Montserrat

Montserrat home to Soufriere Hills volcano, one of the most monitored active volcanos. Quite the following.

We left Antigua and headed Southwest to the Northern tip of Montserrat. A rain shower got in our way so no pictures to parade about this time. But the approach to the island was magnificent. Beautiful dramatic cliffs that plunge straight down into clear waters.

We anchored in the only clearing-in harbor, Little Bay. The anchorage tends to be rolley particularly when Northerly winds prevail. Even in our luck with due East winds, we found the anchorage to be uncomfortable on our ketch. The two masts make our boat more top heavy than sloops or cutter rigs so when a beam side-roller hits the boat we keep rolling back and forth whilst other boats bob like a cork.

Coming in, we knew the “must-do” tour of the volcano runs around $100-130 USD. Yikes! 4 hours and you see the town Plymouth which was covered in 40 feet of ash, Richmond Hill, and the Volcano Observatory. Since we were just two lonesome folks…. we thought that was outrageous. So we decided to take the local buses which will run you $5.00 EC or $1.85 USD. Yay! Prices I like.

We wandered to the bus stop with a few locals helping us along the way. Everyone was laid back and genuinely nice. Throughout the day we spotted hints of the Irish past. McCoy Hill, Pudding & Pies stores, green lucky charms over old pubs called Sullivans. A long time ago the Irish laid claim to the Northeast side of Montserrat. The people of Montserrat celebrate St. Patricks Day but for more reasons than one…. there was a great slave rebellion that is remembered on that day. Our bus driver told us about the island and dropped us off at the observatory. He gave us his story in remembering the ’95 eruption. Thousands of people left the island but more relocated, leaving their homes behind. The observatory had a moving and interesting 20 minute video that we really enjoyed. The ’95 eruption allowed for the largest pyroclastic flows to be recorded on camera. Unbelievably enormous blooms of smoke billowed up into the sky for miles and miles.Read more