (Agaricia agaricites), lobed star coral
(Orbicella annularis), boulder star coral (Orbicella franksi)
and the massive starlet coral (Siderastrea siderea), while
East Caicos reefs are characterized by mountainous star
coral (Orbicella faveolata), lobed star coral (Orbicella
annularis), boulder star coral (Orbicella franksi) and
mustard hill coral (Porites astreoides). We compared the
biodiversity of the two areas using the Shannon-Weaver
Index. This metric takes into account both the number of
species present and also the relative abundance within
the community. These values are important when trying
to understand community structure. Although East
Caicos appears to have greater benthic diversity, there
was not a significant difference between the sites.
Moving forward, we will continue to monitor the South
Caicos and East Caicos reef systems. Further analysis will
focus on coral recruitment rates to better understand the
net population trends of the present coral community
and its resiliency to potential disturbances. Both South
Caicos and East Caicos reefs will likely face challenges as
tourism continues to rise and fishing pressure increases
to feed a growing population. Research such as this provides
detailed information on the status of these reefs so
stakeholders can make informed decisions on the management
and preservation of the “Beautiful by Nature”
marine resources of the Turks & Caicos Islands. a
Sources
Buddemeier RW, Lane DR, Martinich JA (2011) Modeling
regional coral reef responses to global warming and
changes in ocean chemistry: Caribbean case study.
Climactic Change 109: 375-397.
Carleton C, Hambrey J (2006) Review and re-assessment
of the TCI protected area system. Nautilus Consultants
Ltd.
Dikou A, Ackerman C, Banks C, Dempsey A, Fox M,
Gins M, Hester P, Parnes A, Roach S, Rohde J, Spital C,
Tapleshay M, Thomas L (2009) Ecological assessment
to detect imminent change in coral reefs of Admiral
Cockburn Land and Sea National Park, Turks and Caicos
Islands. Marine Ecology 30: 425-436.
From top: Coral Point Count with Excel Extensions (CPCe) allows for
determination of coral cover from transect photographs by identifying
species at random points.
This graph shows the percent coverage of transects determined from
photo analysis. East Caicos (green) and South Caicos (orange) are
compared by three categories: corals and sponges, macroalgae and
coralline algae, and sand, pavement, and rubble.
International Year of the Reef (2018) International Coral
Reef Initiative.
Jackson JBC, Donovan MK, Cramer KL, Lam VV (editors).
(2014) Status and trends of Caribbean coral reefs: 1970-
2012. Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network, IUCN,
Gland, Switzerland.
Kohler KE and Gill SM (2006) Coral Point Count with Excel
extensions (CPCe): A visual basic program for the determination
of coral and substrate coverage using random
point count methodology. Computers and Geosciences
32(9): 1259-1269.
World Wildlife Fund (2015) Living blue planet report: species,
habitats and human well-being. World Wildlife Fund
International, Gland, Switzerland.
36 www.timespub.tc
MARTA MORTON—WWW.HARBOURCLUBVILLAS.COM
feature
Opposite page: Building the Caicos Sloops that were so important for transportation and trade required tremendous ingenuity and resourcefulness
from the native boat builders.
Above: This 1910 postcard shows workers in the salt ponds of Grand Turk, in front of the Old Prison and Victoria Library. Although they were
not slaves (slavery was abolished in 1834), the image depicts the difficult conditions workers faced.
E NEALE COVERLEY—COURTESY TURKS & CAICOS NATIONAL MUSEUM COLLECTION
Sailing to Freedom
TCI slave escapes in the early 1800s.
By Ben Stubenberg
Few endeavors are more woven into the culture and history of the Turks & Caicos Islands than sailing. Ever
since the Bermudians rediscovered TCI some 350 years ago and began collecting salt from the natural
salinas, boats played a defining role. By day, fast and agile sloops called “lighters” brought sacks of the
precious “white gold” from the shores of Grand Turk, Salt Cay and South Caicos to larger ships waiting in
deep water for the voyage back to Bermuda. Larger sloops plied the turquoise waters between the scattered
TCI settlements where Islanders welcomed their arrival for the passengers and cargo they carried
and news they brought of separated kin and the world beyond.
At night, however, the vessels served a more daring, clandestine purpose. Under the cover of darkness,
the salt raker slaves who had had enough secretly gathered on the beach where the boats bobbed in
the sea. Quietly, they unfurled and raised the sails, let the warm wind fill the luffing canvass, and steered
south by the stars splashed across a black Caribbean sky to freedom.
Times of the Islands Winter 2018/19 39
The rocky islets of Bermuda, where this story begins,
lie some 750 miles (1200 km) due north of the TCI in
the middle of the North Atlantic. Settlers from Scotland,
England and Ireland first arrived on the 21 square mile
archipelago in the early 1600s and tried to make a go at
small scale agriculture. But when the soil depleted after a
couple of generations, they looked for other ways to survive.
Straddling the major shipping routes from Europe to
the West Indies, as well as close proximity to the American
colonies, Bermudians found a niche as an opportunistic
seafaring outpost. The settlers and the African slaves
they imported built boats with shallow drafts that also
made them more maneuverable for negotiating tricky
reefs. They also improved the four cornered trapezoid
gaff rig so it could point the boats more closely into the
wind and require fewer tacks.
In what became known and admired as the Bermudian
Sloop, sailors gained a decisive advantage that translated
into a measure of autonomy and a geographical
reach well beyond their isolated islands. It also bred a
brash, adventurous spirit in a dangerous, unforgiving
world where pirates and warships roamed the same seas,
jockeying for dominance and riches. Though nominally
under British dominion, Bermudians often became pirates
themselves and traded with any nation that could pay,
including Britain’s enemies.
With these swift sloops, the Bermudians, black and
white, explored the Bahamian Archipelago in search of
shipwrecks with treasure and to hunt for turtles. During
one of the voyages in the latter 1600s, they came across
the then-uninhabited islands of TCI. A century before, the
Taino and Lucayan Indians had all been killed by disease,
slaughtered, or carried off as slaves forced to dive for
pearls off the coast of Venezuela. (See “Diving Free,” Fall
2018 Times of the Islands.) The Bermudians took note of
the salinas (salt ponds) of Grand Turk, Salt Cay, and South
Caicos that allowed in just enough ocean water to leave
behind high quality salt around the edges after evaporation
in the hot sun. Before refrigeration, salt preserved
food, and was thus extremely valuable.
At first, the Bermudians dropped off white, indentured
salt rakers in March at the beginning of the dry season
The hard, brutal work and conditions for the salt-raking slaves were detailed in the story of Mary Prince, herself a slave from Bermuda who
spent ten years on Grand Turk from 1802 to 1812. After being brought to London as a slave, she ran away from her “owner” and told her
story to British abolitionist Thomas Pringle, who transcribed her words that became a best selling book.
40 www.timespub.tc
Walkin May2017_Layout 1 5/28/17 5:45 PM Page 1
and picked them up in November, along with the salt they
had gathered. As demand for salt rose in New England,
Newfoundland, and Labrador to keep cod from rotting
(fishermen needed two pounds of salt for every pound of
fish), Bermudian salt merchant slaveholders swapped the
white salt rakers for slaves of African descent and established
permanent settlements around the ponds.
Slavery’s harsh reality
The work and conditions were hard and brutal. (See
“Toiling in the Salt Ponds,” Fall 2008 Times of the Islands.)
We know in painful detail from a rare first-hand account
of the plight of salt-raking slaves by Mary Prince, herself
a slave from Bermuda who spent ten years on Grand Turk
from 1802 to 1812. After being brought to London as a
slave, she ran away from her “owner” and told her story to
British abolitionist Thomas Pringle, who transcribed her
words that became a best selling book.
“I was given a half barrel and a shovel, and had to stand
up to my knees in the water, from four o’clock in the
morning till nine. [I} worked through the heat of the day;
the sun flaming upon our heads like fire, and raising
salt blisters. Our feet and legs, from standing in the salt
water for so many hours, soon became full of dreadful
boils, which eat down in some cases to the very bone. We
then shoveled up the salt in large heaps and sometimes
we had to work all night, measuring salt to load a vessel;
or turning a machine to draw water out of the sea for the
salt-making.”
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Any slave perceived as not putting in full effort could
expect tortuous punishment. Mary Prince describes what
happened to “Old Daniel” who could not work as hard as
the others because of a lame hip.
“[The owner] would order him to be stripped and laid
down on the ground, and have him beaten with a rod
of rough briar till his skin was quite red and raw. He
would then call for a bucket of salt, and fling [it] upon
the raw flesh till the man writhed on the ground like a
worm, and screamed aloud with agony. This poor man’s
wounds were never healed. I have often seen them full of
maggots, which increased his torments to an intolerable
degree. He was an object of pity and terror to the whole
gang of slaves, and in his wretched case we saw, each of
us, our own lot, if we should live to be as old.”
For the slaves, it was well nigh impossible to break
Times of the Islands Winter 2018/19 41
MARTA MORTON—WWW.HARBOURCLUBVILLAS.COM
What became the Caicos Sloop proved to be the equal of the masterful Bermudian sloop, allowing TCI to develop its own sailing prowess. The
maritime linkages between the Islands enabled the boat builders to pass on sailing skills to salt rakers.
out of their subjugation. Unlike mountainous Jamaica
where runaway slaves called “Maroons” could hide in
small communities deep in the interior jungles, TCI’s
small, flat islands offered no such refuge. The slave masters
had the salt rakers trapped—until a confluence of
three pivotal elements gave them a chance: The means
to escape, a safe haven, and an intelligence network to
guide their course of action.
Building the Caicos sloop
As slaves like Mary Prince and Old Daniel labored to produce
ever more salt under threat of violence, the salt
merchant pond owners needed more boats to transport
their commodity. Bermuda was already running short of
trees to cut, but small forests in Middle Caicos turned out
to have excellent quality wood to build small lighters, as
well as bigger sloops for longer voyages. Constructing
the boats locally instead of sailing hundreds of miles
down from Bermuda made sense. And soon an independent
boat building industry sprang up using African
slaves from Bermuda as shipwrights, carpenters and
blacksmiths.
The tenacity to build Bermudian-style fast sloops from
scratch in the bush cannot be overstated. David Douglas,
owner of the West Indian sloop Atabeyra and founder
of the Caicos Sloop Project, makes clear the incredible
resourcefulness and ingenuity required. “With just meager
tools, these TCI guys went into the bush, found the
right trees, and hand-cut the wood to build ocean-going
vessels. And the builders passed down that knowledge,
as well as the skills to sail, from one generation to the
next, right through to today.”
James S. Deane of Wheeling on Providenciales recalled
the traditional boat building techniques that he had
learned from his father. They built their Caicos Sloops the
way they did 200 years ago, using mostly strong locust or
mahogany wood for the keel and ribs and Caicos pine for
the planks, mast and spars. Builders would often search
and select trees that already had a natural curve so just
one piece could be used. “After laying the keel,” Mr.
Deane said, “the ribbing shape only varied between the
more rounded ‘rainbow’ style or ‘straight V.’ My father
could cut the planks so precise that the spacing would
be as little as 1/64th of an inch. But the craftsmanship
was actually too good, as it did not permit enough space
for the caulking using sisal tree fibers and ‘putty’ made
from a mix of ant nest and paint. So they had to widen the
spacing a bit.” For Mr. Deane and the other boat builders
of today and long ago, the sloops were as much a work
of art and beauty, as function. They wanted their boats to
42 www.timespub.tc
look as good as they sailed.
What became the Caicos Sloop proved to be the equal
of the masterful Bermudian sloop, allowing TCI to develop
its own sailing prowess. The maritime linkages between
the Islands enabled the boat builders to pass on sailing
skills to salt rakers, according to Dr. Carlton Mills, editor
of the The History of the Turks & Caicos Islands. That connection
was particularly strong between Middle Caicos
and South Caicos, as boats regularly launched from the
settlement of Lorimers and made their way down the
channel and the lee side of South Caicos for trade, news
and, over time, family ties with the salt rakers. Dr. Mills
also points out that salt rakers on Grand Turk, Salt Cay
and South Caicos likely worked on the small lighters sailing
between the shore and larger ships to bring salt and
off-load cargo, which would further enhance their nautical
knowledge. For slaves seeking to escape, however,
the boats had limited utility unless they could find refuge
with contacts, a sanctuary in an otherwise hostile environment.
Slaves revolt in Haiti
Beginning in the 1770s, revolutions rumbled first in the
American Colonies, followed by France, and then Haiti.
All violently challenged longstanding notions of hierarchy
and power and called for a new, more egalitarian political
order. However imperfectly, the leaders attempted to
apply what had been only philosophical concepts of basic
rights, social contract and democratic self-determination.
For slaves in Haiti, the revolutionary choice was far more
stark—barbarous bondage or liberty.
The French colony then known as St. Domingue lay
just 100 miles (160 km) south of TCI and encompassed a
third of Hispañola. The fertile land there produced more
wealth than any other colony in the Caribbean, mainly
through vast sugar cane plantations. For aspiring French
gentry seeking fortune and higher status, Haiti offered
a clear path to get there. All it took were seed capital,
importing thousands of slaves from Africa to work the
fields and a decade of ruthless plantation management.
Slaveholders figured they could get one or two year’s of
hard labor from a slave before he or she succumbed to
Yellow Fever or exhaustion, so they constantly sought
to replenish slaves, while expanding their plantations to
generate more income. The reckless greed soon led to
a 10:1 ratio of slaves to whites, higher than other West
Indian colonies, including TCI which had at most a 6:1
ratio. Watching the insurrections in Haiti and experienc-
Times of the Islands Winter 2018/19 43
BEN STUBENBERG
James S. Deane of the Wheeling settlement in Providenciales is one of the great living TCI boat builders. He learned the craft from his father.
ing their own revolts in Jamaica, the British were especially
sensitive to slaves overwhelming the white population,
according to Dr. Mills, and sought to reduce the ratios as
a management technique.
In 1791, the first revolt took place in Northern Haiti
near the colony’s capital, Cap-François, today called Cap-
Haitien or Okap. The slaves massacred several plantation
families before being put down. But precedent had been
set, and soon new uprisings took place leading to the
creation of well-led Haitian militias that evolved into disciplined
armies pitted against French troops fighting to
preserve the plantation system.
The conflict took many twists and turns over the
next 12 years, including alliances on both sides with free
mulattos who saw an opportunity to improve their own
lot as a class with limited rights. The French Revolution
ideals of liberty, equality and fraternity had already
reached Haiti’s shores and been internalized by slaves
and mulattos. When Napoleon Bonaparte came to power
in France in 1802, the now ex-slaves had taken control
over most of Haiti. Influenced by his wife Josephine, herself
from Martinique, another colony dependent on slaves
to cut cane, and plantation owners eager to regain their
holdings, Napoleon sent an army of 50,000 men from
France to quash the rebellion definitively. By the following
year, however, almost all the troops had been wiped out
by Yellow Fever and a formidable Haitian fighting force.
Napoleon would later write that his effort to win back
Haiti was the worst decision he ever made.
On January 1, 1804, Haitian leaders formally declared
their independence, becoming the second independent
republic in the Americas and the first black one. They
discarded the name St. Domingue and restored the original
Taino Indian name, Haiti, meaning “land of high
mountains.” The Haitian Revolution stands as the only
successful slave revolt in history. The biggest slave rebellion
prior to Haiti had been the unsuccessful uprising led
by Spartacus against the Romans more than 1,900 years
earlier. Keenly cognizant of their singular accomplishment,
Haitians enticed thousands of free and enslaved
blacks in the West Indies to flee to their shores and secure
rights denied elsewhere.
44 www.timespub.tc
Network of black mariners
The triumph by the oppressed in Haiti reverberated
throughout the slave communities in the West Indies,
as well as among slaveholders fearful that insurrections
might come their way too. While slaveholders, merchants
and government authorities typically got their information
through the press, letters, official reports, visitors
and sometimes plantation owners fleeing the strife in
Haiti, slaves received their updates in a very different
manner. Excluded from standard forms of communication,
slaves relied instead on black sailors who picked up
news in the ports they visited and passed it on, effectively
creating a parallel structure.
Dr. Kevin Dawes, Professor of History at the University
of California, Merced, explores this dynamic in his paper
“Enslaved Ship Pilots in the Age of Revolution: Challenging
Notions of Race and Slavery between the Boundaries of
Land and Sea.” He writes:
“Atlantic ports were market places for news and pilots
funneled intelligence between mariners, passengers, and
shoreside communities, serving as the overseas eyes and
ears of urban and rural slave communities. News was
passed by word of mouth along maritime routes . . . free
black sailors linked black communities in New England to
the West Indies.”
Hugh final_Layout 1 5/29/17 1:15 PM Page 1
Professor Dawes goes on to assert that “these murmurs
of liberty rippled across the greater Caribbean inspiring
corollary slave rebellions.”
During this era of political and social upheaval in
the Americas, black mariners, slave and free, occupied a
unique and liberating space on the water with far fewer
constraints than slaves on land. Able to roam, these men
of the sea witnessed and absorbed the fissures of instability
and change in the region that they passed on. In
the fluid environment, black mariners also understood
how their specialized skills could be exploited for more
privileges and to redefine notions of race and status. As
Professor Dawes explains, the independent character of
the labor of free and enslaved black mariners “undercut
white dominance, allowing them to use the ocean as a
transient sphere of opportunity where they severed terrestrial
ties . . . and gained economic advantages and
racial parity deprived ashore.”
Nowhere was this equality more conspicuous than
with enslaved pilots who gained the trust of white shipmasters
to safely guide the lumbering sailing vessels into
tricky harbors after crossing the Atlantic. Shipmasters
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Times of the Islands Winter 2018/19 45
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in fact became dependent on pilots’ essential maritime
knowledge, enabling them to take advantage and invert
the racial hierarchy of subservience. Indeed, enslaved
pilots regularly talked back, cursed and ordered about
white captains and crew. One account of an enslaved pilot
in Barbados has him even demanding grog as he took
command of a ship entering the harbor and offered a
toast to the white women passengers below, something
that would not have been tolerated on land.
Ship owners and shipmasters did not object or challenge
the pilots, lest they risk the pilot “accidentally”
crashing the ship and cargo on the reef or shoals around
the harbor. In some instances, ship owners even enjoyed
watching the black slave pilots boss around white sailors,
thus further highlighting the inverted social hierarchy
on deck. The deference given to these black mariners,
of course, infused a level of confidence and freedom to
move about and openly flout the norms of the day.
As many ships frequented Grand Turk, Salt Cay and
South Caicos to unload food and materials and pick
up sacks of salt, these black mariners and other slaves
brought news of revolt and liberation to the salt rakers.
Their influence on the salt rakers did not go unnoticed by
TCI slaveholders who blamed them for inciting escapes.
In the chapter on Slavery in The History of Turks & Caicos
Islands, TCI historian Nigel Sadler quotes the assessment
of the “King’s Agent” in TCI Colonel Alexander Murray in
1798:
“Of late many valuable Negroes allured by the description
given them of French liberty by their associates,
have eloped to the enemy. One man of Salt Cay, James
Deane, has lost no less than fifteen. Of the several plans
to escape with boats to Cap François, we have found no
instance where the French Negroes were not the principals
or parties.”
And this was well before the Haitian Revolution had
ended.
It is important to note that while black mariners
calling on TCI ports played a critical role in transmitting
intelligence for would-be escapees, they were not the
only source. Dr. Mills notes that household slaves also
had excellent access to information by their proximity
to the salt merchants they served. They may have overheard
talk about upcoming travels, in-fighting or illnesses
that would have distracted slaveholders from keeping a
watchful eye. The house slaves would feign ignorance or
disinterest when in fact they were listening and observ-
46 www.timespub.tc
TWATIMES_Layout 1 2/16/17 7:49 AM Page 1
ing carefully. At the same time, Dr. Mills suggests, slave
mistresses of the salt merchants may also have picked
up intelligence through their intimate contact to pass on.
These important nuggets could be pieced together and
factored into decision-making for an escape. Any escape
plot took extensive and creative planning to ensure success.
Failure was not an option, and there is in fact no
record of TCI slaves being caught escaping.
Efforts to stop slave escapes
The first King’s Agent in TCI, Andrew Symmer, made the
initial attempt to control boats being taken by slaves. He
required all boat owners to remove their sails at night
and instituted liability and penalties by compelling “any
master of a servant or slave” who absconded with a boat
“to make good all damages” to the boat’s owner. By the
early 1800s, local authorities instituted more severe measures
to punish slaveholders for not controlling slaves
sufficiently. If the slaveowners lost slaves to escapes,
authorities reduced their share of the salinas in direct
proportion to the slaves they no longer had, thus hurting
them financially.
The incentives to control slave escapes apparently
had little effect, as statistics bear out the prevalence of
slave escapes from TCI. According to Mr. Sadler, “Between
1822 and 1825, of the 142 slaves listed as runaways in
the Bahamas (which at that time included TCI), 128 (90%)
had absconded from Turks & Caicos, mainly due to the
ease of access to salt ships and proximity of Haiti.” These
included slaves escaping in this time frame on sloops
from Hawks Nest, Grand Turk, from North Caicos using
sloops owned by Wade Stubbs also in 1823, and from
South Caicos in the sloop Polly taken from Henshall
Stubbs.
Finally, British officials deployed a detachment of the
West Indies Regiment on Grand Turk to uphold law and
order in the early 1830s. But even that was not enough.
A year before emancipation in 1834, salt pond owner and
slaveholder Henshall Stubbs took matters into his own
hands by furnishing his own boats to serve as a de facto
coast guard to try to stop the exodus of slaves getting
away by boat.
Absconding with sloops to sail to Haiti and freedom
was not unique to TCI. Professor Dawson notes that in
1817, seven Jamaican slaves commandeered their pilot
boat, the Deep Nine, when the owner and captain went
ashore near Port Royal and sailed it to Haiti. British
authorities blamed Haitian sailors for importing revolutionary
ideals that led to the slave escapes by boat.
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Times of the Islands Winter 2018/19 47
Project11_Layout 1 11/14/18 3:09 PM Page 1
Knowing that the new Haitian government protected fugitives
from re-enslavement, the runaway Jamaicans made
no attempt to conceal themselves or their boat when the
owner/captain came to Haiti looking for them. He got the
boat back but not the mariners, now former slaves.
Leaving a legacy
The names of enslaved TCI salt rakers who escaped their
ordeal have been lost to history. But through the words of
Mary Prince echoing through the centuries, we know how
motivated they must have been. We know the courage
that it took in view of the severe punishment that awaited
them if caught. And we know that they were very much
part of a Great Caribbean network of intelligence fostered
by black mariners and other slaves who kept them well
informed.
Using nautical skills likely acquired from handling
lighters and from boat builders, escaping slaves would
have been prepared to sail the 100 miles (160 km) to
Haiti in less than a day with a good northerly breeze.
As for navigation, Mr. Douglas posits that the escaping
slaves probably knew quite well what they were doing.
“In late winter/spring, they would easily have located
the Southern Cross just above the southern horizon that
would have guided them to Cap-Haitien.”
We can only imagine the anguish the salt rakers felt
leaving behind family and friends without much hope of
seeing them again. At the same time, we can sense the
thrill of escape across the ocean and embarking on a new
life in a new land, however uncertain the future. Indeed,
the TCI salt rakers took full advantage of the cracks in
the prevailing system of bondage to make their move.
Far from passive observers, scores of salt rakers, perhaps
hundreds, claimed freedom on their terms in their native
Caicos sloops despite resolute efforts to stop them, leaving
behind a legacy of bold defiance. a
Ben Stubenberg is a contributing writer to Times of the
Islands with a passion for Turks & Caicos Islands history.
An avid ocean man, he is the co-founder of the sports and
adventure tour company Caicu Naniki and the annual
Turks & Caicos “Race for the Conch” Eco-Seaswim. Ben
can be reached at ben@caicunaniki.com.
48 www.timespub.tc
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the sporting life
Opposite page and above: In order to prepare for his upcoming participation in the 2019 Marathon Des Sables (and to stave off the ravages
of turning 50!), TCI explorer and author John Galleymore undertook a serious fitness regime.
Fit at Fifty
It’s never too late to get in shape when extreme challenges are ahead.
By TCI Explorer John Galleymore ~ Photos By Brilliant Studios, www.brilliantstudios.com
As I explained my next planned adventure and what it entailed, a close friend replied, “Hadn’t you look to
start getting in shape?” He cited a recent picture of me on East Caicos and, on reflection, I have to admit
I was getting a little portly. If I was serious about competing in the 2019 Marathon Des Sables, a 250 km
run across the Sahara Desert, then I had some serious training to do.
Times of the Islands Winter 2018/19 51
I have just turned 50 and have always been active
with hiking and running, but as you get older the weight
can start to creep on and it’s often harder for older folks
to shift it. But take heed, excess weight is not just a vanity
issue—it can lead to health problems such as strokes,
diabetes and heart issues.
I decided to tackle this dilemma on all fronts and not
just “crash diet” to lose a few pounds. I undertook some
serious research that led me into the realms of weight
training, boxing, yoga, nutrition and the understanding
of hormones and their role in balancing our bodies.
Before and after
I decided to set out all the things I needed to change,
including:
DIET: I decided make subtle changes to my eating habits.
Out went white bread, bad carbs, candy, processed foods,
and most dairy products, and in came more vegetables,
good fats, seeds and nuts. I cut down on my intake of
meats (especially red meat) and immediately felt better
for it.
GYM: I wanted to keep toned up as I lost weight so
enrolled in the Wrightfully Fit gym on Providenciales
(www.wrightfullyfit.com). This had the cross section of
exercises I was looking for, including free weights, cardio
machines and boxing punch bags. I gleaned plenty of
advice from owner John Wright for the road ahead.
YOGA: I wanted to increase my flexibility. This not only
decreases the chance of injury, but yoga is a great way to
de-stress and it can give an enormous sense of well-being
and calm. I found the best place for all types of yoga at
any level of ability to be the Retreat Yoga and Wellness
Studio (www.retreattc.com) at Ports of Call plaza.
SWIMMING: This is the one sport that “does it all.” If you
can never run, get to a gym or go to an exercise class,
then 20 minutes of swimming a few times a week will
make a huge difference! Better still, you don’t need to be
an expert swimmer and it’s free!
HORMONAL IMBALANCE: Most people are only not aware
that any hormonal imbalance can wreak havoc on the
body. From thyroid issues to insulin production, how we
feel (and look) are often a direct result of our natural
hormone production.
One aspect of the regime involved a variety of exercises and weight
training at Wrightfully Fit Gym in Providenciales.
Working out in the gym
I have frequented gyms on and off most of my life, so I
do feel comfortable in them and the machines and equipment
are second nature to me. However, for a beginner
they can be very daunting places to walk into. I appreci-
52 www.timespub.tc
John Galleymore found yoga to increase his flexibility, strength and overall well-being.
ated the friendliness and welcoming nature of the staff
and gym users at Wrightfully Fit. A good introduction for a
novice would be to book a one-to-one session with either
John or one of his qualified personal trainers. They will
show you around the gym and give detailed instruction
on how to use the equipment so that you get maximum
benefit and exercise safely. They can design a program
tailormade for you.
Yoga
“We believe yoga is a path to connection, and the antidote
to separation. Yoga is one of the most holistic approaches
to your well-being, because while the physical aspect of
yoga is often what draws people to the practice, there
is an undercurrent of self-awareness and a broader life
perspective developing.”
—Laura and Lindsay Mensen
Yoga is something I’d never done. It never appealed
to me, because I thought that unless you’re heaving
weights around, panting for air and sweating profusely,
it’s not “real” exercise . . . how wrong I was! As a novice,
I booked a private lesson with Lindsay, who co-founded
The Retreat with her sister Laura. Within minutes Lindsay
has me totally at ease. She takes me through several basic
poses, moves and techniques which are the fundamentals
of yoga. Once I’ve got the basic grasp, I can join a class
anywhere I choose. I tell her my concern that I will stand
out as a novice, and get the poses wrong. She assures
me that yoga is all about yourself and you go at your own
pace. I soon find that the positions come easily, although
I’m amazed at the strength needed to hold them correctly
for any period of time. Fortunately, you can make the
session as hard or as easy as you like—The Retreat offers
classes to suit everyone from Deep Flow to Hot Yoga and
relaxing and gentle stretching.
Swimming in warm TCI waters
I’ve been told countless times that swimming is the best
all-round exercise you can possible do, for it’s the one
activity that works all the major muscle groups and gives
you a cardio workout simultaneously. Despite knowing its
benefits, I’ve never been a great swimmer and if I was to
stick to my new fitness regime, that had to change!
Of all the sports and exercises available, swimming is
probably one of the few that you can’t initially self-learn.
Once you have the basics however, you can advance and
improve alone and at your own pace.
Times of the Islands Winter 2018/19 53
Although I could already swim, I wanted to improve
my technique, so I contacted Ben Stubenberg, a TCI swim
coach and founder of the “Race for the Conch” ocean
swim event (www.caicunaniki.com). I started off slowly
and very soon improved my technique, allowing me to
swim farther. The good thing about swimming is that you
don’t need to be an expert—even a short swim will give
you a great workout. If it’s confidence in the water you
need, there’s no better teacher than Ben, and he offers
his services to any age and any level of swimmer.
“Open water swimming provides a workout experience like
no other. When you swim in the clear turquoise waters of
our islands, you not only engage the whole body in fluid
motion, but you enter a different world. There is no other
exercise that so completely utilizes every muscle group.”
—Ben Stubenberg
The training regime
Now that I had the best information from professionals
in their fields, I embarked on a 12-week program of
health and fitness. My goal was to lose my excess weight,
become fitter, leaner and more supple. I initially set
about training three to four times a week. Primarily, this
was gym-based as I wanted to ease into the training to
avoid any injury. I started off with light weights and built
up gently as my strength increased. John Wright was a
constant source of advice and inspiration. Under his guidance,
I found myself using free weights, boxing punch
bags and cardio machines.
I soon added a weekly swim into my program. This
was actually on my “rest day” from the gym. Rest is as
important as working out and without good rest days,
injury and fatigue will soon follow. Swimming is the best
exercise to limit stress on the body, so it’s perfect to start
Swimming in TCI’s exquisite turquoise waters is exercise good for
body, mind and soul.
off with while you strengthen joints and muscle.
After a number of lessons at The Retreat Studio, I
was able to practice yoga at home. It is one of the few
exercises you can do anywhere! At home, on the beach—
there’s no excuse once you have learnt the basics and it’s
also a great way to relieve stress.
54 www.timespub.tc
Lise amends_Layout 1 11/14/18 7:43 PM Page 1
In fact, stress and anxiety are one of the key factors
in gaining and retaining excess weight. Who hasn’t been
in the situation where we grab a candy bar or slice of
cake after a hard day? That is stress creating a hormone
called cortisol. Levels of this “stress hormone” rise during
tension-filled times. This can turn your overeating into a
habit. Because increased levels of the hormone also help
cause higher insulin levels, your blood sugar drops and
you crave sugary, fatty foods. It is a vicious circle that
needs to be broken.
I would recommend that anyone serious about changing
their lifestyle or concerned about excess weight visit
the doctor and get blood tests to determine any underlying
issues. As men age, testosterone decreases and this
can lead to excess weight around the belly. In women,
menopause can wreak havoc with weight, so it’s important
to seek advice whatever your gender.
Dr. Lise Cloutier
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Changing my food lifestyle
In order to find the best way I could to change my “food
lifestyle,” I contacted Tamika Handfield, founder of
Nutrition In Demand (www.nutritionindemand.com) and
one of the leading authorities on nutrition and health in
the TCI. She says, “Don’t diet—change your lifestyle!”
Dr. Lise Cloutier, Courtyard Chiropractic and Wellness
La Vista Azul, Unit 6-9, Turtle Cove, Providenciales, TCI
Call 649-339-1000
www.ChiropractorAndMassageTherapy.ca
urgent care • family medicine
URGENT CARE
WALK-IN CLINIC
“Eating well is fundamentally important to living well and
having good quality of life as we age. The old adage, ‘We
are what we eat,’ turns out to be true. The nourishment
the body needs to support good growth in children and
optimal health in adults comes directly from the foods we
eat. Therefore, it is imperative that we choose whole foods
over refined foods; fruits and vegetables over chips and
soda and lean protein sources such as beans and poultry
over their fat-laden counterparts of beef and pork.
Changing the way you eat can seem daunting if you
try to do everything at once. Instead, commit to making
small, incremental changes that you can maintain. For
example, if you are trying to eat less meat, commit to eating
a vegetarian meal at least once a week until you are
AND WELLNESS CENTRE
• • •
(649) 941-5252
on site pharmacy
located adjacent graceway gourmet
Focused on the patient
The way medicine should be practiced
Times of the Islands Winter 2018/19 55
Exercise of any kind is a good way to defuse the tensions of life (and relieve excess aggression!)
comfortable cooking that way and then you can increase
the number of days you have a vegetarian dinner. Eating
a healthy diet consists of variety, portion control (moderation),
and being intentional about what you put into your
body.”
䨀 愀 渀 甀 愀 爀 礀
㈀
琀 栀
㈀ 㤀 㘀 㨀
倀 爀 漀 甀 搀 猀 甀 瀀 瀀 漀 爀 琀 攀 爀 漀 昀
—Tamika Handfield MS, RD,
Founder, Nutrition In Demand
䌀 栀 椀 氀 搀 爀 攀 渀 猀 倀 愀 爀 欀 Ⰰ 倀 爀 漀 瘀 椀 搀 攀 渀 挀 椀 愀 氀 攀 猀
吀 甀 爀 欀 猀 ☀ 䌀 愀 椀 挀 漀 猀 䤀 猀 氀 愀 渀 搀 猀
䄀 䴀
䘀 漀 爀 洀 漀 爀 攀 椀 渀 昀 漀 㨀 ⠀ 㘀 㐀 㤀 ⤀ 㐀 㐀 ㈀ⴀアパート 㤀 㜀 㠀 簀 渀 甀 琀 爀 椀 琀 椀 漀 渀 椀 渀 搀 攀 洀 愀 渀 搀 䀀 礀 愀 栀 漀 漀 ⸀ 挀 漀 洀
簀 洀 漀 瘀 攀 愀 琀 栀 漀 渀 琀 挀 椀 ⸀ 挀 漀 洀
Tamika gives some great advice. It’s about a lifestyle
change, not crash dieting or starving yourself. Despite
my rigorous training and watching my diet, I still had a
few beers and a pizza at the weekend. However, I was
conscious not to eat junk food all weekend (as I used to)
but use it as “reward’ for a good week’s training.
In my research I came across all sorts of weird diets.
One that I did investigate was the Ketogenic Diet. This
seems to be the “fad” diet at the moment, but I did follow
it on a basic level—cut out carbs (found predominantly in
processed foods), introduce more “good” fats, fish and
vegetables and cook with butter and not processed vegetable
oil.
After some weeks, I found the excess weight falling
off and I had more energy as I “de-toxed” into a healthy
diet. Training became more habit than chore and when
I couldn’t make the gym or a swim, I walked to work
instead. I lost 32 pounds over 12 weeks (going from 220
pounds to 188) and will look to continue to embrace a
healthier lifestyle. It’s not hard to do, it’s simply a case of
making good choices. a
*Be sure to seek medical advice before undertaking any
exercise regime or diet change.
56 www.timespub.tc
The Toughest Foot Race in the World:
Running for TCI charities
Runners in the annual Marathon Des Sables will be attempting to complete the equivalent of six regular marathons in six days through
the Sahara Desert. TCI adventurer John Galleymore will be competing from April 5–15, 2019 to raise money for several TCI charities.
In April 2019, I will be departing the Turks & Caicos
Islands and heading to Ouarzazate, Morocco and the
infamous Sahara Desert for the Marathon Des Sables,
named by the Discovery Channel as the “toughest footrace
on Earth.” I will join a few hundred other crazy
runners and we will attempt to run, walk, hobble and
probably crawl the 160 miles (equivalent to six regular
marathons) from start to finish. Each runner will have
to carry all their kit and food for the week and we will
sleep in basic open-sided tents set up each night by a
local Bedouin tribe. Water is supplied at checkpoints
along the route each day and is strictly rationed.
The terrain is typical desert, just like the movies!
Vast open desert interspersed with towering sand
dunes, over which we need to run up to 20 miles a
day, in temperatures exceeding 100ºF. To add to the
“fun,” the organizers throw in a “double stage” which
is over 50 miles and will take most people 20 hours or
more to complete, which means running all day in the
extreme heat, then continuing through the night when
temperatures plummet to freezing.
This will be a huge challenge, least of all as I just
turned 50 this year, but others in life face daily challenges
beyond their control. It’s for that reason that I
will be running this race to raise funds for five charities,
four of which are in the TCI. The UK-based charity,
Weldmar Hospicecare, is the hospice where my loving
aunt recently passed, having been diagnosed with cancer.
I will be raising funds for the TCI Cancer Society in
memory of her, along with Ashley’s Learning Center,
the TCSPCA and the Iris Stubbs Primary School.
I am trying to raise $15,000. and would welcome
help from any resort, business or individual who is able
to assist me. Thanks to all who have supported me so
far, and especially those businesses who have donated
including: Projetech, Grace Bay Club, Graceway IGA,
Blue Kayak Fishing (South Caicos). a
John Galleymore
Please get in touch if you would like to know more or to
donate: galleymorejohn@gmail.com or 649 232 7083.
For more information on the Marathon Des Sables, visit
marathondessables.com.
Times of the Islands Winter 2018/19 57
astrolabe
newsletter of the Turks & Caicos National Museum
front street, p.o. box 188, grand turk, turks & caicos islands, bwi
tel 649 946 2160 • fax 649 946 2160 • email info@tcmuseum.org • web www.tcmuseum.org
RA SHAW DESIGNS
This drawing depicts architect Ron Shaw’s plans for a new Museum building in Providenciales.
Plans for Provo Expansion
By Dr. Michael P. Pateman, Museum Director, Turks & Caicos National Museum Foundation
At the September meeting of our Board of Members and Directors, architect Ron Shaw presented plans
for a new museum facility in Providenciales. This work was conducted pro bono and we are grateful that
one of the TCI’s premier architects donated his time and talents for the growth and expansion of the
museum. Inspiration for the design comes from the Bermudian architecture that is a prominent part
of the landscape of the Turks Islands (particularly Grand Turk and Salt Cay) but is absent in the Caicos
Islands. With a new design, we will launch a major fundraising campaign.
58 www.timespub.tc
The Ron Shaw drawings above show what the new museum building on Providenciales would look like from the front and road sides (at left)
and how the building would fit into the existing campus on Grace Bay.
One of the most important reasons for a national
museum’s existence is to preserve cultural identity—to
help develop pride in who we are, particularly among the
young people who may not know our stories and histories.
While the museum on Grand Turk already serves
this purpose, with the majority of the population and
economic activity on Providenciales, the museum must
expand its presence there if we seek to stay relevant in
the national spotlight.
A national museum on Providenciales can be an
invaluable resource to all residents and visitors. Not only
would it have a permanent exhibition space with areas
dedicated to sectors of island life including art, history
and the environment, but also include temporary exhibition
spaces for special in-depth and traveling exhibits.
This museum would include a gift shop and café to make
the experience a pleasant one for visitors. Finally, it would
have a resource center to encourage historical research.
Such a place would function as both an educational
and entertaining space in the Turks & Caicos community.
The new museum gallery will be community-formed,
community-driven and community-supported and be a
genesis for cultural, heritage and historic research and
revitalization of the Turks & Caicos Islands.
The development of an expanded museum facility
at our campus on Grace Bay does not signal our abandonment
of Grand Turk. The National Museum remains
committed to our location on our nation’s capital.
While the focus of this introduction has been on the
planned expansion in Providenciales, this issue features
two unrelated projects on Grand Turk. In the first, Matt
Williamson describes the beginnings (and future plans)
for research on Over Island Cemetery. In the other, we
learn about early photographers on Grand Turk from one
of our long-time contributors Jeffrey Dodge.
The history and heritage of the Turks & Caicos Islands
is diverse, as our readers surely know. We will continue to
make sure that diversity is highlighted in future editions
of the Astrolabe and in our museum facilities. a
Join the Museum
Become a Member of the Turks & Caicos National
Museum and receive a year’s subscription to Times
of the Islands (which includes Astrolabe), free
admission to the Museum and other benefits.
Senior (62+) $35
Individual $50
Family/Friend $100
Sponsor $250
Contributor $500
Partner $750
We have several options for joining:
• Visit the Museum at our Providenciales location at
The Village at Grace Bay or our Grand Turk location
in Guinep House on Front Street
• Visit our website at
www.tcmuseum.org/membership-support/.
*For U.S. residents, support of the Museum may be tax-deductible
if you join via Friends of the Turks & Caicos National
Museum, our affiliated institution and registered 501 (c) (3).
See our website for more details:
www.tcmuseum.org.
RA SHAW DESIGNS
Times of the Islands Winter 2018/19 59
astrolabe newsletter of the Turks & Caicos National Museum
This image shows Structure 2 in Grand Turk’s Over Island Graveyard, located in the center of Town Salina, before vegetation has been cleared.
Morning in the Garden of
Good and Evil
Investigating Grand Turk’s Over Island Graveyard.
Story & Photos By Matthew A. Williamson, Ph.D.
My apologies to the author John Berendt, who penned the book Midnight in the Garden of Good and
Evil, for only slightly changing his title for this article. I think it’s appropriate though, given the work
that I do and where I live. You see, I am a bioarchaeologist and I teach at Georgia Southern University in
Statesboro, Georgia, which is 50 miles northwest of Savannah—the city that provides the setting for Mr.
Berendt’s book. As a frequent visitor to Savannah, I am well familiar with her attachment to the past and
reverence for cemeteries (or “the garden” as Minerva calls it in the book).
60 www.timespub.tc
astrolabe newsletter of the Turks & Caicos National Museum
A bioarchaeologist is someone who specializes in
the study of prehistoric or historic period human skeletal
remains for the purpose of learning things about their
health and physical activity when they were living. This
is possible because bone is made of living tissue. That
comes as a surprise to many folks because we tend to
think of bone as “dead” since it is mineralized. In fact,
there are cells living within the rigid mineral and they can
react and adapt to mechanical, disease and nutritional
stress.
In 1890, an anatomist named Julius Wolff discovered
that bones can reinforce themselves in areas where
they are subjected to stress. This principle has become
known as “Wolff’s Law.” For example, when muscles pull
on bones to create movement, they stimulate bone cells
to lay down more mineral in order to strengthen the
bone where the muscle attaches. This is why someone
who is at risk for osteoporosis is advised to participate in
weight-resistance exercise. Bigger muscles mean a stronger
pull on the bone which results in thicker bones. At
one 19th century cemetery where I was working, I uncovered
the remains of two brothers, one with a more robust
skeleton than the other. By applying what we know about
how larger muscles mean larger muscle attachment
sites, I concluded that one brother had a more physically
demanding lifestyle than the other. This was justified
when I found out later that the brother with the larger
muscles had been a farmer.
As you can imagine, I’ve spent a lot of time working
in cemeteries in places like London, the midwest United
States and all over Georgia, but bones aren’t the only
things in a cemetery that can tell us something about the
lives of its occupants. Grave markers, inscriptions and
decorations offer insight on how the person wanted to
be remembered or how their family wanted them remembered.
Moreover, materials used for the grave marker
can be a symbol of economic status and the location of
the grave is often an indication of social status. In many
churches around the world, the burial sites closest to the
altar were reserved only for the most influential or the
most holy.
I first became interested in the Over Island Graveyard
located in the center of the town salina on Grand Turk
after I had heard about it from Dr. Donald Keith. My wife
and I visited the Turks & Caicos Islands for the first time
in 2014 and during that visit we stopped at the museum
Anatomist Julius Wolff discovered that bones reinforce themselves in
areas where they are subjected to stress. This principle is helpful to
the study of bioarchaeology.
on Providenciales. After a lovely tour given by the most
friendly and knowledgeable manager, Candianne Williams,
I was inspired to think about how I could get involved
with the museum. Once I returned home, I started to educate
myself about the prehistory and history of the TCI.
I found several interesting books and monographs and
discovered that the TCI has been the subject of archaeological
and historical inquiry for many years by some
excellent scholars. I then realized that something I had
begun at the Georgia Southern University museum might
also be of use to the TCI museum. It’s a monograph
series that’s available free through our website.
In archaeology, it’s common to get involved in projects
that may not create enough data or be unique enough to
warrant publication in a peer-reviewed scientific journal.
Yet, the project or data may still have some significance
to other archaeologists or scientists who are interested
in the region or time period. I decided to present the
idea to Dr. Keith that we could publish monographs that
cover archaeology, history, natural history and culture of
the Turks & Caicos Islands that anyone can access for
free though the museum’s website. He accepted my offer
Times of the Islands Winter 2018/19 61
astrolabe newsletter of the Turks & Caicos National Museum
with enthusiasm and so “The
Occasional Papers of the Turks &
Caicos Museum” began.
As we discussed possible
manuscripts for publication,
he sent me what field notes,
maps and photographs he
had compiled of the “over-island
graveyard.” Of course, this
piqued my interest. In particular,
I wanted to examine one tomb
that was missing a large section
of the cover making it possible
to see down into the grave shaft.
From the photograph, I wasn’t
able to see any human remains
or artifacts. However, it was clear
that if there is ever any interest
in identifying who is buried there,
then whatever remains are in that
grave must be recovered and protected
as soon as possible. Continued exposure to the
elements will only accelerate the bone decay which will
render any attempt at extracting DNA impossible.
Like the exposed tomb, it was evident that the entire
graveyard has been abandoned. Many gravestones are
missing and a couple of walls surrounding plots have
collapsed. Inscriptions on the existing gravestones have
completely eroded from the soft limestone over time and
many headstones are missing. It’s impossible to determine
who’s buried there if you’re going to use headstone
inscriptions. There is a small ridge running through the
graveyard that is eroding and has probably caused the
destruction of at least two burial sites. In one area, the
sand has disappeared to the point where there is a large
hole within which you can see the bottom of a gravestone.
A small herd of donkeys has taken up residence in
and around the graveyard and they’ve created several
trails between various areas. They are contributing to the
graveyard’s decay as they trample fallen gravestones and
structures. Lying on the ground along one of the donkey
trails I found a small stone fragment that had a “W” carved
into it and what is also probably an “F”. It wasn’t located
anywhere near an obvious grave and there wasn’t enough
remaining to determine for sure if it is part of a headstone.
This is a large erosion hole found on the ridge at the Grand Turk Over Island Graveyard. Note the
exposed bottom of the grave marker.
This is the stone fragment with inscribed W and probable F that was
found lying on the ground along one of the donkey trails.
I decided that I wanted to help preserve the graveyard
and so I put together a plan that builds on Dr. Keith’s
work. (You can read about what he found in the Spring
2013 Times of the Islands Astrolabe entitled “The Island
Within the Island.”) Currently, there is no fence surrounding
the graveyard so one goal is to determine its
62 www.timespub.tc
astrolabe newsletter of the Turks & Caicos National Museum
boundaries. This requires removal of vegetation that has
grown up and obscured most of the area. That will permit
creating a map of each and every grave marker, tomb,
wall and limestone block.
Once the map is completed, then a search for
unmarked graves can begin possibly through the use of
ground penetrating radar. The “GPR” device is dragged
along on a small sled as it transmits sound waves into
the ground. As the waves are reflected back, a graphical
readout of the soil density is created. Because grave
shafts have been filled in with soil that is less dense than
the surrounding, undisturbed soil it creates a distinct
feedback signal that can be detected by the radar. There
are caveats though—sometimes the feature turns out to
be an anomaly or an old tree root. Moreover, it can’t produce
a picture of a skeleton lying in the ground. Still, GPR
devices can significantly reduce the time spent searching
for graves even if occasionally the “hit” in the readout
turns out to be nothing.
After a complete map is created, decisions will need
to be made regarding whether or not to construct a permanent
fence, place signage including a historical marker
explaining the graveyard’s history, and determining who
will take care of graveyard maintenance. As Dr. Keith
reported in his article, there is already an ordinance
issued in 1861 that empowers commissioners to use
funds from the public treasury to pay for maintenance!
Another major issue to be resolved is whether or not
the community supports the identification of who is buried
in each grave. Unless a map of the cemetery can be
found that shows each grave labeled with the occupant’s
name, the only way to establish positive identification will
be though DNA comparison. This would be a major undertaking
because it would require excavation and reburial
of each grave and many graves would be destroyed in the
process.
We do have a general idea of who is probably buried
there. Former Museum Director Pat Saxton found death
records from 1825 to 1835 that list at least 95 individuals
buried “at the island” or “on the island” referring to
the Over Island Graveyard. According to those records,
adults, children, whites, blacks, slaves and freedmen
are all buried there, with recognizable surnames like
Lightbourne, Misick and Stubbs.
Also among those buried is Reverend John Turtle, the
second Methodist minister to be assigned to Grand Turk.
(According to church records, Roger Moore was the first
assigned to “Turks Island.”) Reverend Turtle was born
in Ipswich, England on June 9, 1793. A conversation he
had when he was 18 caused him to realize how he had
neglected prayer in his life and motivated him “ . . . to
break off my sins, desert my ungodly companions, and
devote myself to his service.” After being ordained sometime
during the following six years, he was appointed to
the Bahamas by the Methodist Conference of 1817. He
felt a strong call to serve as a missionary and so was quite
excited about this new appointment as he left England on
April 16, 1817. After 28 days at sea, he arrived in Nassau
on May 14, 1818. Reverend Turtle then set about his
duties of evangelization travelling the Eleuthera circuit
on horseback, boat and occasionally walking up to 20 or
more miles. According to one account, he developed a
painful swelling in his legs causing him to be confined to
his home. In 1819, after getting married, he visited Grand
Turk for the first time. He continued to struggle with his
health to the point where he could not fulfill an appointment
to Jamaica and so he returned to the Bahamas.
Reverend Turtle continued to preach in the Bahamas until
his last appointment on Grand Turk, where he died presumably
from consumption on August 16, 1825 at the
age of 32.
Dr. Michael Pateman was chosen as the new museum
director around the time I was developing my plan to
map the graveyard and, fortunately, he expressed his
full support and offered his assistance moving forward.
After an impromptu visit to Grand Turk in June to get
an idea of how I would begin and with permission from
the Department of Environmental and Cultural Resources
(DECR), I gathered my gear and headed out for Grand
Turk again in July 2018.
I know that most archaeological fieldwork in the
Islands is carried out in the fall, but I have a significant
teaching load that forces me to conduct all of my work in
the summer. However, I do live in Georgia so while I can’t
say the heat doesn’t affect me at all, I am somewhat used
to dealing with it. I decided I would focus my mapping
efforts in the morning before the heat really cranked up.
Using Dr. Keith’s map, I chose a burial feature consisting
of one elevated tomb surrounded by a low wall. It was
easy to spot since it was one of the few that was not completely
overgrown.
First, I had to establish a datum (which is a perma-
Times of the Islands Winter 2018/19 63
astrolabe newsletter of the Turks & Caicos National Museum
Above: After a full day of clearing off the tomb and wall, this is the
appearance of the graveyard’s Structure 2.
Left: This shows the possible stucco found on the outside of a tomb
and on the sides of a few plot walls.
nent reference point that’s used for creating a grid and
for measuring) by hammering a metal rod about a foot
into the ground nearby. It was now time to begin removal
of the overgrowth. I was equipped with pruning shears,
a hand saw and branch clippers, but the vegetation was
dense and the human-eating, devilishly thorned acacia
bushes were not going to be dismissed without a fight!
Fortunately, I was assisted by Vanessa Pateman, a graduate
student in museum studies from the University of
Western Illinois. Her hard work and enthusiasm was very
much appreciated. I also want to thank Dr. Pateman for
his help clearing the brush during one especially hot day.
We spent the entire first day just clearing off the
tomb and wall. The next day, we were able to set up a
square using spikes at the corners and string to connect
them. Vanessa and I took turns measuring the position
of limestone blocks and the dimensions of the wall and
tomb. Archaeologists use a grid to create a record of
where artifacts are found and to permit reconstruction of
the site in the report. The typical grid square size is one
meter by one meter but it can be adjusted to fit the needs
of the project. In our situation, a six by six meter square
was the minimum size needed to enclose the wall around
the plot.
A total of five days in the “garden” was all I could
spend on this trip, during which time Vanessa and I were
able to map two grid squares. Dr. Keith estimated that
the area of the graveyard is 2,000 square meters, so you
can see that this project won’t be completed any time
soon, but that’s typical in archaeology. I can’t say we
made any discoveries that changed our understanding
of the graveyard but there was one unexpected thing. I
noticed a thin, white material on the outside of a tomb
and on the sides of a few plot walls. It looks like it could
be white stucco but I couldn’t be sure. If it was, it represents
an additional cost above what was necessary to
build a plain limestone box and would have gleamed a
brilliant white in the TCI sun. On my last day, I walked the
entire grounds and examined the open tomb I mentioned
earlier. I couldn’t see any remains but it was obvious that
it’s suffering from decay like the others. Now that I’m
back at the university, my time is spent planning a return
to the graveyard in July to continue adding to the map
and doing whatever archival work I can to help us tell the
story of the people buried there. a
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astrolabe newsletter of the Turks & Caicos National Museum
This is a real photo postcard (RPPC) of a canal leading from the sea to salt ponds on Grand Turk in 1905. Both the photograph and the above
postcard are attributed to Edmund N. Coverley. This same photograph was used again in 1905 to produce a machine printed postcard.
EDMUND NEALE COVERLEY
A Glimpse of the Past
Early photographers on Grand Turk.
By Jeffrey Dodge
Edmund Neale Coverley, one of the most active early photographers on Grand Turk at the beginning of
the 20th century, has been the subject of several past articles in the Astrolabe. He is well known because
many of his photographs were used to produce early picture postcards.
The earliest postcards attributed to Coverley were probably produced and printed by the photographer
himself in his darkroom on photographic paper designed with a pre-printed postcard back. These real
photo postcards (RPPC) were produced between 1904 and 1906.
Times of the Islands Winter 2018/19 65
astrolabe newsletter of the Turks & Caicos National Museum
EDMUND NEALE COVERLEY
At least five picture postcards of scenes on Grand
Turk were produced in 1904 by the British firm John
Walker & Co. Ltd. from photographs taken by Edmund N.
Coverley or possibly an unknown photographer—probably
an itinerant photographer who traveled throughout
the islands on behalf of this company for the sole purpose
of taking photographs that the company would use
to produce postcards they would then sell to island merchants.
John Walker & Co. produced picture postcards
of Bermuda, Nassau and Barbados as well as Grand Turk
during this period.
Although Coverley is the best known photographer
on Grand Turk in the early 20th century, there were others.
Some remain unknown, but two have been identified.
In the 1920s, two residents of Grand Turk began photographing
scenes on the island and turning some of their
photographs into picture postcards. The photographers
were John Copeland Crisson, a native of Grand Turk, and
Robert O. Challis, a Londoner who moved to Grand Turk
around 1925 in the employ of Imperial & International
Communications, Ltd.
John Copeland Crisson was born on Grand Turk in
1864. He married Adelaid Spencer there in 1868 and
they had two children, Charles Hayward and Herbert
This family portrait pictures John Copeland Crisson, Mary Adelaid
Spencer Crisson, Herbert, John (Jack), Frank and Elodie in Bermuda
about 1910.
Spencer. John C. Crisson was the editor and proprietor of
the Weekly Record newspaper which he started in 1892.
However, it was short-lived and ceased operating 18
months later. It is not know what Crisson did prior to his
work as a newspaperman.
The Crisson family left Grand Turk for Bermuda about
1896 where they had three more children, John “Jack”
Ethelbert, Elodie Ophelia and Frank Noel. Exactly what
John C. Crisson did while in Bermuda is uncertain, but it
is documented that in 1907 he was first mate aboard the
schooner Priscilla when it made a trip from Bermuda to
Grand Turk to deliver a cargo of lumber and returned to
Bermuda with a shipment of salt from South Caicos. John
C. Crisson wrote and published the story of this journey,
so it is possible he also wrote other articles or stories—
possibly for newspapers. Descendants report that Crisson
was involved in the salvage business while in Bermuda.
When John Crisson returned to Grand Turk is uncertain,
but it must have been before he became editor of
The Chronicle and Dependency News in 1924. The government
retaliated against the newspaper for critical
articles it published, forcing it out of business in 1930. In
addition to his newspaper work, Crisson made numerous
voyages between Grand Turk and Jamaica on his ketch
Kariette. Denis Murphy in his memoirs, My Years in The
Sun: Island Memoirs, referred to uncle “Johnny” Crisson
as a photographer and amateur boat builder.
Most of the known John Copeland Crisson photographs
are of the damage on Grand Turk caused by the
hurricane of September 16, 1926. This storm, known as
the Great Miami Hurricane, passed just 10 miles north
of Grand Turk with winds of 150 mph. John Crisson captured
the damage in a series of photographs. He used
some to produce real photo postcards, probably printing
them himself on Kodak AZO paper having a pre-printed
postcard back. Some of these postcards he embossed
with “Crisson Photo” on the lower right corner. It is not
known how many photographs or postcards Crisson may
have produced during his life.
John Copeland Crisson was a ship’s captain, newspaper
man, photographer and amateur shipwright. He could
also play the violin and speak Spanish. John Copeland
Crisson died and was buried on Grand Turk in 1939. His
wife Mary died in 1944 and was buried in Bermuda—perhaps
having moved there after her husband’s death to be
near her daughter Elodie and son John “Jack” Crisson.
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astrolabe newsletter of the Turks & Caicos National Museum
EDMUND NEALE COVERLEY
Top: This photo captures hurricane damage to a government office on Grand Turk in September 1926. (Notice “Crisson Photo” embossed in
lower right corner.)
Bottom: This image shows the schooner David Morris on the beach in Grand Turk after the hurricane of September 1926.
Times of the Islands Winter 2018/19 67
astrolabe newsletter of the Turks & Caicos National Museum
Robert Ormond Challis was born in London, England
in 1907. He left England around 1924 for Jamaica and
Grand Turk as an employee of Imperial & International
Communications Ltd (renamed Cable & Wireless Ltd.
in 1934). He married Kathleen Mable Murphy on Grand
Turk four years later. Kathleen was the sister of Denis
H. Murphy, the author of My Years in the Sun: Island
Memoirs. In addition to his work as a “cable engineer,”
Robert Challis was a photographer and a member of the
“Cables”—the Imperial & International Communications
Ltd. soccer team. It is interesting to note that Robert’s
father, Ormond E. Challis, was a recognized photographer
in the United Kingdom and a member of the Royal
Photographic Society.
Most of the known Challis photographs were of general
scenes around Grand Turk. For example, he took
photographs of the salt ponds near Government Wharf,
St. Mary’s Church, St. Thomas’ Church, the east side of
Grand Turk, North Pond, “Little Bluff,” the cable office,
etc. These were taken between 1925 and 1929. Challis
used some of his photographs to produce postcards.
Although the postcards were real photo postcards (RPPC),
Challis didn’t print them himself. Instead, he sent his
negatives to at least three different British firms to have
postcards produced for him. Most of his postcards are
only identifiable because Challis himself or a collector
wrote Challis’ initials and the date on the back as well as
a title identifying the scene pictured on the front. At least
one of Challis’ photographs, titled “Sunset,” can be found
in the collection of the National Archives UK.
Robert O. Challis and his wife Kathleen had two
children—daughter Lorna was born on Grand Turk in
1931 and son David was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia
in 1936—about two years after Cable and Wireless Ltd.
transferred the family to Canada. It is possible that the
Challis family moved back to Grand Turk in late 1938,
but records confirming this are lacking. However there
is photograph of Robert Challis taken on Grand Turk in
1939 that was published in the Cable and Wireless staff
magazine Zodiac. Sometime before 1947, the Challis family
moved to Bermuda—possibly still employed by Cable
and Wireless Ltd. Robert Challis died in 1959—his wife
Kathleen passed away a year later—both are buried at St.
Paul’s Church Cemetery in Paget Parish, Bermuda. Challis’
ROBERT ORMOND CHALLIS
The Grand Turk Athletic Club and “Cables” (striped shirts) soccer teams pose on Boxing Day 1926. Robert O. Challis is on far right.
68 www.timespub.tc
astrolabe newsletter of the Turks & Caicos National Museum
ROBERT ORMOND CHALLIS
From top: Robert Challis photo-postcards of a coconut plantation at “Little Bluff” in 1926 and Grand Turk’s Government Wharf in 1927.
photographs of his years in Canada and Bermuda have
not been found and it is unknown whether or not he continued
his interest in photography after leaving Grand
Turk in 1934. a
All of the photographs and postcards by John Crisson
and Robert Challis known to the author were found in the
collection of the Turks & Caicos National Museum. There
are probably many more as yet identified photographs by
these two men in private collections.
The author would like to thank the following people
for their helpful contributions to this article: Gwendolyn
Crisson (related by marriage to John Copeland Crisson);
Edward C. Harris, PhD, Bermuda Maritime Museum,
Bermuda; Lisa Talbot, staff, Turks & Caicos National
Museum.
Times of the Islands Winter 2018/19 69
astrolabe newsletter of the Turks & Caicos National Museum
Museum matters
History and Cultural Heritage Quiz
The TCI celebrated Heritage Month 2018 under the
theme, “Celebrating from whence we’ve come.” As part
of the event, the Museum held its third annual History
and Cultural Heritage Quiz for secondary schools on
October 4, in collaboration with the government’s
Departments of Culture and Education.
Eight schools were competing for the Challenge
Trophy, with last year’s winners, Raymond Gardiner
High School, determined to take it back to North Caicos
for another year. Also enticing was the first prize threeday
trip to Jamaica to visit the UNESCO World Heritage
sites of Blue and John Crow Mountain, museums, great
houses and other historical and cultural heritage sites.
The second place winners will spend the day immersed
in history and cultural heritage on one of the Turks &
Caicos Islands.
Participating teams were from: HJ Robinson High
School on Grand Turk; Marjorie Basden High School on
South Caicos; Raymond Gardiner High School on North
Caicos; and Long Bay High School, TCI Middle School,
British West Indies Collegiate, Maranatha Academy and
Holy Family Academy on Providenciales.
In opening remarks, Hon. Karen Malcolm, Minister
of Education, Culture, Library Services and Youth, said,
“It is through our celebrations that we recognize the
work done by our forefathers and the rich heritage legacies
they have left for our enjoyment.” Hon. Premier
Sharlene Cartwright Robinson shared her personal love
of history and had words of congratulations for the
Museum, collaborating government departments and
sponsors of the event.
For an hour, contestants wrote the answers to the
questions put to them in quick succession by Semifinals
Quizmaster Talisha Simons, Senior Director, Corporate
Communications & Public Affairs at Fortis TCI Limited.
HJ Robinson High School and Raymond Gardiner High
School were the two schools who made it to the finals.
Cheryl Forman, CEO of Peak Consulting Ltd., was
the quizmaster for the keenly competitive and exciting
finals. The judges—Director of Education Edward
Howell, Director of Culture Ludwina Fulford, Museum
Director Dr. Michael Pateman and Luc Clerveaux,
The History and Cultural Heritage Quiz winning team from HJ
Robinson High School displays their trophy, (from left) Edgar
Howell, Ruth Forbes, Naethia Williams, Narisel Swann, Racquel
Simons, Ludwina Fulford, Arissa Williams, Michael Pateman.
Assistant Director Law and Enforcement, DECR—kept
the anxious audience abreast of the points at the end
of each round. In the end, HJ Robinson High School was
the winner and the trophy will now spend the year in
Grand Turk.
Thank you to our sponsors: Fortis TCI, interCaribbean
Airways, TC Reef Fund, Department of Education,
Department of Culture, Turks & Caicos Taxi Association,
British West Indies Collegiate, and the quizmasters,
judges, facilitators, caterers and support teams. a
Story & Photos By Candianne Williams
Middle Caicos Heritage Month Event
The Museum supported the Turks & Caicos National
Trust with information for the informational signage on
the Lucayans, the TCI’s first inhabitants. This signboard
was unveiled at the Middle Caicos Heritage Month
event held at the Conch Bar Caves under the theme,
“Celebrating 1000+ years of history.”
Museum Director Michael Pateman explains the new mobile
Lucayan exhibit to onlookers in Middle Caicos.
70 www.timespub.tc
astrolabe newsletter of the Turks & Caicos National Museum
Museum matters
Dr. Michael Pateman gave a presentation about the
lifestyle of the Lucayans using a specially created educational
exhibit. The Lucayan exhibit kit is the first of
a series of kits created by the Museum to enable us to
facilitate the school groups that visit our locations. a
Story & Photo By Candianne Williams
Heritage Month School Visits
A visit to the Museum was one of the ways students
celebrated Heritage Month. We were happy to welcome
students from: Holy Family Academy, Precious
Treasures International School, Richmond Hill
Preparatory School and Enid Capron Primary School at
the museum in Grace Bay, Providenciales. Provo Middle
School visited the Grand Turk Museum.
After a tour of the Caicos Heritage House, one
of the students told me that he learned that, in the
past, nothing was wasted. The heritage tour guide had
explained how the different parts of the corn—including
the husks—were used back in the day. He was
amazed at how folks were able to put the little they
had to good use. a
Story & Photo By Candianne Williams
This group is “Team 1” on the South Bank archaeological dig.
is developed. We also engaged in educational outreach
and had student volunteers from British West Indies
Collegiate and field visits from a number of private and
public schools along with adult and homeschool volunteers
from Provo residents and visitors.
Windward Development Ltd., developer of the site,
is a major project underwriter and is facilitating the
scientific research. Additional funding support was provided
by: TCI Reef Fund, the Anthropological Research
Council and Sail Beluga. Supplies and logistical support
were provided by TC Millwork and Blue Loos. a
Museum Day Grand Turk
On November 3, the Museum hosted a Museum Day
community event on Grand Turk. Its purpose was to
reintroduce residents to the Museum and to introduce
new programming including the People of the
Islands Oral History Project, a Community Mosaic and
a monthly Children’s Club to begin in January 2019.
The day could not have happened without the
support of volunteers and sponsors: Carnival, Morris
Cottingham, Blue Water Divers, Jack Shack, Oasis
Divers, Turks Head Inne, Salt Raker, Digicel, Exclusive
Escapes, White Sands Charters & Tours, Osprey Beach
and Island Creations. a
Story & Photos By Dr. Michael P. Pateman
Students from Enid Capron Primary School visit the Museum’s
Caicos Heritage House during National Heritage Month.
South Bank Archaeological Dig
The Museum partnered with Dr. Shaun Sullivan on
an archaeological dig at the South Bank Site (P1) in
Providenciales from October 15–27. The general
objective of the project was to acquire and preserve
information and artifacts from the site, reflecting a
component of the TCI’s Lucayan culture before the site
The Community Mosaic project was intriguing to many.
Times of the Islands Winter 2018/19 71
food for thought
Opposite page: Lorraine Kenlock, a.k.a. Chef Irie Dawta, has a lush backyard garden tucked into the heart of Providenciales.
Above: The garden includes a huge variety of fresh, organic vegetables and herbs that she uses in her “farm to table” cooking.
The Secret Garden
Foodies are in for a unique experience at The Frenz Deck.
Story & Photos By Dominique Rolle, Caya Hico Media
Walking with my friend Lorraine Kenlock in her lush backyard garden, I feel transported from Grace Bay
into the heartland of the Turks & Caicos—North Caicos—or perhaps Jamaica where such fantastic foliage
is a common way of life. Lorraine hails from that island, and though she relocated here in 2003, the
earthiness of her spirit and approach to life has not wilted.
Times of the Islands Winter 2018/19 73
Chef Irie Dawta’s plants are like her children and she speaks to them with the love all good farmers bestow upon their seedlings.
It is rare to find such a gardening enthusiast on
Providenciales where flat, dry land has made the beaches
the most celebrated the planet earth has to offer.
However, behind the bustling tourism hub that is Grace
Bay Road there lies an oasis nestled on a picturesque lake
where ducks, flamingos and egrets frolic in peace, hidden
away from the crowds.
Bursting with life and overflowing with organic goodies,
Kenlock’s garden ranges in surprises from tomatoes,
peppers, bananas and spinach, to peppermint, okra,
papaya, and pumpkin. Her plants are like her children
and she speaks to them with the love all good farmers
bestow upon their seedlings. With tenderness and care
she waters, protects and ensures their growth. It is a
hand-grown approach rarely applied to our modern food
and an essential ingredient in the farm-to-table movement
Kenlock is trailblazing here on Providenciales.
Chef Irie Dawta and Lorraine Kenlock are technically
the same person, but not really. Lorraine was an IT professional,
educated in Japan as well as her native Jamaica,
and previously confined to a corporate life drastically different
from the culinary and creative environment the
chef inspires on a daily basis. In 2011, the metamorphosis
took place and Kenlock took on her new persona. It
started as a made-to-order healthy (and mouth-wateringly
delicious) salad business that quickly created a demand
for her distinctive approach to food in the private chef
villa market. It was there, facing the hurdles of entering
the professional culinary industry that the legendary Chef
Irie Dawta was born.
Kenlock’s reputation as Ire Dawta precedes her. Just
ask one of her devoted followers about the unparalleled
dining experience she offers and even the haughtiest of
foodies will be convinced before even trying her food.
Still, seeing (or rather tasting) is believing. With many
of us not quite in the private jet/private chef income
bracket, Irie Dawta’s newest creation offers the perfect
opportunity to experience her delights.
The Frenz Deck, a uniquely personal dining experience
set smack in the chef’s lush backyard, offers food
enthusiasts the chance to dine at Kenlock’s home on the
freshest organic food from her garden, sampling her
inspiring creations whilst overlooking the quiet Grace Bay
lake you didn’t even know existed. Ask Chef Irie Dawta
about the experience she offers at the Frenz Deck and she
might surprise you by insisting she prefers diners come
with a sense of adventure, knowing that their well-being
is going to be taken care of. She says, “Frenz Deck is
for the adventurous, open-minded person who wants an
experience that’s not bottled. Every experience on the
74 www.timespub.tc
Above: The Frenz Deck is a personal dining experience in the chef’s lush Brew backyard. ad May 2017_Layout 1 5/11/17 10:51 AM Page 1
Below: It offers food enthusiasts the chance to dine on Chef Irie Dawta’s inspiring creations.
Turk’s Head Brewery
Brewery Tours Monday-Friday
11AM, 1PM, 3PM
$15/pp
Enjoy a complimentary selection of local craft beer
after your tour!
deck is different. Guests will have to go to our website to
reserve a seat and pay a deposit. There’s one sitting per
evening with only 10 seats, sometimes 14, so a deposit
is always required.”
You don’t need a menu for this incredible experience
as Chef Irie Dawta does her homework prior to the
evening (or afternoon) and follows where her artistic and
culinary whims lead. Go off the beaten track and into the
secret garden of one of the most exciting culinary minds
the Turks & Caicos has to offer. Visit www.frenzdeckandiriesrest.com
for more information. a
Email tours@turksheadbeer.com
Call 649.941.3637 x 1005 to book
www.turksheadbrewery.tc
52 Universal Dr.
Providenciales, TCI
TOUR TASTE SHOP
Times of the Islands Winter 2018/19 75
about the Islands
Map provided courtesy Wavey Line Publishing. Their navigation charts and decorative and historic maps of the Turks & Caicos Islands, the
Bahamas, and Hispaniola are available in shops throughout the Islands. Visit www.waveylinepublishing.com.
Where we are
The Turks & Caicos Islands lie some 575 miles southeast
of Miami — approximately 1 1/2 hours flying time — with
the Bahamas about 30 miles to the northwest and the
Dominican Republic some 100 miles to the southeast.
The country consists of two island groups separated
by the 22-mile wide Columbus Passage. To the west are
the Caicos Islands: West Caicos, Providenciales, North
Caicos, Middle Caicos, East Caicos, and South Caicos. To
the east are the Turks Islands: Grand Turk and Salt Cay.
The Turks & Caicos total 166 square miles of land
area on eight islands and 40 small cays. The country’s
population is approximately 40,000.
Getting here
There are international airports on Grand Turk, North
Caicos, Providenciales, and South Caicos, with domestic
airports on all of the islands except East Caicos.
At this time, all of the major international carriers
arrive and depart from Providenciales International
Airport. American Airlines flies from Miami, Charlotte and
New York/JFK. JetBlue Airways offers service from Fort
Lauderdale, Boston and New York/JFK. Southwest Airlines
travels to Fort Lauderdale. Delta Airlines flies from Atlanta
and New York/JFK. WestJet travels from Toronto. Air
Canada offer flights from Toronto. British Airways travels
from London/Gatwick via Antigua.
Bahamasair and InterCaribbean Airways fly to Nassau,
76 www.timespub.tc
Bahamas. Flights to: Antigua; Dominica; Cap Haitien
and Port Au Prince, Haiti; Kingston and Montego Bay,
Jamaica; Miami, Florida; Puerto Plata and Santo Domingo,
Dominican Republic; San Juan, Puerto Rico; St. Lucia; St.
Maarten; Santiago, Cuba; and Tortola are available on
InterCaribbean Airways, while Caicos Express travels to
Cap Haitien daily. (Schedules are current as of November
2018 and subject to change.)
Inter-island service is provided by InterCaribbean
Airways, Caicos Express Airways and Global Airways. Sea
and air freight services operate from Florida.
Language
English.
Time zone
Eastern Standard Time (EST)/Daylight Savings Time
observed.
Currency
The United States dollar. The Treasury also issues a Turks
& Caicos crown and quarter. Travellers cheques in U.S.
dollars are widely accepted and other currency can be
changed at local banks. American Express, VISA, and
MasterCard are welcomed at many locations.
Climate
The average year-round temperature is 83ºF (28ºC). The
hottest months are September and October, when the
temperature can reach 90 to 95ºF (33 to 35ºC). However,
the consistent easterly trade winds temper the heat and
keep life comfortable.
Casual resort and leisure wear is accepted attire for
daytime; light sweaters or jackets may be necessary on
some breezy evenings. It’s wise to wear protective clothing
and a sunhat and use waterproof sunscreen when out
in the tropical sun.
Entry requirements
Passport. A valid onward or return ticket is also required.
Customs formalities
Visitors may bring in duty free for their own use one carton
of cigarettes or cigars, one bottle of liquor or wine,
and some perfume. The importation of all firearms including
those charged with compressed air without prior
approval in writing from the Commissioner of Police is
strictly forbidden. Spear guns, Hawaiian slings, controlled
drugs, and pornography are also illegal.
Times of the Islands Winter 2018/19 77
Returning residents may bring in $400 worth of
merchandise per person duty free. A duty of 10% to
60% is charged on most imported goods along with a
7% customs processing fee and forms a major source of
government revenue.
Transportation
A valid driver’s license from home is suitable when renting
vehicles. A government tax of 12% is levied on all
rental contracts. (Insurance is extra.) Driving is on the
left-hand side of the road, with traffic flow controlled by
round-abouts at major junctions. Please don’t drink and
drive! Taxis are abundant throughout the Islands and
many resorts offer shuttle service between popular visitor
areas. Scooter, motorcycle, and bicycle rentals are
also available.
Telecommunications
FLOW Ltd. provides land lines and superfast broadband
Internet service. Mobile service is on a LTE 4G network,
including pre and post-paid cellular phones. Most resorts
and some stores and restaurants offer wireless Internet
connection. Digicel operates mobile networks, with
a full suite of LTE 4G service. FLOW is the local carrier
for CDMA roaming on US networks such as Verizon and
Sprint. North American visitors with GSM cellular handsets
and wireless accounts with AT&T or Cingular can
arrange international roaming.
Electricity
120/240 volts, 60 Hz, suitable for all U.S. appliances.
Departure tax
US $20 for all persons two years and older, payable in
cash or traveller’s cheques. It is typically built into the
cost of your ticket.
Courier service
Delivery service is provided by FedEx, with offices on
Providenciales and Grand Turk, and DHL. UPS service is
limited to incoming delivery.
Postal service
The Post Office and Philatelic Bureau in Providenciales is
located downtown in Butterfield Square. In Grand Turk,
the Post Office is on Front Street, with the Philatelic
Bureau on Church Folly. The Islands are known for their
varied and colorful stamp issues.
Media
Multi-channel satellite television is received from the U.S.
and Canada and transmitted via cable or over the air.
Local station WIV-TV broadcasts on Channel 4 and Island
EyeTV on Channel 5. People’s Television offers 75 digitally
transmitted television stations, along with local news
and talk shows on Channel 8. There are also a number of
local radio stations, magazines, and newspapers.
Medical services
There are no endemic tropical diseases in TCI. There are
large, modern hospitals on Grand Turk and Providenciales.
Both hospitals offer a full range of services including:
24/7 emergency room, operating theaters, diagnostic
imaging, maternity suites, dialysis suites, blood bank,
physiotherapy, and dentistry.
In addition, several general practitioners operate in
the country, and there is a recompression chamber, along
with a number of private pharmacies.
Immigration
A resident’s permit is required to live in the Islands. A
work permit and business license are also required to
work and/or establish a business. These are generally
granted to those offering skills, experience, and qualifications
not widely available on the Islands. Priority is given
to enterprises that will provide employment and training
for T&C Islanders.
Government/Legal system
TCI is a British Crown colony. There is a Queen-appointed
Governor, HE Dr. John Freeman. He presides over an executive
council formed by the elected local government.
Lady Sharlene Cartwright-Robinson is the country’s first
woman premier, leading a majority People’s Democratic
Movement (PDM) House of Assembly.
The legal system is based upon English Common
Law and administered by a resident Chief Justice, Chief
Magistrate, and Deputy Magistrates. Judges of the Court
of Appeal visit the Islands twice a year and there is a final
Right of Appeal to Her Majesty’s Privy Council in London.
Taxes
There are currently no direct taxes on either income
or capital for individuals or companies. There are no
exchange controls. Indirect taxation comprises customs
duties and fees, stamp duty, taxes on accommodations,
restaurants, vehicle rentals, other services and gasoline,
as well as business license fees and departure taxes.
78 www.timespub.tc
Island Auto_Layout 1 12/12/17 12:49 PM Page 1
Economy
Historically, TCI’s economy relied on the export of salt.
Currently, tourism, the offshore finance industry, and
fishing generate the most private sector income. The
Islands’ main exports are lobster and conch, with the
world’s first commercial conch farm once operating on
Providenciales. Practically all consumer goods and foodstuffs
are imported.
The Turks & Caicos Islands are recognised as an
important offshore financial centre, offering services
such as company formation, offshore insurance, banking,
trusts, limited partnerships, and limited life companies.
The Financial Services Commission regulates the industry
and spearheads the development of offshore legislation.
People
Citizens of the Turks & Caicos Islands are termed
“Belongers” and are primarily descendants of African
slaves who were brought to the Islands to work on the
salt ponds and cotton plantations. The country’s large
expatriate population includes Canadians, Americans,
Brits and Europeans, along with Haitians, Jamaicans,
Dominicans, Bahamians, Indians, and Filipinos.
Churches
Churches are the center of community life and there
are many faiths represented in the Islands, including:
Adventist, Anglican, Assembly of God, Baha’i,
Baptist, Catholic, Church of God of Prophecy, Episcopal,
Faith Tabernacle Church of God, Jehovah’s Witnesses,
Methodist and Pentecostal. Visitors are always welcome.
Pets
Incoming pets must have an import permit, veterinary
health certificate, vaccination certificate, and lab test
results to be submitted at the port of entry to obtain
clearance from the TCI Department of Agriculture, Animal
Health Services.
National symbols
The National Bird is the Brown pelican (Pelecanus occidentalis).
The National Plant is Island heather (Limonium
bahamense) found nowhere else in the world. The
National Tree is the Caribbean pine (Pinus caribaea var.
bahamensis). The National Costume consists of white cotton
dresses tied at the waist for women and simple shirts
and loose pants for men, with straw hats. Colors representing
the various islands are displayed on the sleeves
and bases. The National Song is “This Land of Ours,” by
ISLAND AUTO RENTALS
For Quality & Reliable Service
& Competitive Prices
The Cruise Center, Grand Turk
Neville Adams
Tel: (649) 946-2042
Cell: (649) 232-0933 or (649) 231-4214
Email: nevilleadams@hotmail.com
Providenciales
Levoi Marshall
Cell: (649) 441-6737
Email: levoimarshall86@gmail.com
Web: islandautorentalstci.com
Project1_Layout 1 8/26/18 12:11 PM Page 1
PyrateRadioTCI.com
Mid-20th century radio pirates broadcast
forbidden Rock-n-Roll, Soul, and Jazz from
ships at sea or hidden locations ashore...
Now, Pyrate Radio FM104.5 will rock the world
again. Easy listening music from a salty
seafaring lot.
FM104.5 & streaming at www.PyrateRadioTCI.com
Advertising Manager 649-431-7527
Times of the Islands Winter 2018/19 79
Tom Rathgeb, a longtime photographer-contributor to Times of the Islands, has created a photo series of shells
found on North Caicos beaches. They were shot using natural light with a Nikon D-3400 digital camera, and
enhanced using Adobe Photoshop Elements to highlight their natural beauty. This shell is an Angular Triton
(Cymatium femorale), a predatory sea snail, about three inches in length. Photo prints (8" x 10") are available
for sale: $45 for a mounted, matted (11" x 14") print or $90 for a framed matted print, plus shipping. Direct
inquiries to tom.rathgeb@gmail.com.
the late Rev. E.C. Howell, PhD. Peas and Hominy (Grits)
with Dry Conch is revered as symbolic island fare.
Going green
TCI Waste Disposal Services currently offers recycling services
through weekly collection of recyclable aluminum,
glass, and plastic. The TCI Environmental Club is spearheading
a campaign to eliminate single-use plastic bags.
Do your part by using a cloth bag whenever possible.
Keep TCI “Beautiful by Nature” by not littering!
Recreation
Sporting activities are centered around the water. Visitors
can choose from deep-sea, reef, or bonefishing, sailing,
glass-bottom boat and semi-sub excursions, windsurfing,
waterskiing, parasailing, sea kayaking, snorkelling, scuba
diving, kiteboarding, stand up paddleboarding, and
beachcombing. Pristine reefs, abundant marine life, and
excellent visibility make TCI a world-class diving destination.
Tennis and golf—there is an 18 hole championship
course on Providenciales—are also popular.
The Islands are an ecotourist’s paradise. Visitors can
enjoy unspoilt wilderness and native flora and fauna in 33
national parks, nature reserves, sanctuaries, and areas of
historical interest. The National Trust provides trail guides
to several hiking trails, as well as guided tours of major
historical sites. There is an excellent national museum on
Grand Turk, with an auxillary branch on Providenciales. A
scheduled ferry and a selection of tour operators make it
easy to take day trips to the outer islands.
Other land-based activities include bicycling, horseback
riding and football (soccer). Personal trainers are
available to motivate you, working out of several fitness
centres. You will also find a variety of spa and body treatment
services.
Nightlife includes local bands playing island music
at bars and restaurants and some nightclubs. There is
a casino on Providenciales, along with many electronic
gaming parlours. Stargazing is extraordinary!
Shoppers will find Caribbean paintings, T-shirts,
sports and beachwear, and locally made handicrafts,
including straw work and conch crafts. Duty free outlets
sell liquor, jewellery, watches, perfume, leather goods,
crystal, china, cameras, electronics, brand-name clothing
and accessories, along with Cuban cigars. a
80 www.timespub.tc
where to stay
Grand Turk
range of daily rates
US$ (subject to change)
number of units
major credit cards
restaurant
bar
air conditioning
phone in unit
television in unit
kitchen in unit
laundry service
pool
on the beach
H
The Arches of Grand Turk – Tel 649 946 2941 190–210 4 • • • • • • •
Bohio Dive Resort – Tel 649 946 2135 • Web www.bohioresort.com 170–230 16 • • • • • • • •
Crabtree Apartments – Tel 978 270 1698 • Web www.GrandTurkVacationRental.com 210–250 3 • • • • • •
Manta House – Tel 649 946 1111 • Web www.grandturk-mantahouse.com 110–130 5 • • • • • • •
Osprey Beach Hotel – Tel 649 946 2666 • Web www.ospreybeachhotel.com 90–225 37 • • • • • • • • • •
Pelican House – Tel 649 246 6797 • Web www.pelicanhousegrandturk.com 110-130 3 • • • • •
Salt Raker Inn – Tel 649 946 2260 • Web www.saltrakerinn.com 55–140 13 • • • • • • •
Solomon Porches Guesthouse – Tel 649 946 2776/241 2937 • Fax 649 946 1984 75–100 3 • •
Middle Caicos
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Dragon Cay Resort at Mudjin Harbour – Tel 649 344 4997 • Web www.dragoncayresort.com 325 8 • • • • • • • • •
North Caicos
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Bottle Creek Lodge – Tel 649 946 7080 • Web www.bottlecreeklodge.com 155–240 3 • •
Caicos Beach Condominiums – Tel 649 241 4778/786 338 9264 • Web www.caicosbeachcondos.com 159–299 8 • • • • • • • •
Cedar Palms Suites – Tel 649 946 7113/649 244 4186 • Web www.oceanbeach.tc 250–300 3 • • • • • • • • •
Flamingo’s Nest – Tel 649 946 7113/649 244 4186 • Web www.oceanbeach.tc 175–340 2 • • • • • • • •
Hollywood Beach Suites - Tel 800 551 2256/649 231 1020 • Web www.hollywoodbeachsuites.com 200–235 4 • • • • • •
JoAnne’s Bed & Breakfast - Tel 649 946 7301 • Web www.turksandcaicos.tc/joannesbnb 80–120 4 • • • •
Palmetto Villa – Tel 649 946 7113/649 244 4186 • Web www.oceanbeach.tc 225–250 1 • • • • • • • •
Pelican Beach Hotel - Tel 649 946 7112 • Web www.pelicanbeach.tc 125–165 14 • • • • • • • •
Pine Cay
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The Meridian Club - Tel 649 946 7758/866 286 7993 • Web www.meridianclub.com 800–1300 13 • • • • • • •
Parrot Cay
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COMO Parrot Cay Resort & Spa - Tel 649 946 7788/855 PARROTCAY • Web www.parrotcay.com 550–2850 65 • • • • • • • • • •
Providenciales
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Airport Inn – Tel 649 941 3514 • Web www.airportinntci.com. 140 18 • • • • • • •
The Alexandra Resort & Spa – Tel 800 704 9424/649 946 5807 • Web www.alexandraresort.com 280–420 99 • • • • • • • • •
The Atrium Resort – Tel 888 592 7885/649 333 0101 • Web www.theatriumresorttci.com 159–410 30 • • • • • • • •
Amanyara – Tel 866 941 8133/649 941 8133 • Web www.aman.com 1000–2100 73 • • • • • • • •
Aquamarine Beach Houses – Tel 649 231 4535/905 556 0278 • www.aquamarinebeachhouses.com 200–850 24 • • • • • • • •
Beaches Resort Villages & Spa – Tel 888-BEACHES/649 946 8000 • Web www.beaches.com 325–390AI 758 • • • • • • • • •
Beach House Turks & Caicos – Tel 649 946 5800 • Web www.beachchousetci.com 532–638 21 • • • • • • • • • •
BE Beach Enclave – Tel 888 434 3981 • Web www.beachenclave.com see web 24 • • • • • • • •
Blue Haven Resort & Marina – Tel 855 832 7667/649 946 9900 • Web www.bluehaventci.com 250–650 51 • • • • • • • • • •
Caribbean Paradise Inn – Tel 649 946 5020 • Web www.caribbeanparadiseinn.com 162–225 17 • • • • • • • •
Club Med Turkoise – Tel 800 258 2633/649 946 5500 • Web www.clubmed.com 120–225 290 • • • • • • • • •
Coral Gardens on Grace Bay – Tel 649 941 5497/800 787 9115 • Web www.coralgardensongracebay.com 199-449 32 • • • • • • • • • •
Gansevoort Turks + Caicos – Tel 888 844 5986/649 941 7555 • Web www.gansevoorttc.com 315–720 91 • • • • • • • • • •
Grace Bay Club - Tel 800 946 5757/649 946 5050 • Web www.gracebayclub.com 650–1750 75 • • • • • • • • • •
Grace Bay Suites – Tel 649 941 7447 • Web www.GraceBaySuites.com 99–195 24 • • • • • • • •
Harbour Club Villas – Tel 649 941 5748/305 434 8568 • Web www.harbourclubvillas.com 210–240 6 • • • • •
The Inn at Grace Bay – Tel 649 432 8633 • Web www.innatgracebay.com 179–379 48 • • • • • • •
Kokomo Botanical Gardens - Tel 649 941 3121• Web www.aliveandwellresorts.com 169–299 16 • • • • •
Le Vele - Tel 649 941 8800/888 272 4406 • Web www.leveleresort.com 303–630 22 • • • • • • • •
La Vista Azul – Tel 649 946 8522/866 519 9618 • Web www.lvaresort.com 215–375 78 • • • • • • •
The Lodgings – Tel 649 941 8107/242 6722 • Web www.hotelturksandcaicos.com 175–255 15 • • • • • •
Neptune Villas – Tel 649 331 4328 • Web www.neptunevillastci.com 150–400 10 • • • • • • • • •
Northwest Point Resort • Tel 649 941 5133 • Web www.northwestpointresort.com 196–550 49 • • • • • • • • • •
Ocean Club Resorts - Tel 800 457 8787/649 946 5880 • Web www.oceanclubresorts.com 180–690 191 • • • • • • • • • •
The Palms Turks & Caicos – Tel 649 946 8666/866 877 7256 • Web thepalmstc.com 595–1700 72 • • • • • • • • • •
Times of the Islands Winter 2018/19 81
where to stay
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Providenciales (continued)
Pelican Nest Villa – Tel 649 342 5731 • Web www.pelicannest.tc 429–857 2 • • • • • •
Point Grace – Tel 649 946 5096/888 209 5582 • Web www.pointgrace.com 424–1515 27 • • • • • • • • • •
Ports of Call Resort – Tel 888 678 3483/649 946 8888 • Web www.portsofcallresort.com 135–210 99 • • • • • • •
Queen Angel Resort – Tel 649 941 8771 • Web www.queenangelresort.com 150–575 56 • • • • • • • • •
Reef Residences at Grace Bay – Tel 800 532 8536 • Web www.reefresidence.com 275-385 24 • • • • • • •
The Regent Grand – Tel 877 288 3206/649 941 7770 • Web www.theregentgrand.com 495–1100 50 • • • • • • • • •
Royal West Indies Resort – Tel 800 332 4203/649 946 5004 • Web www.royalwestindies.com 180–695 92 • • • • • • • • • •
The Sands at Grace Bay – Tel 877 777 2637/649 946 5199 • Web www.thesandsresort.com 175–675 116 • • • • • • • • • •
Seven Stars Resort & Spa – Tel 866 570 7777/649 333 7777 – Web www.sevenstarsgracebay.com 365–2400 165 • • • • • • • • • •
The Shore Club – Tel 649 339 8000 – Web www.theshoreclubtc.com 465–4650 148 • • • • • • • • • •
Sibonné Beach Hotel – Tel 888 570 2861/649 946 5547 • Web www.sibonne.com 110–375 29 • • • • • • • •
The Somerset on Grace Bay – Tel 649 339 5900/888 386 8770 • Web www.thesomerset.com 350–1300 53 • • • • • • • • • •
The Tuscany – Tel 866 359 6466/649 941 4667 • Web www.thetuscanyresort.com 975–1300 30 • • • • • • • •
The Venetian – Tel 877 277 4793/649 941 3512 • Web www.thevenetiangracebay.com 695–1175 27 • • • • • • • •
Villa del Mar – Tel 877 345 4890/649 941 5160 • Web www.yourvilladelmar.com 190–440 42 • • • • • • •
Villa Mani – Tel 649 431 4444 • Web www.villamanitci.com 6500–9500 8 • • • • • • •
Villa Renaissance - Tel 649 431 8899 • Web www.villarenaissancebeachresort.com 295–650 36 • • • • • • • • •
The Villas at Blue Mountain – Tel 649 941 4255 • Web www.villasatbluemountain.com 1200–2500 3 • • • • • • • •
West Bay Club – Tel 855 749 5750/649 946 8550 • Web www.thewestbayclub.com 235–1163 46 • • • • • • • • • •
Windsong – Tel 649 333 7700/800 WINDSONG • Web www.windsongresort.com 275–925 50 • • • • • • • • •
range of daily rates
US$ (subject to change)
number of units
major credit cards
restaurant
bar
air conditioning
phone in unit
television in unit
kitchen in unit
laundry service
pool
on the beach
Salt Cay
Castaway – Salt Cay – Tel 772 713 9502 • Web www.castawayonsaltcay.com 175–265 4 • • • • •
Genesis Beach House – Tel 561 502 0901 • Web www.Genesisbeachhouse.com 1000–1200W 4 • • • • •
Pirate’s Hideaway B & B – Tel 800 289 5056/649 946 6909 • Web www.saltcay.tc 165–175 4 • • • • • • •
Salt Cay Beach House – Tel 772 713 9502 • Web www.saltcaybeachhouse.blogspot.com 799W 1 • • • • • •
Trade Winds Lodge – Tel 649 232 1009 • Web www.tradewinds.tc 925–1325W 5 • • • • •
Twilight Zone Cottage – Tel 772 713 9502 • Web www.twilightzonecottage.blogspot.com 499W 1 • • • •
The Villas of Salt Cay – Tel 772 713 9502 • Web www.villasofsaltcay.com 150–475 5 • • • • • • • •
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South Caicos
East Bay Resort – Tel 844 260 8328/649 232 6444 • Web eastbayresort.com 198–1775 86 • • • • • • • • • •
Sailrock South Caicos – Tel 800 929 7197 • Web sailrockresortcom 600–800 6 • • • • • • • • •
South Caicos Ocean & Beach Resort – Tel 877 774 5486/649 946 3219
Web southcaicos.oceanandbeachresort.com 120–275 24 • • • • •
Hotel & Tourism Association Member
Green Globe Certified
Rates (listed for doubles) do not include Government Accommodation Tax and Service Charge
classified ads
SCOOTER BOBS_Layout 1 8/8/18 10:57 AM Page GBC2017_Layout 1 2/16/17 9:10 AM Page 1
HertzDollar_Layout 1 2/16/17 12:37 PM Page 1
We’re here to
make your holiday
the island way...
DEPENDABLE VEHICLE HIRE
SERVICE OFFERED:
Provo & North-Middle Caicos
Office: 946-4684
Amos: 441-2667 (after hours)
Yan: 247-6755 (after hours)
Bob: 231-0262 (after hours)
scooterbobs@gmail.com
www.scooterbobstci.com
Grace Bay Road across from Regent Street
Fun Friendly People
Appreciating Your Business!
941-8500
www.gracebaycarrentals.com
649.941.3910 649.946.4864
Call Us.
Whether it’s for the largest variety of
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www.hertztci.com www.dollarcartci.com
Open 8am to 5pm 7 days.
After hours call
Barry 332.0012 Patrice 332.8602 Sophia 331.9895
82 www.timespub.tc
classified ads
Forbes Classified changes due_Layout 1 8/9/18 Pure 11:51 Bliss_Layout A 1 6/13/18 7:29 AM Page 1
FORBES REALTY TCI
Caicu Naniki_Caicu Naniki classified 8/9/18 12:05 PM Page 1
R e j o u v e n a n c e S p a
“Go Beyond Provo”
Find your dream property on North Caicos,
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649-432-7546
Touch of Bliss_Layout 1 8/9/18 11:59 AM Page 1
rejouvenancespa.com
www.ForbesRealtyTCI.com
Sara Kaufman cell: 1-649-231-4884
Ernest Forbes cell: 1-649-247-7599
info@ForbesRealtyTCI.com
Community Fellowship Centre
EcoSeaSwimWinter 2018_Caicu A Life-Changing Naniki classified Experience 11/14/18 11:36 PM Page 1
Sunday Divine Worship 9 AM
Visitors Welcome!
Tel: 649.941.3484 • Web: cfctci.com
Phone: 649-242-3439 or 649-346-7344
TC Email: Safari_Layout touchofbliss@rocketmail.com
1 8/9/18 3:33 PM Page 1
Newly located at Caribbean Place
Swim Racing
in Grace Bay
PRIVATE TOURS TO
“Race for the Conch”
NORTH & MIDDLE CAICOS &
SOUTH CAICOS.
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STAND-UP-PADDLEBOARD
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Stop by Swim & Surf Store at
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(649) 432-5000
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Project1_Layout www.caicunaniki.com
1 11/27/18 10:34 PM Page 1Fiona_Layout w w w . 1 e c6/8/18 o s e a12:09 s w iPM m . cPage o m 1
Vacation Villa Rentals
Joanne Phillips, Turks & Caicos Safari
www.tcsafari.tc
Call: 1-904-491-1415
Email: tcsafari@tciway.tc
Brigitte ad Classified_Brigitte 8/25/17 11:50 AM Page 1
JOHN GALLEYMORE
Project Management
Estate Management
Homeowner Representation
Concierge
______
compasstci@gmail.com
1 (649) 232 7083
COMPASS Ltd
D&Bswift_Layout Home Owner Services 1 5/8/18 & Project 7:24 Management AM Page 1
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Tangled Hair Salon
Visit Hidden Treasures Boutique
T&C Veterinary_Layout 1 8/9/18 2:02 PM Page 1
Open 6 days per week
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for cutting, styling and so much more
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Call 431 4247 (431 HAIR)
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PORTS OF CALL PLAZA
www.tangledhairsalonprovidenciales.com
Salt Mills Plaza
Grace Bay
Providenciales
The place
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vacation
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Turks & Caicos Veterinary
NEW Hours/Days
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Monday thru Saturday
9:00am - 12 noon
Vet on duty Mon, Wed, Thur, Sat.
Ocean 24 Breezy Breeze_Layout Ridge (649) 946 4353 1 11/14/18 11:07 PM Page
Caring for your pet as though it
were our own since 1981 Email: tcvets@tciway.tc
FOR ALL YOUR
RELIABLE AND
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RENTAL NEEDS
649-941-8438 and 649-241-4968
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at your service
GATEMAN8@HOTMAIL.COM
PH: 649 241 9959
PROVIDENCIALES,
TURKS & CAICOS ISLANDS
Our cleaning solutions are made
from biodegradable materials that
aren't harmful to the environment.
Find our products throughout the
Turks & Caicos Islands.
Times of the Islands Winter 2018/19 83
dining out – providenciales
Amanyara — Amanyara Resort. Tel: 941-8133. Light gourmet
cuisine with menu changing daily. Open 6 to 10 PM.
Angela’s Top O’ The Cove Deli — Suzie Turn, by NAPA.
Tel: 946-4694. New York-style delicatessen. Eat-in, carry-out,
catering. Open daily 7 AM to 5 PM; Sunday 7 AM to 2 PM.
Asú on the Beach — Alexandra Resort. Tel: 941-8888. Casual
Caribbean and popular international fare. Open daily for 7:30
AM to 10:30 PM. Service indoors, poolside, and at beach.
Baci Ristorante — Harbour Towne, Turtle Cove. Tel: 941-3044.
Waterfront Italian dining. Brick oven pizza. Popular bar. Open
for lunch Monday to Friday 12 to 2 PM and dinner nightly from
6 to 10 PM. Closed Sunday.
Bay Bistro — Sibonné Beach Hotel. Tel: 946-5396. Oceanfront
dining featuring creative international cuisine. Open daily
7 AM to 10 PM. Weekend brunch. Catering and special events.
Beaches Resort & Spa — The Bight. Tel: 946-8000.
All-inclusive resort. A variety of restaurants and bars on premises.
Non-guests can purchase a pass.
Bella Luna Ristorante — Glass House, Grace Bay Road. Tel:
946-5214. Fine Italian dining. Indoor or terrace seating above
tropical garden. Open daily from 5:30 PM. Closed Sunday. Lunch
and pizza in the garden. Private catering available.
Big Al’s Island Grill — Salt Mills Plaza. Tel: 941-3797. Wide
selection of burgers, steaks, salads, and wraps in a diner-like
setting. Open daily from 11 AM to 10 PM.
Bugaloo’s Conch Crawl — Five Cays. Tel: 941-3863. Fresh
local conch and seafood by the beach. Rum, buckets of beer,
live local bands. Open daily from 11 AM to late.
Cabana Beach Bar & Grill — Ocean Club. Tel: 946-5880.
Casual island fare, burgers, salads, snacks. Open daily from
7 AM to 10 PM. Tropical cocktails with a view of the sea.
Caicos Bakery — Caicos Café Plaza. Authentic French boulangerie.
Fresh-baked breads, rolls, croissants, muffins, quiche,
pastries, cakes. Open 7 AM to 4:30 PM daily except Sunday.
Caicos Café — Caicos Café Plaza. Tel: 946-5278.
Mediterranean specialties, grilled local seafood. Fine wines, dining
on the deck. Open 6 PM to 10 PM Monday to Saturday.
The Caravel Restaurant — Grace Bay Court. Tel: 941-5330.
Cozy restaurant offering island food with flair; famous for fish
tacos. Full bar. Open daily 5 to 10 PM, closed Thursday.
Chicken Chicken — Times Square, downtown Provo. Fast food,
fried chicken, native fare.
Chinson’s Grill Shack — Leeward Highway. Tel: 941-3533.
The Islands’ best jerk and barbecue, Jamaican pastries. Open
daily 8 AM to 10 PM; Friday to Midnight.
Club Med — Grace Bay Road. Tel: 946-5500. All-inclusive
resort. Buffet-style dining; live show and disco in the evenings.
Non-guests can purchase a daily pass.
Coco Bistro — Grace Bay Road. Tel: 946-5369. Continental
Caribbean cuisine by Chef Stuart Gray under a canopy of palms.
Serving dinner from 5:30 PM. Closed Monday. Look for the
Cocovan airstream lounge with garden seating or take-away.
Coconut Grove Restaurant & Lounge — Olympic Plaza,
Downtown. Tel: 247-5610. Casual native fare for residents and
tourists. Cracked conch, conch fritters, fried fish. Pool and game
room. Open daily 11 AM to 10 PM.
Coyaba Restaurant — Caribbean Paradise Inn. Tel: 946-5186.
Contemporary Caribbean gourmet cuisine in a private tropical
garden setting. Extensive wine list. Dinner nightly from 6 to 10
PM. Closed Tuesday. Reservations recommended.
Crackpot Kitchen — Ports of Call. Tel: 2313336. Experience
the best of authentic Turks & Caicos and Caribbean cuisines
with local celebrity Chef Nik. Open daily 5 to 10 PM except
Thursday; Happy Hour 5 to 7 PM.
Da Conch Shack & RumBar — Blue Hills. Tel: 946-8877.
Island-fresh seafood from the ocean to your plate. Covered
beachfront dining for lunch and dinner daily from 11 AM.
Danny Buoy’s — Grace Bay Road. Tel: 946-5921. Traditional
American pub fare; imported draught beers. Open for lunch and
dinner daily from 11 AM. Happy Hour specials. Large screen TVs
for sporting events. Karaoke.
The Deck — Seven Stars Resort. Tel: 941-7777. All day dining
and cocktails by the water’s edge. Open daily 11 AM to 11 PM.
Live music Friday nights.
Drift — West Bay Club. Tel: 946-8550. Open-air beachfront dining.
Creatively used local ingredients. Full bar. Open daily.
Dune — Windsong Resort. Tel: 333-7700. Private beachfront
dining with limited availability. Fresh fare prepared to perfection.
Open daily.
El Catador Tapas & Bar — Regent Village. Tel: 244-1134.
Authentic Spanish tapas with a wide mix of cold and hot plates
meant for sharing. Fun and lively atmosphere. Open daily from
5 PM.
Element — LeVele Plaza. Tel: 348-6424. Contemporary, creative
cuisine in an elegant setting. Open for dinner Friday to
Wednesday 6:30 to 10:30 PM.
Fairways Bar & Grill — Provo Golf Club. Tel: 946-5833. Dine
overlooking the “greens.” Open for breakfast and lunch from 7
AM to 4 PM daily; Friday, Saturday and Sunday open until 8 PM.
Great Sunday brunch 9 AM to 3 PM.
Fire & Ice — Blue Haven Resort & Marina. Tel: 946-9900.
Drinks at the Ice Bar, dessert by the fire pits. South Americanmeets-Caribbean
flavors and spices. Open daily 5:30 to 9:30
PM. Closed Wednesday.
Fresh Bakery & Bistro — Atrium Resort. Tel: 345-4745.
Healthy European salads, soups, sandwiches, bakery, pies and
cakes. Gelato. Open daily 7 AM to 6 PM, closed Sunday.
Fresh Catch — Salt Mills Plaza. Tel: 243-3167. Authentic native
cuisine, from seafood to souse. All-you-can-eat seafood buffet
on Wednesday. Open daily 8 AM to 10 PM. Closed Sunday.
Carry-out available.
Garam Masala — Regent Village. Tel: 941-3292. Authentic
Indian cuisine, tandoori charcoal-oven specialties. Open daily
11:30 AM to 3 PM, 5:30 to 10 PM. Dine-in, take-out or delivery.
Giggles Ice Cream & Candy Parlour — Ports of Call &
Williams Storage. Tel: 941-7370. Cones, sundaes, shakes,
smoothies, “Gigglers,” ice cream pies and cakes. Pick ‘n’ mix
candies. Open daily 11 AM to 10 PM.
Gilley’s Sky Lounge & Bar — At the airport. Tel: 946-4472.
Burgers, sandwiches, local food. Open daily 6 AM to 9 PM.
Grace’s Cottage — Point Grace Resort. Tel: 946-5096.
Elegant, gourmet Caribbean cuisine showcasing regional foods.
Extensive wine list. Gazebo seating under the stars or indoor
dining in a romantic gingerbread cottage. Serving dinner from
6 to 10 PM nightly. Reservations required. Native cuisine night
on Tuesday with live music.
84 www.timespub.tc
Grill Rouge — Grace Bay Club. Tel: 946-5050. Al fresco bistro.
Diverse menu. Fun cocktails. Open daily for lunch Noon to 3 PM,
dinner to 9 PM.
Hemingways on the Beach — The Sands at Grace Bay. Tel:
941-8408. Casual beachfront bar and restaurant. Fresh fish,
pasta, sandwiches, salads and tropical drinks by the pool.
Oceanfront deck for great sunsets! Open 8 AM to 10 PM daily.
Hole in the Wall Restaurant & Bar — Williams Plaza, Old
Airport Road. Tel: 941-4136. Authentic Jamaican/Island cuisine
where the locals go. Full bar. A/C dining or outdoors on the
deck. Open daily 7 AM to 9 PM. Pick-up/delivery available.
Infiniti Restaurant & Raw Bar — Grace Bay Club. Tel: 946-
5050. Elegant beachfront dining for lunch and dinner. Gourmet
Euro/Caribbean cuisine; fine wines. Full bar and lounge.
Reservations required.
Island Raw — Le Petite Plaza. Tel: 346-5371. Vegan lifestyle
kitchen, offering fresh, organic, raw, vegan, gourmet. Open
Friday, Noon to 2 PM.
Island Conch Bar & Grill — Bight Cultural Market. Tel: 946-
8389. Caribbean and local cuisine. Open daily 11 AM to 9 PM.
Island Scoop — Grace Bay Plaza. Tel: 242-8511/243-5051.
21 flavors of ice cream made locally. Cones, smoothies, blizzards
and shakes. Open daily, 11 AM to 10 PM.
The Java Bar — Graceway Gourmet. Tel: 941-5000. Gourmet
café serving fresh baked desserts, sandwiches and coffee
delights. Open 7 AM to 8 PM daily.
Jack’s Fountain — Across from Casablanca Casino. Tel: 946-
5225. Seafood, steak, unique specialty items in a lively, relaxed
“beach bar” atmosphere. Open 7 AM to 10 PM daily.
Kalooki’s Grace Bay — Le Vele Plaza. Tel: 941-8388. The perfect
mix of sweet and spicy Caribbean flavors. New location in
Grace Bay. Open daily 11 AM to 10 PM. Closed Thursday.
Kitchen 218 — Beach House, Lower Bight Road. Tel: 946-5800.
Caribbean cuisine with hints of French and Asian fusion and the
chef’s passion for fresh ingredients. Open 8 AM to 10 PM daily.
The Landing Bar & Kitchen — Grace Bay Road across from
Regent Village. Tel: 341-5856. Unique nautical setting for dinner
under the stars. Cocktails, fire pit. Open daily except Tuesday
5:30 to 10 PM.
Las Brisas — Neptune Villas, Chalk Sound. Tel: 946-5306.
Mediterranean/Caribbean cuisine with tapas, wine and full bar.
Terrace and gazebo dining overlooking Chalk Sound. Open daily
8 AM to 10 PM. Take-out available; private parties.
Le Bouchon du Village — Regent Village. Tel: 946-5234. A
taste of Paris. Sidewalk café with sandwiches, salads, tartines,
tapas, dinner specials, wine, cheese, dessert, coffees. Open
daily 11 AM. Closed Sunday.
Le Comptoir Francais — Regent Village. Tel: 946-5234.
French deli, bakery, wine shop. Open daily.
Lemon 2 Go Coffee — Ventura House. Tel: 941-4069.
Gourmet coffeehouse. Sandwiches, muffins, cookies, croissants,
yogurt, salads. Open Monday to Saturday 7:30 AM to 7 PM,
Sunday 9 AM to 1 PM.
The Lounge — Grace Bay Club. Tel: 946-5050. Decidedly hip
lounge. Caribbean-infused tapas, martinis, tropical cocktails,
world music and the finest sunset location in Providenciales.
Lupo — Regent Village. Tel: 431-5876. Authentic Italian
“comfort food.” Regional wine list. Dine in or take out readymade
gourmet meals. Open daily Noon to 3 PM; 6 to 10 PM.
Magnolia Restaurant & Wine Bar — Miramar Resort. Tel:
941-5108. International cuisine with island flavors, north shore
views. Open for dinner from 6 to 9:30 PM except Monday. Wine
bar opens at 4 PM.
Mango Reef — Turtle Cove. Tel: 946-8200. Fresh local flavors
and seafood, homemade desserts. Open daily 11 AM to 10 PM.
Set price dinner on weekdays. Waterside deck, indoor or patio
dining. Tie-up to dock at Turtle Cove Marina.
Market Café — Blue Haven Resort. Tel: 946-9900. Gourmet
coffees, teas, frozen drinks; fresh breads and pastries; grab ‘n’
go salads, sandwiches, smoothies. Open daily 7 AM to 8 PM.
Mis Amigos Cocina Mexicana — Central Square. Tel: 946-
4229. A variety of traditional Mexican fare, including salads and
the best margaritas in town. Open daily.
Mother’s Pizza — Downtown Times Square. Tel: 941-4142.
Best pizza in the Turks & Caicos, available by the slice or the
island’s biggest “large.” Open daily 11 AM to 9 PM; to 10 PM on
Friday and Saturday; Noon to 8 PM on Sunday.
Mr. Groupers — Lower Bight and Sunset Ridge Hotel (near airport).
Tel: 242-6780. Serving fresh local seafood straight from
the sea. Open daily 10 AM to 10:30 PM, Sunday 3 to 11 PM.
Opus Wine • Bar • Grill — Ocean Club Plaza. Tel: 946-5885.
International menu with Caribbean flair. Fresh seafood. Serving
dinner nightly 6 to 10 PM. Indoor/outdoor dining. Conference
facility, events, catering.
Outback Steakhouse TCI — Regent Village. Unbeatable
steak cuts complemented by chicken, ribs, seafood, and pasta.
Generous portions, moderately priced, casual atmosphere. Open
Monday to Thursday 3 to 11 PM; Friday to Midnight; Saturday 1
PM to Midnight; Sunday 1 to 11 PM.
Parallel23 — The Palms Turks & Caicos. Tel: 946-8666. Pantropical
cuisine in a setting of casual elegance. Boutique wine
list. Al fresco or private dining room available. Open daily 6 to
10:30 PM.
The Patty Place — Behind Shining Stars; Le Petit Place, Blue
Hills. Tel: 246-9000. Authentic Jamaican patties and loaves. 18
flavors of Devon House ice cream. Open daily 9:30 AM to 10 PM.
Pavilion — The Somerset. Tel: 339-5900. Chef Brad offers a
global palate, interpreted locally. Seafood raw bar. Open daily
for breakfast, lunch, dinner; Sunday Prime Rib special.
Pelican Bay Restaurant & Bar — Royal West Indies Resort.
Tel: 941-2365/431-9101. Poolside restaurant and bar with
Caribbean, French and Asian fare. Breakfast, lunch, dinner daily
from 7:30 AM to 10 PM. Special events each week.
Pepper Town Café — Digicel Cinema, #4. Tel: 246-9237.
Native and Caribbean Dishes. Open daily except Sunday 11:30
AM to 7 PM. Island breakfast on Saturday at 7 AM.
Pizza Pizza — Grace Bay Plaza/Cinema Plaza. Tel: 941-
8010/941-3577. New York style specialty pizzas. Open daily
11:30 AM to 9:30 PM, weekends until 10 PM. Free delivery.
Provence — Le Vele Plaza. Tel: 946-4124. Traditional French
artisan-style cuisine. Fresh pasta, gelato, cheeses, charcuterie,
pastries, desserts. Open daily for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Retreat Kitchen Vegetarian Café & Juice Bar — Ports of
Call. Tel: 432-2485. Fresh, organic, vegan, vegetarian, gluten-free
fare. Fresh juices, daily lunch specials. Open for lunch
Monday to Saturday, 9 AM to 3 PM. Delivery available.
Rickie’s Flamingo Café — Between Ocean Club and Club Med.
Tel: 244-3231. Local fare and atmosphere right on the beach.
Best grouper sandwich and rum punch! Don’t miss Curry Fridays
and Beach BBQ Saturdays.
Salt Bar & Grill — Blue Haven Resort & Marina. Tel: 946-9900.
Outdoor seating overlooking the marina. Sandwiches, burgers,
Times of the Islands Winter 2018/19 85
salads, classic bar favorites. Open daily 11:30 AM to 9:30 PM.
Seven — Seven Stars Resort. Tel: 339-7777. Elevated contemporary
cuisine fused with TCI tradition. Open Monday to Saturday,
5:30 to 9:30 PM.
72ºWest — The Palms Turks & Caicos. Tel: 946-8666.
Beachside dining with a family-friendly, Caribbean-inspired
menu. Serving lunch daily; dinner seasonally.
Sharkbite Bar & Grill — Admiral’s Club at Turtle Cove. Tel:
941-5090. Varied menu; casual dining. Sports bar/slots. Open
daily from 11 AM to 2 AM.
Shay Café — Le Vele Plaza. Tel: 331-6349. Offering organic
coffees, teas, sandwiches, salads, soup, pastries, gelato, sorbetto,
smoothies, beer and wine. Open daily 7 AM to 7 PM.
Simone’s Bar & Grill — La Vista Azul. Tel: 331-3031. Serving
fresh seafood and local cuisine. Open daily 11 AM to 11 PM;
weekends 7 AM to 11 PM. Popular bar!
Skull Rock Cantina — Ports of Call. Tel: 941-4173. The place
for Tex-Mex; daily drink specials. Open daily, 8 AM to Midnight.
Solana! Restaurant — Ocean Club West. Tel: 946-5254.
Oceanfront dining from sushi to burgers. Teppanyaki and Sushi
Bar, engage with the chefs. Open daily 7:30 AM to 10 PM.
Somewhere Café & Lounge — Coral Gardens Resort. Tel:
941-8260. Casual dining with Tex-Mex flair right on the beach.
Cocktails, beers, specialty drinks. Open early to late daily.
Stelle — Gansevoort Turks + Caicos. Tel: 232-4444. Modern
Mediterranean cuisine featuring fresh fish and seafood. Open 6
to 10 PM daily, until 2 AM on Friday with DJ.
Sui-Ren — The Shore Club. Tel: 339-8000. Inspired flavors of
Peruvian-Japanese fusion cuisine with fresh seafood and organic
produce in a unique setting. Open daily.
Thai Orchid — The Regent Village. Tel: 946-4491. Authentic
Thai cuisine; over 60 choices! Dine in or carry out. Open for
lunch and dinner daily.
Three Brothers Restaurant — Town Center Mall, Downtown.
Tel: 232-4736. Seafood and native cuisine. Tuesday night buffet
dinner. Catering services. Open daily, 7 AM to 10 PM.
Tiki Hut Island Eatery — Dockside at Turtle Cove Inn. Tel:
941-5341. Imaginative sandwiches, salads, seafood, Black
Angus beef, pasta, pizzas, fish. Open daily 11 AM to 10 PM.
Turkberry Frozen Yogurt — The Saltmills. Tel: 431-2233.
Frozen yogurt in a variety of flavors, with a large selection of
toppings. Custom donut bar. Open 11 AM to 11 PM daily.
Turks Kebab — At Craft Market on Sand Castle Drive. Tel: 431-
9964. Turkish and Mediterranean fare. Salads, falafel, gyros,
kebabs, hummus. Open for lunch and dinner.
Via Veneto — Ports of Call. Tel: 941-2372. Authentic Italian
dining in a stylish indoor/outdoor venue. Open from 5:30 PM to
late. Closed Thursday. Saturday is Pizza Night!
The Vix Asian Bistro & Grill — Regent Village. Tel: 941-4144.
Contemporary Asian menu with a wok station, dim sum, vegan
specialties and keto dishes. Open daily 7:30 AM to 3 PM; 5 to
9:45 PM. Delivery to select locations. Catering menus.
Yoshi’s Sushi & Grill — The Saltmills. Tel: 941-3374/431-
0012. Sushi bar menu plus Japanese cuisine. Open daily Noon
to 3 PM; 6 to 10 PM. Closed Sunday. Dine indoors or out. Carry
out available.
Zest! — Gansevoort Turks + Caicos. Tel: 232-4444. Lunch and
dinner beachfront. Taste of the Caribbean and Americas. Open
daily Noon to 5 PM; 6 to 9 PM. Fisherman’s night Wednesday. a
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