Why Tintamarre and what does it mean?

Why Tintamarre and what does it mean?

We purchased Tintamarre from Sunsail in St Martins, she was named after the island of Tintamarre just a few miles from the Sunsail base in Oyster pond.   We were Sunsail/Moorings owners for 10 years so we had a fair idea of what we were letting ourselves in for..but Sunsail, like the meaning of "Tintamarre"  hid a few surprises from us and like the name, we are only just finding them all out.

Tintamarre is an island with beautiful sandy beaches and tinted seas - and an old runway used for drug smuggling. With the beauty of the island in mind we had been sailing around the Caribbean for nearly three seasons thinking Tintamarre meant "tinted sea". 

Generally Tintamarre seemed have a tranquil feel and a happy image, or so we thought...

Tintamarre at Tintamarre

But...

Explaining this to a French Canadian we were surprised to learn the true meaning of the word is "Cacophony" defined best in music and rhyme by others.

From Gulliver's travels:

"I could not forbear shaking my head, and smiling a little at his ignorance. And being no stranger to the art of war, I gave him a description of cannons, culverins, muskets, carabines, pistols, bullets, powder, swords, bayonets, battles, sieges, retreats, attacks, undermines, countermines, bombardments, sea fights, ships sunk with a thousand men, twenty thousand killed on each side, dying groans, limbs flying in the air, smoke, noise, confusion, trampling to death under horses' feet, flight, pursuit, victory; fields strewed with carcases, left for food to dogs and wolves and birds of prey; plundering, stripping, ravishing, burning, and destroying."

Or from one's childhood, or reading to children or Grandchildren

Perhaps not..

But why Cacophony?  Tintamarre is an Acadian tradition of marching through one's community making noise with improvised instruments and other noisemakers, usually in celebration of National Acadian Day. 

The story full story can be seen here Tintamarre - what it really means

Tintamarre likes to get up and go and likes to have lots of visitors, so if we are on board on August 15th don't expect any sleep!  Happy and fun yes, tranquil, not really,..