Montserrat - part 2: The Volcanic Crisis

Montserrat - part 2: The Volcanic Crisis

Wednesday 8th - Thursday 9th January, 2025

Our friends arrived a little after us and we arranged to meet for an island tour at 9am on Thursday.

Our driver, Leslie met us outside the dock area and we piled into his car. We made our way through various little settlements that had been established after the eruption of 1995.  Our first objective was the Montserrat Volcano Observatory (MVO).  Here we got our first really good view of the Soufriere Hills Volcano.  Small plumes of smoke or steam could be seen issuing from the side of the mountain. These emissions, coupled with some cloud, meant that the summit was actually hidden at this point, but you get get a sense of the size of the volcano and it’s dominance over the surrounding area. Inside the observatory, we watched a short film about the volcanic activity which has been a major factor on life on this island since the mid 1990s. The local people refer to it as the ‘volcanic crisis’. Footage from daylight hours showed large plumes of ash and gasses moving rapidly down the slopes of the mountain.  Similar footage taken at night revealed the presence of super heated lava and rocks traveling along with the ash plumes.  Also shown were before and after footage of the city of Plymouth.  

Our guide drove us into the restricted zone around Plymouth. This involved pre-planning on his part - seeking an application form the local police. We were met at the entrance to the zone 5 exclusion area by a lady who checked us in and provided our driver with a VHF radio. He called the MVO for authorization to enter, confirming the number of people and time of entry.  While much of the ash has been covered with vegetation in the almost 30 years since the town was abandoned, you could detect that the soil level was near the roof on many of the abandoned buildings that we walked past.  As we drove out toward the large dock, Leslie pointed out the port office building several hundred feet back from the portion of the dock that was still visible.  The coastline now extends much further into the ocean than it did before the recent eruptions. It was amazing to see the devastation but also to look up at the mountain from different sides and see areas where the ash flows are still obvious. 

The cone has grown and been blasted away several times in the past three decades. At its peak, the volcano was generating more than 30 cubic meters of new material (ash and rock) per second! 19 people have died during the ‘volcanic crisis’, but our guide stated that they were all in areas that had been declared unsafe and evacuated. A large part of the population has since moved away from the island and now fewer than 5,000 people remain, perhaps a third of the number prior to the eruptions. The volcano is still visibly active, constantly spewing out steam and ash, but what to expect in terms of future eruptions is not known. There is constant monitoring and evaluation, but it seems extremely unlikely that the southern part of the island, including the former capital Plymouth, will be re-settled in our lifetime.

We finished up the day with a visit to the botanical garden and lunch at shore side restaurant overlooking Little Bay.

Gloria

Soufriere Hills Volcano from the Montserrat Volcano Observatory (MVO)

Dramatic but difficult to photograph looking into the sun with steam and cloud

Our taxi on the road in the former capital Plymouth

The volcano looms behind destroyed building

The former town of Plymouth, now substantially overgrown, on the slopes below Soufrierre Hills Volcano. Photo taken from the former cruise ship dock.

The MVO

A building in Plymouth - possibly a former school

The front wall held up, but the outside was buried in ash

A former set of shops in Plymouth

The colorful paint is still visible on the woodwork and pieces of volcanic rock lie round about

An old church (it wa snot allowed to wander around the grounds)

The lady checking people in / out of the exclusion zone around Plymouth

Our tour guide Leslie - a lovely man

Dean, Kris and Gloria at lunch after the tour

Montserrat - part1: The Little Bay Experience

Montserrat - part 1: The Little Bay Experience

Wednesday 8th - Thursday 9th January, 2025

We have quite a few photos from our trip to Montserrat and therefore have decided to split the blog into two parts - the experience of staying in Little Bay and the day trip to the volcano.

Montserrat has an active volcano.  In 1995, the volcano erupted.  Further activity and a major eruption in 1997 led to the evacuation and eventual destruction of the capital, Plymouth.  Several more eruptions occurred  in 2003, 2006 and a very large event in 2010. The government has created exclusion zones and moved the residents to the northern portion of the island. Seeing the volcano and it’s effects on life in Montserrat was one of the prime reasons for visiting the island.

However, having seen a documentary about a volcano disaster in New Zealand, I had some reservations about our proposed trip to Montserrat.  Added to the anxiety over volcanic eruptions, was the worry about the anchorage.  There is only a portion of the island that is “open” and Little Bay (that has Customs and Immigration) has a reputation of being “untenable” in certain conditions, particularly when there is a northerly swell.  The days leading up to the passage, the forecasts were all about the northerly swells!  This turns out to be the normal situation for this time of year, as Atlantic storms dip south, impacting the northern Caribbean. However, the marine forecast was for two days of light winds and small, long period northerly swells, before picking up again later on Friday. It seemed there might be a window of opportunity. On Wednesday morning as we were getting ready to hoist the anchor, our friends Kris and Dean from S/V Charm motored over to say that they also thought that conditions would be okay in Little Bay.  This encouraged me somewhat.  

We set off in very light winds, expecting to motor all the way.  After a bit the breeze filled in at about 10-13 knots. We enjoyed a lovely sail until nearing the north of Montserrat, when, much to our surprise, we caught a fish!  We rolled up the genoa to slow the boat and hauled in the line.  It was a 3 foot barracuda.  While we have eaten barracuda we always worry about cigueterra poisoning. Having hauled it onto the side deck we were able to get the hook out easily and so we threw it back.  As we rounded the northern headland of Montserrat we were dismayed by the surf crashing into the coast. This didn’t seem altogether promising. We motored the rest of the way and anchored in Little Bay.  There were sizable swells rolling in and crashing on the beach and nearby cliffs, but on the whole we are not being subjected to the metronome-like rolling that is really uncomfortable. Mike did the check in, while I stayed onboard.  During this process Mike was informed that we need to move our anchoring spot as we were blocking access to the pier for larger vessels. Shortly after he returned, a cargo ship pulled into the Bay and successfully turned around and tied up to the pier - all before we moved Cotinga (which was never close to being in the way)! Nonetheless, we did pull up the hook and re-anchor a little further down the coast. The depth was ~32 feet so we had out 125 feet of chain. Thankfully the holding seemed fine and we never drifted far during our stay. 

Both nights we stayed in Little Bay were somewhat rolly, but by no means the worst anchorage we have stayed at. Having said that, the forecast were correct and the seas looked like a mirror by Thursday morning. It was a pretty atmospheric place to stay, but nowhere I would like to be in any sort of bad weather.

Gloria

Sailing from Antigua to Montserrat on a broad reach under lovely conditions

Little Bay, Montserrat from Cotinga

Long period swells crash as surf on the nearby cliffs

Cotinga at anchor in Little Bay under perfect conditions

Little Bay, Montserrat from the hills above

The view towards Redonda and Nevis (our next destination) at dusk

Fishing vessel after sunset

Sunset on Cotinga, taken on a tripod, the roll blurs the background

Two shots combined in Photoshop (using 'darker color' overlay) creates this abstract image

 

The Best Smoothies in the World

The Best Smoothies in the World

Monday 6th - Tuesday 7 January 2025

We have continued to work on boat jobs the last two days. We have now completed our sunshade project (see photos below), and this afternoon I added a final third coat to the varnish on the cap-rail. We re-provisioned at the local Waitrose supermarket and the fresh fruit stand across the road, our fuel and water tanks are full and we are pretty much ready to go. We have twice stopped at the the Fresh Food and Juice Truck behind the marina, and they have great smoothies. Today we both had “Halley Berry” smoothies, and a couple of days ago we had a “Yellow man” smoothie (pineapple and turmeric) and a strawberry, pineapple and banana smoothie - all of which were amazing!

It’s been mostly lazy and relaxing here in Jolly Harbor. I personally am not great at just hanging out, but even I have enjoyed being here. We have been monitoring the weather very closely, and tomorrow morning will pull up anchor and head over to Montserrat. It’s not a long passage - some 25 nm or so - but the issue is whether the anchorage will be reasonable in the current conditions. Winter storms in the Atlantic are now pressing down into the northern Caribbean, creating large northerly swells. We are quite comfortable here in Jolly Harbor, but Little Bay of Montserrat, the only anchorage that is open since the island was devastated by a volcano, is basically an “open roadstead” on the north west coast. The guide book describes it as “often rolly in north-eastern trades, best avoided in bad northerly or northwesterly swells, when the anchorage can be horrible and getting ashore impossible”. The swells are supposed to moderate for a coupe of days, but still essentially from the north, and we hope that it will be comfortable enough for us to anchor for two nights and spend one day ashore touring around. 

If the anchorage is untenable, we will continue on to Nevis and St Kitts, but once again we need to be aware of the next storm system that will bring northerly winds and swells at the weekend.

We are entering a new phase of our expedition as we make our way westwards to the Virgin Islands. This is exciting, but  takes quite bit more thought and planning. We will let you know how it goes!

Mike

Our new sunshade (tan colored). We now have a "dodger" (burgundy with vinyl windows) and "bimini" (burgundy at the stern) which are up constantly, then there is a fill-in white section (actually two pieces, you can use one, or other, or both) and now the "sunshade" (that provides protection from the sides).

Our modular shade system from inside the cockpit. As we point mostly to the east (where the trade winds are coming from) at anchor here in the Caribbean, the sun is often to the south and below our "dodger - bimini - fill-in". The new sunshade is easy to get up and down and is rigged so we can put it up on either side of the cockpit. 

We have had many squalls over the last couple of days. This is looking westwards after one passed through the anchorage

Does anyone know what type of catamaran this is? .... I want one!

Gloria with her sun-downer in the captains chair .... fizzy water (i.e. water with pre-dissolved burps) and ice. 

Not all Saturdays are restful

Not all Saturdays are restful

January 4th and 5th, 2025

Early on Saturday, Mike said he was planning on a restful day.  This began with a trip to the fuel dock in the big boat.  So up came the anchor, before breakfast.  Our thinking was “get to the fuel dock before it gets busy.”  Once we had motored into the marina area, we found both sides of the fuel dock occupied AND a catamaran waiting in the “basin”.  Not much seemed to be happening at the fuel dock but we thought “no big deal, we will circle until there’s space.”  in short order another three boats arrived.  Now there was hardly any space in the basin with boats trying to avoid collisions.  It was a long tedious forty minutes.  Just as the boat ahead of us was getting ready to pull into the fuel dock, another small boat appeared and zipped into the space behind the original small boat that had been “fueling” for a ridiculously long time.  This was more than we could tolerate.  Much shouting and swearing ensued.  I’m not sure that we intimidated him but both small boats did depart.  Mike did a terrific job of sidling Cotinga up to the dock.  We had to wait for a diesel hose, so started on water.  Once both tanks and all jerry cans were full, we started on the diesel.  Five jerry cans and one top-up of the main tank later all that remained was to pay the bill (ouch).  The undocking went smoothly and we threaded our way through the waiting boats to return to the anchorage.  My stomach was reminding me about breakfast but we had one more job.  We motored out of the harbor on "the sail of shame" to dump our holding tank, then back to anchor in nearly the same spot as earlier.  Two hours had elapsed.

Shortly after breakfast, we worked on treating the diesel with stabilizer / biocide and stowing the jerry cans.  Then it was time to go to shore to retrieve our laundry.  We had expected it on Friday but returned empty-handed from the first trip.  This time the last items were being folded and place in our bags.  We dumped the laundry bags into garbage bags (to keep them dry in the event of rain or splashes of seawater) and placed them in the dinghy.  Then we were off to the supermarket for a few items and some ice.  Once we had all that loaded up it the dinghy, we made another stop at the fuel dock to fill up a jerry can with gasoline.  The dinghy was riding low in the water on the trip back to Cotinga. 

If that wasn’t enough for one day, Mike decided that we should start work on the sunshade.  While we were in Martinique, we bought some fabric to make a sunshade.  What followed was a flurry of tying, pinning and lots of head scratching. We think we have a plan but there are many steps still to be executed.  We have reinforced the top, attached a few pieces of webbing for ties at the top.  Now we need to figure out how to reinforce the next attachment areas.  Then there will be edges to deal with and figuring out how to connect to our existing filler (between the dodger and bimini).  

Dinner was somewhat delayed and we found ourselves showering in the cockpit after 8 pm.  Bedtime followed fairly swiftly!

Sunday was another beautiful day and we went to shore and took a walk over to the bay to the north. We have never anchored in Five Island Bay - we aren’t sure why, but it looked fabulous. We strolled along a gorgeous beach in front of a 5-star resort, and would have stopped for lunch but their restaurant was only open to residents. We did stop and have lunch at another place on the edge of Jolly Harbor which was decent if not brilliant. In the afternoon we went over to the catamaran Charm to get advice from Dean and Kris on their favorite spots in Puerto Rico, the DR and out-islands of the Bahamas, which was really helpful for our future planning.

Gloria

Sunset Jolly Harbor Saturday night

A powerboat with fancy blue lights arrives at sunset

Abstract - the same vessel heading into the harbor - handheld, 1s exposure

Abstract - another vessel arrives at dusk - handheld, 2s exposure

The beach and resort on Five island Bay (looking eastwards)

The beach on Five island Bay (looking westwards)

A trimaran sailing past the stern of Cotinga (I believe the same sailboat as shown in the previous blog entry)

The Herd Mentality

The Herd Mentality

Thursday 2nd - Friday 3rd Jan 2025

Today is my Dad’s birthday … hard to imagine, but he would have been 95 years old. He’s been gone more than 20 years and I still miss him … and my mum.

… and on that topic I just finished reading a book called “Grave Talk” by Nick Spalding. Not an inspiring title, but Gloria and I both really enjoyed it and recommend reading it.

We are enjoying our ‘down time’ in Jolly Harbor. Yesterday we dropped off two 10 pound propane tanks for refilling and 3 large bags of dirty washing at the service laundry. The propane tanks were ready for pick up today and the laundry will be done tomorrow. I think they are a little overwhelmed by the post New Year rush. At some point we need to take Cotinga into the dock to fill up on diesel, water and gasoline, but we have such a great anchor spot we are reluctant to leave. Maybe tomorrow … or the day after ... or Monday ...

Gloria spent most of today working on her quilt project. We have a sewing machine on board, suitable for quilt-piecing but not mending sails! I think her project is going well, but it is a long process. Thankfully, she does seem to enjoy the work and not just the finished results (which are always stunning). She is incredibly talented. I myself spent the day varnishing the teak cap rail. It’s been a couple of years since it was last done, and it was in dire need of attention. There were a few places that got dinged (e.g. by the dinghy whilst hauling it on / off the deck) and some other small areas where water has got underneath the varnish. I tried to sand these back as best I could, without getting too hung up on perfection. Mostly it is just the sun that has caused it all to be rough and slightly crazed (a bit like myself). I gave it a quick sanding all over and then two coats of varnish, and I have to say it’s looking much better. Not bad for a half-assed job! If I feel motivated I may try for at least one or perhaps two more coats. With varnish, more is definitely better.

Yesterday afternoon we took some time off from our on-board relaxation and walked over to Church Valley Beach, about a mile away. This is a really stunning sandy beach with beautiful turquoise water and views across to the island of Nevis in the background. When we arrived we found a couple of empty sun loungers in the shade of a sea-grape tree on an almost empty section of beach. It was lovely! About 200 yards away there were dozens of umbrellas and scores of people. I wandered along to take a few photos and was amazed at how packed this area was. There were taxis galore and people frantically trying to catch a ride. It suddenly occurred to me that there must be a cruise liner at dock in St John and all these people had been bused out to experience the beach. I couldn’t quite figure out why they all remained in the same area, 3 feet away from the next person, when they could just have walked a hundred yards down the beach to a quiet spot. In any event, it left us in peace and solitude!

You may be wondering what happened to Tasha and Mac’s blog … me too! 

(How’s that for parental passive aggressive?!)

Mike

Church Valley beach as seen from our sun loungers. Note: You can just make out some boats anchored in front of the hills  - this is the outer part of the Jolly Harbor anchorage

Church Valley Beach - 200 yards from where we were seated in splendid isolation

Ahh the joy of the 'Selfie'. I don't take many people pictures and you may be wondering if I was stalking this couple, but in reality they stopped right in front of where we were lounging ... I barely had to sit up to take this shot!

One of the vendors working the cruise-liner crowd. She was so engrossed in her phone she never even looked up when I took this candid portrait.

Hibiscus flower from a bush near the beach

The back of the same flower

A cool-looking trimaran sailing through the Jolly Harbor anchorage (shot from the stern of Cotinga)

Janus day

Janus day

Dec 31st 2024

Is there any day better for looking back and looking forward?  We have come to the end of 2024, which was quite a year.  

In January of 24 we spent time with Will and Liz in Antigua and Barbuda. We travelled down to Guadeloupe, Dominica and Martinique.  We came back to Antigua in March to fly back to Massachusetts to see the eclipse with Susan and Stew (an outstanding experience).  We returned to Antigua in early April with my brother Rod and worked our way south to St. Lucia stopping at Guadeloupe, Dominica and Martinique.  Rod flew home from St. Lucia, while we carried on to Bequia and Tobago Cays.  We explored new terrain in the shape of Union Island, Carriacou and finally Grenada.  So many beautiful places. We finally arrived in Grenadas and left Cotinga on “the hard” for five months (hurricane season) and flew back to Boston. We think it was a really good plan to split this expedition over two years. The extra time has allowed us to cruise at a more leisurely place and soak up the experience. 

We enjoyed the summer at home—catching up with family, friends and our neighbors.  A frenzy of ordering boat parts and other “essentials” was the lead up to the return to Grenada in November.  Since then, we have had the pleasure of  three weeks of cruising with Pete and Jo,  followed (after a short interlude) by a great visit with Don, Dolly, Mac and Tasha.  After they left it felt lie “things got “too darn quiet” for a few days! One thing we didn’t anticipate was how tough life in the tropics would be on Cotinga, and the first few weeks after returning to the boat were filled with concerns about “what would break next”. Thankfully, the boat issues seem to have settled down … at least for now!

This morning we set off for Antigua at 6:40 am and arrived at the Customs dock in Jolly Harbor by 2:20 pm.  The passage was a bit mixed with some motor-sailing and some sailing with swells that eventually settled down.  We had everything from 4 knots to 18 knots of wind (with some rain, of course).  On arrival, we took Cotinga right up to the dock for Customs, Health, Immigration and Port Authority. We were concerned that they would be shut today for the New Year, but it turns out they are open 365 days a year. In any event, clearing-in is quite a long proces, but eventually we were able to make our way back to the anchorage and “sling the hook”.  We are happy to have arrived safely.

As for the future, 2025 is bound to bring us some new adventures and some re-visits to favorite islands.  Mike is very keen to visit Monserrat for the thrill of seeing an active volcano (I guess).  We hope to visit Nevis and St Croix before meeting friends in the Virgin Islands in early February.  After that, we will start the real down wind legs of the trip.  We hope to actually visit Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic this time - as opposed to sailing past as we did in 2018.  We might re-visit Turks and Caicos on our way to the outer islands of the Bahamas.  Then we’ll travel back to the US.  We hope to persuade some friends to join us for the Bahamas and others might explore some of the ICW with us.  

The rest of the year is less planned at this point but I’m sure we will both be glad to get back home to enjoy summer in New England.  

Love to you all

Gloria

17 04.573 N, 61 53.636 W

Montserrat from the east as we sail up to Antigua. Not a great shot as it was quite hazy, but you can clearly see the active volcano

The sun goes down as we sit in the cockpit of Cotinga enjoying cold drinks on New Years Eve

The last sunset of 2024 - it has been an incredible year