Rooting for Montserrat
We made it to Montserrat! We had bypassed it back in February because of extremely windy conditions - due to the volcano Montserrat only has a single anchorage and we had been warned about dangerous swells. The anchorage has plenty of swell even in zero wind - but the rolly two nights were so worth it. I am fascinated by volcanos and Tom has endured hikes up volcanos on other Caribbean islands and in Italy so he knew what he was getting into!
The story here is that this island was really hip in the 80s and 90s. George Martin (Beatles guy) had a recording studio, Sting recorded here, etc. Suddenly, in 1995 and then in 1996, 97, 98, 2003, 08, 10......and seemingly all the time, the volcano erupts and wipes out the major city (Plymouth) and half the island. Imagine two 500 ft. mountains about a half mile apart. One day, going peak to peak involves traversing a huge valley 600 feet deep. The next day, you can walk in a straight line between the two as it has been filled in with ash. The volcano spewed 120 million cubic meters of ash. 19 people have been killed by this volcano and there was a significant ash flow just last week. This volcano isn't kidding around.
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| House survives ash flow.........at least the second story did (visible) |
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| The Betts house as seen from the lava flow |
We also met an older couple from Maine, the Betts, who have an interesting house.........near the still active volcano. How near? The lava and ash flow is in their backyard. The pool in back used to overlook a golf course - the course is now buried under 20 feet of ash. They keep building berms and walls and claim they won't move and that no one can make them. A pretty amazing couple - their determination in the face of an almost certain bad ending was inspirational.
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| The very positive "Moose" |