As usual, Andrew had checked all the weather models and they all looked good, before leaving St Martin. We were expecting light winds coming from the east and then moving to the south. We didn’t need winds from the south as we were heading that way, but it looked like it would be okay.
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| Early morning sighting |
Once again, we got it wrong. The wind was too far south which meant that it was coming at us on the bow of the boat, which makes sailing in the direction we wanted to be going difficult. We considered turning back, but then the worry always is, will it improve? So we persevered and continued with our overnight sail. We estimated it to be a 24 hour sail but when the sun rose the following morning, we realised it was going to be much longer. We had only averaged 4 knots during the night and we were way behind. Also the angle was all wrong and we were going to have to do some tacking if we were going to make Guadeloupe. As we were sailing down the coast of Montserrat, watching the volcano spewing clouds of smoke, we decided that none of us wanted another long day, so we turned around and headed for Rendezvous Bay, Montserrat.
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| Active volcano |
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| Worrying about ash on the boat |
What a brilliant decision that was! It was just beautiful! According to the guide book you are not allowed to anchor in this bay without permission, so we hailed the port authorities and asked. They said it was no problem. When we arrived there was only one other boat, an Irish couple, Rhys and Niamh, on Zora, in the bay. Then another boat followed us and by the end of the evening there were five boats anchored around us.
Andrew has a new motto: to always reach out. So on the way to check in, he stopped off at Zora to say hello. Another boat had arrived with us so he stopped there as well, introducing himself to a South African couple on their boat Wandering Albatross. Kirsten and Dave have been sailing for many years, all over the world. Both Zora and Wandering Albatross have social pages if you want to read more about them.
Andrew wanted to know if they would be willing to share a tour of the island. Zora were waiting for mates to arrive and were going to do the tour with them but Wandering Albatross were keen so we set it up to go exploring the following day.
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| Sam's taxi |
We met Sam at the dock the following day and off we went. First stop was the bank which was an interesting experience both inside and out. The ATM would not accept Andrew’s card, so he went inside to a teller. He says it was like a page out of history. There was all sorts of paperwork and basically he had to do a money transfer to withdraw cash.
While we were waiting outside, parked right outside the door on a yellow line, a lady in her little blue car, drove rather impatiently past Sam’s bus and scraped it all down the side with her side mirror and wheel hub… and off she drove. When Sam realised what she had done he hopped out his car in a hurry and chased after her, stopping her at the exit. She drove back into the parking lot and a whole lot of shouting ensued. She didn’t want to give Sam her name or phone number, but eventually relented and recited her number. Much shouting later, she hopped into her car and drove off. By this time Sam had done the sensible thing and parked in an open parking space. He phoned the police to come and take a statement which they eventually did, ambling into the parking lot at snails pace. Business taken care of and Andrew finally back in the bus, a few EC dollars richer, off we went.
Our first stop was to drink water from a tiny waterfall flowing down the hill. Apparently if you drink water from here you will always return to Montserrat. We all had a sip of the slightly earthy tasting water, ensuring our return.
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| Sam |
The next stop was the Montserrat Volcano Observatory which offers a fantastic view of the volcano and surrounding area. Much of the land is green and lush from the rich volcanic ash which still covers it.
After paying EC10 per head and EC3 for a face mask - yes believe it or not they would not let us in without one, it’s not like the place was teeming with people either, we watched a 40 minute film clip of the days leading up to the eruption and the eruption, which happened in June, 1997. The evacuation of people from the high risk areas started in July 1995. People were evacuated from their homes two years prior to the eruption and sadly many of those homes were looted as the owners were not allowed to go back to collect more belongings.
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| Volcanic rocks |
Soufriere volcano destroyed the capital city of Plymouth including the airport, covering it in mud, lava, and ash, killing only 19 people who had refused to leave the exclusion zone. The lava flowed down the hill into the sea extending the shoreline by a couple of hundred meters.
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| Spot the loo |
We paid a bit extra to be allowed into the exclusion zone, which was well worth it. Sam kept telling us that we were standing on houses that had been buried. He drove past buildings that were gutted and with a wave of his hand out the window ticked off what the buildings were: police station, supermarket, laundromat, hotel.
The church still stood tall, but inside the pews were half buried in mud and the organ could be seen at the one end.
We drove out to where the lava had made new land and stood on the new dock, looking back at where the town should have been. Sam told us that cruise liners used to dock there but now it was too shallow for them.
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| Volcano spewing gas and cloud in the distance |
All that can be seen are the remains of houses which were three or four floors, and now only one or two floors stick out the sand.
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| Volcanic ash |
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| Trucks removing ash |
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| Ash covered plants |
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| Huge volcanic rocks are strewn across the land |
More than half the population of Montserrat left the island and never returned, moving to England or America. The economy crashed after the volcanic eruption and although there is still evidence of poverty, the people of Montserrat are trying hard to rebuild their beautiful country.
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| Lunch stop |
After a lovely lunch, we went for a walk through a beautiful forest before heading back to the dinghy dock.
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| I wondered if Jim's air plant was still alive |
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| Air plants if you look closely |
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| We didn't see any wild life, thank goodness. Snakes are not my best |
We spent another day relaxing on the boat and preparing for our next leg.
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| Yes, we do have down-time too |
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| Another green flash sunset |
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| Beautiful rainbows when the rain ends |
It was time to move on. But before we did, Andrew donned his scuba gear and cleaned the bottom of the boat which I'm sure will give us another knot or two of boats speed. When he was finished he rinsed the tank and put it on the back of the boat to dry. The anchorage was a little rolly and the next thing a huge roll came through and we heard the tank fall over, into the water. We were anchored in 10 meters of water so there was no way Andrew was going to be able to free dive down and get it.
So he enlisted the help of our fellow bay dwellers. Rhys and his friend, Thomas from another boat, gladly took up the challenge and came across to help. They donned their really long fins and goggles and dropped off the side of the dinghy. Next thing, Rhys popped up with the tank in his arms. Thank goodness! Payment was a six-pack of beer. I hope Andrew will remember to pack things away from now on!
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| Rhys, Thomas and Andrew |
On Montserrat you could check in and check out at the same time if you were only going to stay for 72 hours. Our time was up and we needed to sail on to Guadeloupe. So early one morning we upped anchor and set off.
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| Looks perfect |
Andrew had been checking the weather closely to try and avoid having the same trials as before, but again the weather prediction got it wrong (or maybe we did). Our bay was very secluded and well-protected from the wind, but as we came round the point the wind was blowing 25 to 30 knots and the seas were very messy, but we persevered and finally made it to Guadeloupe.
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