Fall 2024 Archive

The remarkable brush of a lifeboat with the Mouchoir Banks and TCI. Story & Illustrations By Eric Wiberg & Andrew Warren In previous editions of Astrolabe we documented how, from over 130 ships attacked around Turks & Caicos Islands and The Bahamas during World War II, at least 72 survivors landed in the TCI and a further ...

The beginning of remarkable change. Story & Photos By Richard Grainger The article in the Winter 2023/24 issue of Times of the Islands, “Blue Hills—An Authentic Seaside Settlement,” reminded me of my first visit to Blue Hills in 1971. At that time, it was the name of the entire island of Providenciales, not just one settlement. It ...

An itinerant shipping container. By John Charles Hopkins Barrels, bottles, buckets, buoys, cargo slings, coconuts, crates, nets, planks, poles, roots, rope, sea grass, seaweed, stumps, and tree trunks: an alphabet of flotsam abounds along the shores of Bay Cay and other outlying barrier islands that flank North Caicos.  The locus is Spanish Point where the Caicos Bank protrudes ...

Twilight on the reef is a magical time. Story & Photos By Kelly Currington The Turks & Caicos Islands are famous for the powder-white, sugar-sand beaches and stunning turquoise water; they attract hundreds of thousands of visitors to the country every year. For divers, it’s the wonders of what lies beyond where sand meets sea and beneath ...

Heritage straw work carries cherished memories. By Diane Taylor I carried very little when I left my home on Pine Cay in the early 1980s. At one time, people who felt an emotional attachment to the county or land they had to leave took with them a handful of earth to cherish as fond memory of paths ...

Getting the edge on seagrass meadows. By Natalie Ritter (The School for Field Studies), Violet Apodaca (Bowdoin College), Kira Kaplan (Smith College), Lily Marynik (Wellesley College), Sophie Moniz (Connecticut College), Rory O’Connor (Lehigh University), Paul Stanley (University of Massachusetts Amherst) and Aliya Swearngin (Grinnell College) Edited by Dr. C.E. O’Brien, The School for Fields Studies, Center for ...

Our “feathered friends” are an important indicator of environmental health. Story & Photos By Dolly Prosper, DECR Environmental Officer: Terrestrial Ecologist Humans have always been fascinated with our avian neighbours. Throughout history, the relationship between humans and birds has been multifaceted, encompassing utility, symbolism, and mutual benefit. The genesis of our intricate bond was due to caloric ...

Getting to know the Shortnose Batfish. By Kelly Currington One of the amazing things about scuba diving is that every time you enter the ocean you have a good chance of seeing a creature you’ve never seen before. It’s always exciting when that happens! There is no shortage of odd or weird looking inhabitants on the reef, ...

A tale told by the “Old Time” men of Blue Hills. By Jim Brown Before the days of cable television and YouTube videos, folks would swap stories as the evening’s entertainment. What follows is a “tall tale” about lost treasure that might have been whispered around the glow of an oil lamp in the Blue Hills of ...