Montserrat has the most active volcano in the Caribbean, Soufrière Hills, and hence was high on our list to visit. The volcano erupted last in 2006 and has been smoking since, building its pressure. It is expected to erupt again sometime in the near foreseeable future and hence caution is to be exercised anywhere around the volcano.

On our way up to the Volcano Observatory, we stopped at Runaway Guaut. This is the valley where the English drove the last of the French off the island during the battles for the Caribbean. It is believed that if you drink from this particular spring, you will one day return to Montserrat. We all took a drink.

 

 

The entire island is divided into zones that have varying degrees of risk associated with the hazard level of the volcano.

The marine exclusion zone along the southern coast was daytime transit only – no anchoring and no night time transit. B, C and V are exclusion zones. B and C zones are full of houses that are uninhabited due to the threat level. It is unlikely these homes will be re-inhabited until the volcano settles for many years.

While we were there, the hazard level was 1 or the lowest threat. This allowed us free access to any of the green areas but restricted in the orange areas.

We learned much from a resident who has been there since 1995 when things started to get interesting with the volcano. David Lea began photographing and videographing the activity of the volcano and began publishing his works in the form of books and video. Much of his footage was used in the creation of the video shown at the Observatory. He published the information called “The Price of Paradise” so the people of Montserrat could see what was happening in their home island. David and his wife Clover now run a coffee shop called “Hill Top Coffee Shop”. The shop is full of interesting pictures of the events and either will happily walk you through the details. Both are fabulous people. Clover gave us the tour of the coffee shop.

There are some spectacular pictures and video of the eruption since it was well anticipated and modern equipment was available to capture the footage. In particular, NASA captured some stunning pictures from satellite during the eruption that shows just how high the eruption went. In this picture, the top of the cloud extends into the stratosphere.

As we drifted down the west coast we had a spectacular view of the smoking volcano and saw first hand the effects of the pyroclastic flows had on the capital city, Plymouth, during the 1997 eruption. As you can see, much of the city is simply buried in the flow with some areas where only the roofs are visible. Remarkably, there were only 19 fatalities in this eruption since it was anticipated and the city was evacuated in advance. The airport was also destroyed during this eruption and seriously damaged the tourist business. Many people moved to the north of the island, but it became too crowded and many left the island in search of more room and better accommodations. The population dropped from about 20,000 to only 1,200 as the residents fled mostly to the UK. Today the population has grown to about 5,000 residents.

 

Houston was an awesome bar tender in a little bar in Little Bay where we were anchored. The bar was located one street back from the beach beside the ice cream shop. Houston had moved to UK when the volcano became active and still spends some of his time there. He has since started coming back to Montserrat during tourist season. He sang and danced behind the bar while keeping everyone’s cup filled. He made a killer swamp rum mixed with ginger wine!

He also kept the local domino players on the patio watered as they worked through their tournament well into the evening.

The kids found some local children to run around with on the beach well into the evening. Overall we found the people of Montserrat very friendly and genuinely interested in getting to know us.

If you are cruising the Caribbean, be sure to stop in at Little Bay Montserrat and spend a few days here. You will not be disappointed.