A Tale of Two Chemists: 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