Log #40D Caribbean Geography and Montserrat Written at: Admiralty Bay, Bequia, Grenadines April 14, 2006 Hi Folks, We are comfortably anchored here in the Grenadines on this Good Friday after a pleasant sail from St. Vincent. The winds over here in the Caribbean are excellent for sailing. In fact, because we can sail from island to island, I have to leave the engine on after anchoring in order to charge up the batteries. We will be going back to Toronto from May 11 to May 31 to visit family and friends, leaving Veleda in a marina in Trinidad. We would appreciate seeing or hearing from any of you in the Toronto area while we are back. If you have any yacht club or sailing group that would like to have a presentation on our travels during that time, let me know. Our phone number while back will be 416 421 2668 at Judy's dad's place. I hope to take it easy for the next while here in the Grenadines and hope to get caught up on my logs. You may find the logs coming more frequently, as I would like to be up to date before we leave for Trinidad. All the best, Aubrey Log #40D Caribbean Geography and Montserrat Christopher Columbus in 1492 "sailed the ocean blue", 33 days from the Canaries (La Gomera was where he did his last watering up before his crossing - many of the Canary Islands want to claim he was there, had an affair with a local, repaired or replenished his ships, etc.) and landed in what he called San Salvador in the Bahamas, then went south to Cuba and Hispaniola. He was still convinced he had discovered the route to India, and thus the islands of the Caribbean are referred to as the West Indies. They are also referred to as the Greater Antilles (the bigger islands of Cuba, Jamaica, Hispaniola, and Puerto Rico) and Lesser Antilles (all the rest of the smaller islands of the Windward Islands, Leeward Islands, and Dutch Antilles). The term "Spanish Main" referred to the Spanish mainland of South America, Venezuela and the off lying islands. The Windward Islands are the Lesser Antilles in the south portion of the West Indies, consisting of the now independent countries of Dominica, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and Grenada, and the French island of Martinique, all exposed directly to the Easterly Trade winds (thus the windward islands); the Leeward Islands are those to the northwest consisting of the Virgin Islands of the United States, the British Virgin Islands, St. Martin (French and Dutch), Saba and St. Eustatius (both Dutch), Guadeloupe and dependencies (French), and the formerly British Saint Kitts-Nevis, Anguilla, Antigua, and Montserrat, not as directly exposed to the trades (thus the leeward islands). See the map at the bottom of this log. When we crossed the Atlantic from the Cape Verdes we landed at Antigua, then went up to Barbuda and back to Antigua as described in previous logs. We then proceeded 30 miles south to Montserrat, the topic of this log. Anchoring in Little Bay on Montserrat (16 48.09N, 062 12.49W) we were south of several boats close in line to the main concrete pier. The next day all those boats were asked to move south of us to make room for a coastal trader to go alongside. There were no buoys to indicate its channel, but we were fortunate enough to be outside it. We went ashore to the customs and immigration shacks near the pier to do our paperwork. We then took a taxi trip around the island and to the exclusion zone (no one is permitted to stay overnight when the volcano is not active; no one is permitted to enter when it is) covering the southern half of the island. This is the zone of devastation left from the horrendous volcanic eruption of 1995 when the Soufriere volcano (still active) totally destroyed the capital city of Plymouth. Fortunately there was adequate notice and only a few lives were lost (we heard 29) but the southern half of the island and its main city were destroyed. The population before the eruption was 11,000; now it is only 4,500, spread over the hamlets of the northern part. We went into the exclusion zone, past deserted homes, schools, clinics and various businesses up a hill overlooking the ruins of Plymouth. What a sad sight! All we could see was a wash of grey mud and ash from the eruption down several canyons extending out on the coast to cover Plymouth. All that was left of the city was a forlorn pier extending out from what had been the centre of town and the skeletal remains of buildings extending up through the metres-deep grey caked mud. It looked like something out of a movie of the deluge, with only the remains of buildings starkly exposed in this sea of devastation. The entire south half of the island is out of bounds because of the instability of the volcano. Undamaged homes and suburbs have been abandoned, roads breaking down, fields desolate and overgrown with vegetation on the hillsides not awash in the grey caked mud rivers descending from Soufriere. The lives of the people were devastated and relief was minimal. Most lost everything they had, without any form of compensation. When we returned to Veleda we stayed aboard for the next day and a half before leaving for Guadeloupe. However while there we saw our first green flash at sunset! It was not a dramatic ray of green, but a final green iridescence of the upper orb of the sun as it set below the horizon. It lasted for only a few seconds. Being the weekend of March 17, the locals had a large St. Patrick's Day celebration in a park near the pier. We did not go ashore for it as we could hear the off-key singer and shouting of the Master of Ceremonies, and smell the barbecued foods, from the boat. Many of the early settlers were Irish from the island of St. Kitts, and a second wave from Ireland in 1649 after Cromwell conquered Ireland (and there have been troubles there ever since). Now 95% of the remaining population is black. They use the Eastern Caribbean Dollar and drive on the left side of the road. While at anchor, we met another Canadian, a former navy matelot, Dwight Brooker, on board Stephanie Lynn, with whom I reminisced about navy life. We were invited on board his boat to have some Newfoundland Screech and a delicious fish stew. It was a good get-together. As the anchorage was fairly rolly, we left at midnight for the 50 mile sail to Guadeloupe. Incidentally, we just heard two days ago (from cruise ship passengers who were sightseeing at the same spot we were on St. Lucia) that Soufriere on Montserrat had been active the preceding day, with flowing lava. next log