Montserrat

18 April 2008, Montserrat

We celebrated Tatiana’s 10th birthday just before our departure from Nevis. Decorating a boat with streamers and balloons is a challenge, but it has to be done. It is a sore point with Tatiana that she has not celebrated her birthday at home for the last 5 years, but by now we have established a routine for birthday celebrations while traveling. Presents in the morning, playing with “stuffies” and games until it is time to go find a swimming pool and a nice dinner out in the evening. Can you guess her favourite present from the picture?

The sea was a little bit more forgiving on our way to Montserrat, at least in the size of the swell if not in the direction of the wind. The competitive spirit set in early on, as several other boats left Nevis at the same time, but eventually all ended up going in different directions and we were alone on our way past Redonda to Montserrat. A foul smell attacked us about three hours into the trip and I chased Kuno to check the head, as surely something must have gone wrong (and there was no way I was going down there). But all was fine and it dawned on us that this was the welcome from the volcano at Montserrat – and we were still two hours away!

But Montserrat surprised us. The beauty and devastation are both striking. A small island to begin with, only one third of it is now in use, the rest contained in an “Exclusion Zone”, where access is prohibited. The volcano has been continually active since 1995, burying the main town of Plymouth in mud, ashes and lava in 1997. In one place, only the steeple of an old church can be seen peeking out and there are whole areas where nothing can be seen under the 20 – 30 ft of deposit. Even now the volcano is alive, with the last outburst as late as this January. This left Montserrat with no economy, as both the sea port and cruise ship terminal were in Plymouth and the airport on the other side of the volcano was also wiped out. The land in Montserrat is incredibly fertile and we stocked up on all sorts of fruit directly from the trees, including tamarind, which we have never tasted before. Breadfruit and mangoes are so abundant that there are not enough people on the island to consume it all, but no set up industry to export it either. People are still leaving with only 5000 residents remaining, although heavy financial support is flowing in from Britain of which Montserrat is still part. A completely new town is being built in the safe zone, but this area is hilly and too rugged for agriculture. And there really is no infrastructure to attract tourists other than the divers and cruisers as us, with only a few small hotels and local restaurants open.

Our driver also showed us the Waterworks Studio, belonging to George Martin, where Beatles and Mick Jagger used to record. It is now in disrepair and we wondered through the empty rooms and recording studio with remnants of equipment and even some tapes strewn about. The setting was beautiful, up in the hills, with view of the ocean (and probably lot of pot growing in the garden) – great for inspiration. But as the rest of the island, the beauty is tinged with devastation.

At the end of our visit in Montserrat we played on a beautiful beach close to where we were anchored in Little Bay and discovered perfectly black sand. I have never seen anything like it and Tatiana and Kuno had tons of fun rolling in it, looking like they had stockings or wetsuits on. An appropriate end to a great visit of an island that many cruisers bypass.