16:48.02N  62:12.57W

 

Friday 15 May 2015

 

Distance Run  43nm

 

We have explored St Kitts a little and Nevis is the ‘poor relation’ in a way but from what we can see of it from the mooring buoy and what we have read we would like to spend some time ashore in Nevis one day and look around.  There is no time to do that now as the favourable winds are only here for a few days so it’s time to move on again.

 

We saw Heymede motoring past whilst we were having our breakfast in the cockpit so called them on the VHF to say we will be following shortly.  We had been calling each other throughout yesterday afternoon and evening and apparently they could hear us but we couldn’t hear them. 

 

Today was expected to be a bit of an upwind slog and so it proved to be.  The wind strength and direction were fine but the lumpy sea was a boat stopper.  We finally reached Little Bay near the north west tip of Montserrat at around 4.30pm and set the anchor in rather deep water.  Heymede arrived about an hour later which was good going but they had had an unpleasant trip.  There were several boats here already.  We did find what was interfering with the VHF and were able to communicate clearly with each other throughout the day.

 

Once we had anchored we noticed that the fresh water pump was running intermittently.  This means there is a water leak somewhere and the pump is trying to restore pressure in the system.  I spent half an hour trying to find evidence of a leak, pulling up floor boards and emptying cupboards and eventually traced it to the engine room.  Three water pipes run under the engine and one of them is seeping water but we can’t yet tell which one.  It took 45 minutes to pump out the lost water and we will have to leave the pump switched off until we can trace and fix it.

 

The Soufriere Hills volcano erupted in 1995 but in 1997 the capital, Plymouth, in the south of the island was evacuated in advance of major eruptions and was eventually destroyed.  Much of the south of the island is under several feet of ash and rocks and there is a 2 mile exclusion zone around Plymouth.  Nearly two thirds of the 11,000 population left the island but the numbers have climbed back up to 5000 in recent years.  In 2003 the dome of the volcano collapsed and it was thought that activity had stopped and much of the island was reopened and people returned to repair their damaged homes.  Unfortunately in 2006 there were some more eruptions followed by a biggy in 2010 and the exclusion zones are back in place.  This must have been heart breaking for those who had returned and for those who had invested and restored some of the hotels.

 

Rains have washed down a lot of volcanic sand and rocks and the old golf course is under 30ft of the stuff.  The coastline has been altered by the run off and an old deepwater pier now sits inland!  There are tours which we would very much like to do one day.  Much of this information has been gleaned from Chris Doyle’s very informative Pilot Book.

 

 

Our anchorage in the north is safe as there is a mountain between us and the volcano.  The protecting mountain can be seen in this picture looking south:-

 

 

 

 

This was taken early the following morning showing the northern tip of Montserrat which we will sail around before aiming south again on the other side of the island:-