Detour to Montserrat
MALARKEY
Jo & Trevor Bush
Fri 11 May 2007 14:52
|
Little Bay, Montserrat 16:48.0N
61:13.0W
I thought we were heading south after Antigua
towards Dominica for some serious rain forest trekking. Got that wrong.
Joanne and Neil & Tracy (S/Y Adonde) had other ideas. They wanted some
serious volcano action instead. So off to Montserrat to look at
some pyroplastic devastation.
Our macabre and ghoulish curiosity got the better
of us as we scaled the mountain to the lookout station opposite the infamous
volcano. (Alright, I know that sounded alot like the beginning of a
poor 'O' Level English exam paper but give us a break!).
It genuinely was quite an eye opener to see the once lush green island
half covered in volcanic dust. It was just how you might imagine the after
effects of an atomic bomb blast to be.
 If you look at the bottom right of the picture you
can just make out the remains of the old capital, Plymouth. The volcano is still
smouldering away and throwing out pyroplastic material every so often. In
fact we were told that it is on alert level 4. Not too alarming, we first
thought, until we found out that the alert level range only goes up to level 5
and that is when it is about to blow....oops. About time to hightail it out of
there post haste and down to Guadeloupe, at least we were heading in the right
direction this time. Well at least we were!
It was a hard on the wind sail in a stiff breeze, a
lumpy sea and tide against us. We were just about making the southern part of
Guadeloupe but Adonde seemed to have other ideas, maybe Martinique or
possibly even Venezuela! When they disappeared over the horizon we figured we
had lost our cruising buddies for good. But no, they turned up in the same
pretty little bay as us, Ans a la Barque, just 20 mins behind.
Catamarans just do it differently!!
|