Montserrat - St.Lucia

Eric Clapton's hand print

Old recording studio

We awoke on Tuesday morning to a new island that was just waiting to be uncovered. My dad headed to shore to clear customs and immigration but shortly after came to fetch us all. A smiling man named Joe, who was to be our tour guide for the day, greeted us as we got off the dock. Our first stop was the cultural centre where we got to see the hand prints etched into the wall of some famous musicians such as Elton John, Eric Clapton, Paul McCartney etc. We were told that there used to be a recording studio on the island where a few of these musicians came to record . . . some others including Sting and the Police. The studio was no longer working as it was abandoned after hurricane Hugo and also once the world changed to digital recording. From the cultural centre we went to the volcanic observatory of Montserrat and watched a 20-minute video about some of the history of the volcano. The volcano caused a lot of the people living on the island to evacuate, thus changing the population from over 11 000 inhabitants to the small 5 000 that still reside here today. Nineteen lives were lost in the eruption itself. Eight years ago the volcano destroyed the town of Plymouth, which still to this day, lies in ruins, buried beneath volcanic ash. We drove to the abandoned recording studio to see where magic was once produced. It was very cool looking around the studio and seeing the thick doors, separate instrument rooms, sound boards etc. Joe then drove us to Plymouth to see the site of devastation. He first drove us through his old village which had also been evacuated. . .I felt as if I were in a horror movie driving through the small roads, overgrown with green bush. Death hung in the air as we drove on, not death as such in actual lives lost, but death for the lives that had once been lived in these houses, death to the memories that abided in them. We drove past what was once a school, where children ran and played, but was now nothing more that an old building hidden by thick overgrowth. Buried beneath lush green bush, we passed house after house. My mother asked him how they all just packed their personal things and left without looking back. Joe said they did it because it was what they had to do, they looked forward and moved on. Eventually we arrived at Plymouth. . .what a contrast compared to what we had just been through. Here, before my eyes, there was no lush green overgrowth, no life had been reproduced. Everything was grey and ghostly. I stood for a while, lost for words, gazing at the destruction caused only eight years ago. The volcano still releases volcanic gases so we could smell it in the air. Joe took us to an abandoned hotel that had been destroyed in the eruption. Everything was covered in volcanic ash and mud. . .the rooms. . .the reception. . .everything. We finally left the barren, solitary side of the island and headed back to where there was still some life. As we drove, I heard my dad say softly behind me to himself, “Material things mean nothing in the big picture.” How true that statement was . . . .We went for lunch at the hotel where all the band members stayed when the recording studio was still working. After lunch we drove up a big hill and looked over Montserrat. It was heartbreaking yet breathtaking all at the same time. You could clearly see the contrast from Plymouth to the rest of the island. The island changed instantly from lush green forest to grey desolate land. After a great day, a real eye opening one too, we went back to the boat, all grateful for what we had.

Plymouth in ruins

Destroyed hotel room

contrast between Plymouth and the rest of Montserrat

Abandoned hotel

Wednesday we woke up to the beautiful site of Montserrat once again. After making a breakfast of Spanish eggs for my parents, I set about on schoolwork. Most of the day was schoolwork, I did, however, go for a paddle on the kayak in the afternoon. Beaches and little cliffs surrounded the island. The waves had created small caves in the cliffs, so I paddled to get a closer look. After my kayak, we lifted anchor and moved in closer to the beach in hope of being better protected from the wind. The whole day we had felt the anchor tug as a huge gust of wind kept howling through. The bridle had even fell off we discovered, so the anchor chain was taking the brunt of the pull. We were satisfied with the new spot as we were much more sheltered from the wind. We had a night of peaceful slumber.

Click on the link below for a video of our time at Montserrat. . .

Montserrat

Thursday morning our plans changed once again . . .we left Montserrat and headed for Jolly Harbour in Antigua. Something had come up that my dad needed to go sort out in Australia so he will fly to Australia tomorrow. We arrived in Antigua and I went for a run . . .I started off on an old dirt road that looked as if it hadn’t been traveled down for a while. The road eventually led me to a beautiful beach . . .I left my shoes by a beach chair and went for a beach run. My run came to an end as the sun began setting. I met a guy on a golf cart who offered to take me back to the marina so off I went. As I was walking back to the boat, by chance I saw my parents having a drink at the bar, I went to sit with them for a while before heading back to Jangles.

Sailing away from Montserrat

Friday morning began with a bang. The buckets and brooms came out as we gave Jangles a good scrub. As we were cleaning her exterior, a lady came and introduced herself as Jill. She came to say hello and to say how amazed she was that she saw a family working together to clean the boat. We chatted with her for a bit and then said our farewells as my dad had to go catch his plane. Us girls felt lost on the boat without Mr. Captain. We went shopping for provisioning and then got take aways for dinner and sat around the table watching a movie together.

Checking the rods

Saturday was the arrival day for Lee. My mom got up early to begin preparing things for dinner and baking a cake so that she wouldn’t have to be in the gallery a lot during our sail. As we were still getting ready, I heard a knock on the hull. I surfaced to see who it could be and it was Lee, he had arrived earlier than expected. He got settled into his cabin (his one little backpack didn’t go very far with all the space I had cleared) and we departed just before one o' clock to the customs dock. We made it to the customs dock in one piece. . .and surprisingly there was no tension or stress on the boat at all. . .this was going ot be a great sail. Sure enough as we left Jolly Harbour and headed off into the big blue, the sea was calm and the wind was great. We averaged between 8-9 knots from Antigua to Guadelope, where the wind died instantly and we had to turn the motors on. It was also a full moon tonight so the water and the sails were all lit up with a magical glow. As we sailed on past Guadeloupe and then reaching Dominica, we realized something was missing. . .other boats. We hadn’t seen anyone boats since reaching Guadelope. We spoke too soon obviously cause as Lee went down to sleep and left me on my night watch, a large cargo ship started inching its way closer and closer towards us. They passed about 0.7nm behind our boat, but they were lit up like a shopping mall as all their twinkling lights came past. We had a little concern about the starboard engine as it was making a really loud humming sound and it started to smell as if someone had ridden the clutch on a car. Lee did some investigating and eventually it went back to normal. . .the sound evened out with the port engine and the smell slowly disappeared. We had decided on doing an hour and a half on watch and then three hours off. . .this worked well and we eventually worked our way through to morning.

Steak on the braai

We all found ourselves on deck at 5 am on Sunday morning. . .why were we all awake? So I went back to sleep for a while. As we were passing Martinique, we had a sweet surprise. . .dolphins. We saw a new born baby who could not of been more than a few days old. We all kept on glancing at the rods over and over. . .where were the fish? We had caught a small tuny the previous day but other than that, the ocean has been filled with fish that weren’t hungry! We even switched lures on both rods and nothing happened. We arrived in Rodney Bay around 3pm on Sunday afternoon. All in all it was a very pleasant sail. . .calm seas, good wind between islands, dolphins, full moon to give us light at night time. . .and the list goes on. Thanks Lee for bringing us girls here safely xxx

Washing hair on deck

Chilling with drinks after a good sail