Pirates on the move
The Virgin Islands may need to brace for a pirate invasion. Luckily for the territory, the buccaneers knocking on its doorstep are made largely of plastic — and about three inches high. Since November, a Playmobil pirate ship called HMS Adventure has been navigating its way some 3,000 miles across the Atlantic. After nearing the coast of Guyana, the vessel made a dramatic turn north and set a potential course towards the VI. Two brothers from Scotland — Ollie and Harry Ferguson, 8 and 5, respectively — initially launched HMS Adventure at the end of May last year with a message encouraging anyone who found it to reach out and then return the ship to sea. It first sailed 390 miles to Denmark, where a family picked it up and contacted the Ferguson brothers. Since then, it has been returned to sea several times and was eventually taken 3,000 miles south by a full-size Norwegian ship. Then, 100 miles off the coast of Mauritania, it was pointed westward and outfitted with a GPS tracker for a transatlantic crossing. Buoyed by polystyrene and held upright by a counterweight, the voyaging HMS Adventure has gained something of an international following — and quite a bit of media coverage — during its several months at sea. Anyone interested can track the ship’s progress at https://track-adventure.squarespace.com/. Though the vessel’s course remains uncertain and its GPS battery low, this Beaconite, for one, hopes it can help the territory become a pirate haven once again.
The newspaper, online
The Beacon has had a website, Facebook page, Instagram and (technically) Twitter account for years now. But this week, a Beaconite — who realises that it’s more than a little ironic to be writing about digital trends in a print newspaper — personally jumped headfirst into the online world. She combed through the HTML of various posts for errors on the website’s admin side, wrote copy for Facebook and came up with interesting Instagram captions — essentially, she fed the ever-hungry digital beast. But there’s no easy way to write a story for a newspaper, website and social media. This reporter wants to know what you want to see from the paper’s online alter ego. More photos and videos? Polls? Investigative pieces? Feel free to e-mail bvibeacon@gmail.com, call 494-3434 or message the Beacon’s Facebook page with any and all tips.
Relaxing on Anegada
“Are you always this anxious?” an interviewee asked a Beaconite last week when she noticed she was speaking a mile a minute. She tried to explain that it was the nature of her job, where there’s a deadline looming around every corner. But later, she realised the person had a point: The Beaconite was letting her stress and anxiety get to her. It’s part of the job of a good interviewer to put people at ease, and her own stress wasn’t allowing her to do that. Naturally, that meant it was time for a vacation, so on Friday she arrived in Anegada to spend a weekend “glamping” solo in one of the tents at Anegada Beach Club. All weekend, her mantra was “try to relax,” even having to remind herself to stop walking so fast. Luckily, on Anegada, which moves at a place so slow it makes Tortola feel like rush hour Manhattan, that’s not hard to do, while drifting asleep to the fluttering canvas sides of the tent, enjoying long lobster lunches with fellow “tourists,” or drifting leisurely downwind on a paddleboard from Keel Point to Cow Wreck Beach. Among these primeval rhythms, she soon achieved her goal, and now that she’s returned to the “real world,” she hopes she can also refrain from stressing out everyone else around her.