Skye Cove, Hope Island, The British Paradise Islands

from *The Essential Paradise*, series sourcebook

#### **Doc. 1.72.**

**Skye Cove** is a municipality on Hope Island, in The British Paradise Islands, an overseas territory of the United Kingdom in the eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean, featured in the Two Paradises fiction/fantasy realm, as devised by Jonnie Comet.

It is a borough of Hanover Township and located on Skye Cove, a bay of the Inner Sound, along the north fringe of the territorial archipelago.

## Basic information

* Population: 309 (1995)
* Government: borough council, 5 members
* Township: Hanover
* Major industries: manufacturing, retail, publishing, distribution

## History and geography

Skye Cove may be one of the oldest established communities west of The Race, having on record several business and real-estate transactions dating to the late 1700s, when the whole region was informally called Hanover Bay. Seven families of Scottish ancestry settled here during the 1920s and 1930s, naming the bay and later the borough for the Skye region of Scotland. The area served as a naval replenishing station during the Spanish-American conflict of 1898 and during the 1939-1945 War.

Though the municipality fronts the bay to the northeast, it is protected from prevailing easterly weather by Junket Cay and others of the Out Islands and receives only moderate winds, leaving especially the uphill sections of the town often hot and humid. A public bathing lido, noted for gently rolling swells, extends the length of the downtown area. Above the retail district to the leeward side of the road, the hillside rises sharply, affording dramatic bay views from houses even half a kilometre inland. A network of footways and highways weave uphill by which pedestrians may trek over the island's interior to Foxchase and Hastings.

The borough of Skye Cove is a place of refuge for residents and yachts of the Out Islands in the event of major storms.

## Commerce and culture

The major landmark of the lower portion of the town is the Anglican Church of St John The Baptist, a traditional Palladian structure made of local-clay brick and harvested coral with a local-clay tile roof. The bell tower and spire stand prominently above the pavement of Hanover Road, with small a traffic circus slowing motor vehicles as though to provide travellers an opportunity to have a look. Though the front doors face into prevailing weather (leaving the nave cool and airy but also exposed to storm rain and wind), the main floor, at some 5-1/2 metres above the street (itself about 3 metres above the beach) make the church a popular haven for those evaculated from other areas for the duration of seasonal hurricanes.  The church grounds roll uphill through a memorial garden to meet West Marriott Road, an elevation change of some 18 metres.

Below the church, over Hanover Road, Reflection Park gives way onto the public lido. Hanover Road is the thoroughfare for the north end of Hope Island, extending westwards to Hanover borough and the Saviour’s Pass bridge to Rum Island and eastwards to Hastings and The Race bridge to Eden Island to the east. A monument commemorating English and Scottish military lost in the 1939-1945 is frequently photographed.

The Joy Pond recreational area is a popular destination for families, being the site of the local primary school as well as a spacious park with sports fields, playground and a cordoned wading lido between waterfalls either end of the lake, which flows downhill and as Joy Creek empties into the bay.

The West Hope Local bus route makes east- and westbound stops at three places in the borough.

The borough is not known as a tourist destination and tends to cater to territorial business and local interests. Several industries, including a sheet-metal fabricators, a manufacturer of molded-rubber products, and a major supplier of electrical components, are based in the eastern end of the territory.

Skye Cove Marina is home to several dozen private yachts and a yacht-service facility including haulout and dry storage. The Out Islands Ferry Service connects the outer cays Sky Cove and several nearby coastal communities.

### Strategy culture

The rugged interior above the town is noted as a challenging location for Strategy games; tournaments are frequently begun, conducted or concluded in town and nearby.

The all-female side known as The Vee call Skye Cove their operational headquarters. The Vee are noted for a formidable win-loss record and for eschewing all forms of trousers, knickers and swimsuit pants during game play.

### Notable residents

Lady Mary Ashcroft, acting manager of the *Paradise Gazette*, a popular society magazine, lives and keeps offices in the borough.

Cair Paravel, the estate of Sir David Holloway, his wife Lynda and their family, is located on (renamed) Narnia Cay and is approached via a causeway bridge over Audrey Pass (like that at Camelot) from the southern end of Skye Cove borough. The Holloway children attend Joy Hill Primary school and the regional elementary and high schools of Hope Island.

## Development of the setting

The Skye Cove area was developed as an alternative home neighbourhood for several independent characters as well as for the members of the Strategy team The Vee, whom episodes have reported are from Hope Island. The character of Lady Mary Ashcroft was also provided with a home there, her family home being based on an original house design by author Jonnie Comet.

## Appearance in stories

The borough is featured in ‘Girl on Girl’, an episode in *The Love of Gwendolyn Dahl* arc, and some others featuring Strategy-game play.

An episode called ‘The Vee’, an independent story coincident with events of the *Gwendolyn Dahl* arc, centres round the team members’ training regimen, friendships and competition play and provides much detail about places in the neighbourhood, the local inhabitants and their hesitant, conditional tolerance of the girls’ unique habit of dress.

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