27. Exploring We Will Go - Montserrat and Antigua

Happy Independence Day from the Abby Singer crew.  Hope everyone is appreciating some family time and most importantly the freedoms our independence affords us.  

We have been busy covering many miles by land and sea this week and can't wait to share our adventures with you.  

We were sad to leave St Martin’s yumminess, but were pleased to bring a bit of it aboard with us.  

    Best vanilla yogurt ever!

And were looking forward to what the Leeward islands had to offer us.  

We sailed for 24hrs from St Martin to Montserrat.  

The sail was pretty nice even though I still can't seem to make everything stay put during passage, much more tying down and locking shut is required. 

The girls were pleasantly surprised to wake up anchored next to some of our favorite neighbors, Take Two.  After a nap and check in, we were treated to a guided tour of the island with some amazing locals, Moose & Cecil.  They spent the day showing us the beauty of their home; 

the devastation by their volcano; 

    The entire area of the picture is uninhabitable.  

    And the dirt area in the center is burying an entire city.

and the hope that exists in the hearts of their locals, to stay and rebuild and thrive even in the face of a relentless giant.  

Eruptions of the Soufriere Hills from 1997-2010 buried two-thirds of the island, including their capital city, in pyroclastic flow.  In those 10 years and multiple eruptions, they have only lost 19 lives, which seemed remarkable.  

The view from the observatory is breathtaking 

and the 15min video they showed us explained the life of their volcano but it wasn't until we saw the destruction first hand that you could imagine the lives that had once thrived in this beautiful island paradise.  

    Beachfront Hotel - reception, restaraunt & swimming pool.

The population went from 15,000 to 5,000 due to the voluntary relocation offered by the government, but those who stayed are pretty amazing.  

Moose (pictured) has rebuilt his business, Mooses Burgers & Beers, 3 times and Cecil has continued his custom leather work even though the tourist traffic is minimal these days.  

The exclusion zone covers miles of the island.  Entire towns abandoned and “left to nature”, as Moose describes it.  The capital city of Plymoth is completely buried under 15ft of ash, only the roofs of the tallest buildings are left to suggest the thriving city by the sea.  

    Photos on left taken after 1997 eruption.  Photos on right taken after 2010 eruption.

    Photo credit- theAtlantic.com

Even though the threat of another eruption never subsides, the beauty of Montserrat is undeniable.  

The greens are greener and the flowers more vibrant all because of the fertile volcanic soil.  They are a completely self-sustained island and fresh fruits grow everywhere, uncultivated.  

    Fresh mangoes, picked from the tree

We crammed every inch of fun into 24hrs before departing in the best weather window available 

to head to Antigua.  Our sail around the southern tip of Montserrat gave us a spectacular view of the Soullifere hills.  

We had a pretty rough ride to Antigua and were happy to drop the hook in a calm little anchorage after 10hrs of rocking and rolling, complete with sugar canister flying out of the cabinet and making quite the mess :)

Antigua is beautiful in an entirely different way.  It is an island rich with history but still feels a bit untouched by humanity.  The wind and rain seem to alternate on schedule here and, with rough seas, we decided the best way to see the island was to rent a vehicle and go exploring.  

Luckily Andrew has some mad skills at driving on the left side of the road and even dodge some compact car sized potholes-  I’m sure it is the constant gasping and flinching from me and the girls that make him so efficient :)  

We toured the sugar plantation at Betty’s Hope  

and the oldest working Georgian style boatyard at Nelsons

learning bunches about the history of this island that was once the home of the British Carribean fleet.

    Look carefully, one of our crew is disguised as a British sailor.

We also went to Devil’s Bridge which is not particularly historic but really cool.  

It is a rock bridge about 5’ wide and maybe 40’ long over the rocky shoreline and crashing waves.  If you are lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time, you may be get a little wet as Andrew found out for all of us :)

We are having a blast learning about the places we are visiting but I think we are all ready for some beautifully clear water and the fun that comes with it!

Things learned aboard this week

The people watching is great.  Not necessarily learned, but willing to admit :)

We have lots of little windows to peer from where people can't see you.  I may be doing my dishes when a new boat arrives at our anchorage and I have the perfect vantage point to see how they do.  If it is particularly entertaining I will alert Andrew & the girls, who are not as covert as me, and they scope it out from the cockpit.  

I am a fair weather sailor.  I don't care for the really long passages or heeling the same direction for long periods of time.  Neither of these dislikes are because they are particularly uncomfortable but mostly because they both equal large messes when we arrive at our destination.  And even though it usually only takes a few minutes to restore order, I tend to get a bit crabbier as the mess escalates  during travel.  We have another 12hr passage coming up to Guadeloupe so we will see if I can properly prepare ahead of time to keep the cabin clean and my heart happy :)

    Nelson's Dockyard 

The beautiful places just keep coming!  Can't imagine what next week will bring.         

28. How do you say in French? -Guadeloupe