Fwd: Montserrat
Ernestina
Tue 24 Mar 2020 01:14
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A few points about Montserrat:-
The first European settlers on Montserrat were Irish, arriving in the 1600’s. Their culture, religion and names are still felt and seen throughout the island. In the 1960’s & 70’s Monserrat became one of the places to be seen in the Caribbean. The rich and famous flocked to the island and many lovely homes were built on the green hills overlooking the sparkling Caribbean Sea. George Martin, The Beatles’ producer, set up “Air Studios” in 1979 which was used by Dire Straits, Elton John, Paul McCartney, The Police and many other top artists. Between 1995 and 2010 the previously dormant Soufrière Hills volcano erupted several times with catastrophic effects for the whole of the South of the island and the capital, Plymouth, in particular. The damage was done by pyroclastic flows which are very fast, very hot rivers of rock and gas ejected in an eruption. 6th March 2020 Ernestina arrived and anchored in Little Bay, just outside Montserrat’s only port. After checking in we headed to the small town of Salem where Amanda had arranged accommodation for the next three nights. We were staying in an apartment at a house just outside the town. The owner was away so we had the place to ourselves including a very nice, if small, infinity-pool with views over the the ocean to Redonda and Nevis. Our taxi driver, James “Rooster”, took us to the Isle Bay Beach Bar run by Alex, a “retired’ Glaswegian who was waiting for his son to return from his travels to take over so Alex could retire again. The place was busy, mostly it seemed with ex-pats who lived on the island. Rooster, who was a local, knew most people there.
He advised us that tonight, it being 2 weeks before St Patrick’s Day, was the start of the annual celebration of that particular Saint, and that in Salem everyone would be out for the parade, speeches, live music and eating and drinking. So after a bite to eat at the Beach Bar we headed back to Salem with Rooster where things were buzzing despite the heavy rain showers that came every 5 minutes. He knew most people there. We settled in to a bar where three men, including one who must have been 85, were improvising percussion with a bongo drum, a piece of bamboo and a coconut, taking turns with each instrument. Meanwhile a Rasta’ was setting up his amp, tuning
his guitar and warming up his harmonica behind them. Eventually he got going, initially accompanied by the percussionists and then on his own, knocking out some decent covers including Bob Marley and the Police. We called it a day around 11pm and returned
to the house.
The music was still going strong in Salem at 3am. And this was just the start of two weeks partying in honour of St Patrick on this small island in the Caribbean. Saturday 7th March Today, a tour of the island, focussing on the areas hit by the volcano. Our driver and guide, a young looking 70-something called Joe Philip, had spent his whole life in Monserrat. After the eruptions he and his family along with all those in areas hit by, or considered at risk from the volcano, were relocated to the North; many thousands were persuaded to up-sticks and emigrate to the UK. Joe stayed in his home country and has for many years been telling the story and showing the impact of the volcano. He has a wealth of pictures from before the eruptions and seeing these next to the ruins is quite shocking and moving.
We visited Cork Hill, a small town in the foothills of the volcano and some way north of Plymouth. A lot of ash fell here as it did in many places but there was no structural damage to the buildings. Nevertheless the whole town was designated
part of the exclusion zone and evacuated. The exclusion zone was eventually pushed back and now covers Plymouth and the adjacent areas that were directly affected, but by the time this was done the deserted Cork Hill was overgrown and is now hidden by the
jungle. Joe lived here and showed us the remains of his family home, barely discernible through the bush.
We went on to Plymouth, into the exclusion zone, with a police escort, and staying in constant radio contact with staff at the volcanic observatory. It was pyroclastic flows which destroyed the former capital burying vast areas of the city in several metres of material rendering them uninhabitable. Today the city is a wasteland with the second and third floors of some buildings all that you can see.   Before and after shots of an office building in Portsmouth From here we went to the observatory where we were shown the monitoring equipment, essentially racks of computers receiving and analysing data from sensors all over the volcano and elsewhere on the island.
Pressure is building and at some point there will most likely be further significant activity.
Sunday 8th March George Martin’s old house, Olveston, is now a hotel and restaurant and, it being Amanda’s birthday, we had hoped to go there for dinner - but it was closed. Instead we had a nice walk to the Isle Bay Beach Bar through some very smart residential areas with lovely villas and manicured gardens and past the once famous Vue Pointe Hotel. We enjoyed a fantastic fresh fish lunch and a swim off the beach before returning to the house for general relaxation in and by the pool. Monday 9th March
On the way back to the anchorage we saw a car half-in and half-out of the canyon-like storm gullies that are on the side of many roads. Shortly after this we saw a road accident where a car had run into the back of a truck. Our tax-driver pointed
out that both cars were rentals and said - “It’s always like this for St Patrick's - tourists with a trace of Irish in them come for the parties and this is the sort of thing we get.”
We got back to Ernestina and headed off, round the North of the Monserrat and then down the East coast for some spectacular views of the volcano and its devastating output on that side of the island.
 We sailed on to anchor off Deshaies in the North of Guadeloupe and the next day we sailed to anchor in Prince Rupert Bay off Portsmouth, Dominica which, you may recall, we visited without stopping on our way North from Martinique back in February.
We now had time for a proper visit.
More pictures from Montserrat here.....
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