Saturday 7th May, Little Bay, Montserrat.
Montserrat ('S'rat to the locals), The Emerald Isle, has some
Irish connections going way back that I'm still trying to fully get my head
around. It seems a lot of the early indentured workers and planters
were Irish so people have surnames like Boyle and Skerrit and there's
a Carr's Bay and a Kinsale and a Potato Hill. And they celebrate St.
Patrick's Day – but it's a bit complicated. It's still a British
Overseas Territory, like St. Helena with whom they have a bit of a
sibling rivalry going when it comes to funding.
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| The crest of Montserrat - some Irish influence evident. |
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| Montserrat is also capable of serving up a grand soft Irish day of rain, drizzle, mist and fog. |
Anyway, we had the most fabulous sail
up here from Deshaies in Guadeloupe. The Gods were really having a
good day – sunny, blue skies with little fluffy white clouds, a
calm sea, a steady breeze coming from the perfect direction and a
route that took us up the east coast of Montserrat from where we
could see the dramatic new shelves of land formed off the coast by
the recent volcanic activity.
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| Beautiful sailing. |
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| Lots of sargassum around again this season. |
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| The volcano in cloud with the ash flow at the bottom left. |
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| The great check-in farce: the health staff waiting for us outside while we were waiting for them inside. We did eventually figure it out and find each other. |
Famous in the past as the home of Sir
George Martin's (of Beatles fame) Air Studios (until Hurricane Hugo
in 1989) and the singer Arrow of “Hot Hot Hot” fame (go on, sing
it, you know you want to) Montserrat in recent years is mainly known
for its volcano. There had always been a quiet volcano, Galway's
Soufriere, in the south of the island but in 1995 a random hill in
the middle of the island began to erupt meaning the southern two
thirds of the island was in danger and had to be evacuated. This
included the capital and main port of Plymouth. About half of the
10,000 population emigrated as there just wasn't enough room, housing
or employment for everyone anymore. Everything had to be relocated
and built from scratch again – police, hospital, government,
schools, port, airport, homes, shops – everything. The task is mind
boggling. And all the good agricultural land and farms had been in
the south. Oh, and they lost their medical school which was worth
about 25% of the local economy.
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| A table rescued from Air Studios with photos of some of the musicians who recorded there. See the documentary "Under the Volcano" for details. |
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| Arrow's current business. He used to have a big department store in Plymouth but that's under ash now. |
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| Abandoned suburbs and an area of ash flow from the volcano. |
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| A brand new town was built on the northeast of the island. |
So between 1995 and 2010 the remaining islanders
watched a new mountaintop grow, and then collapse, and then grow, and
then collapse until one final (they hope) big eruption in 2010. The
most catastrophic eruption was in 1997 when the collapsing dome sent
pyroclastic flows down to Plymouth, the airport and the valleys of
farmland where people had been trying to continue to care for their
land. Around 20 people were killed. We were able to visit the
exclusion zone with a tour guide and see the remains of Plymouth
buried under ash as well as abandoned residential areas that nature
is now reclaiming. It was very sobering to be taken around by our
guide who would point out his old school, his old house, his parents'
old bookshop, the places in town where he and his friends would hang
out. All deserted and mostly buried. An island that had been lush and
green and with waterfalls is now largely grey and dusty.
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| The centre of the former capital of Plymouth as it was and as it is now. |
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| A dusty reception desk at an abandoned hotel. It was like time travel to the 90s. |
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| Buried under ash. |
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| Standing by a rock in the middle of Plymouth that would have come barreling down from the volcano. |
Aside from disaster tourism it's a
very quiet little place, more so since they were closed until very
recently due to covid, having had to take a strict approach because
of their limited health facilities.
And they do really celebrate St.
Patrick's Day – apparently the only place other than Ireland where
it's a public holiday. They have a St. Patrick's week and a whole
festival “village” beside the sports ground. The more complicated
aspect of their observance of the day is linked to a slave rebellion
in 1768. The enslaved people plotting the rebellion figured that
perhaps their Irish masters would be a tad “distracted” on
Paddy's Day. The organisers were betrayed and several were hanged on
a very prominent silk cotton tree on a high hill that's still there
today. So the Montserrat Paddy's Day is more a commemoration of that.
But also an excuse to party.
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| Gráinne enjoying having the anchorage to herself. |
Here's a gift for you - a glorious seven minute version of "Hot Hot Hot". Do yourself a favour: turn it up loud, dance around the kitchen and sing along. I've started to do this once a day and it's adding hugely to my quality of life.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xI-qIXhMpvs
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