Location: Montserrat
After arriving to Montserrat, we were welcomed by another daunting task of lowering our sails and anchoring in the dark of the rainy night. Yet, the crew pulled it off with no difficulties or mistakes. Coming up on deck this morning was a pleasant surprise for all of us. There were more lush, green hills surrounding the bay, as well as cliffs and caves with waves crashing inside of them. It reminded us of our last majestic stop at Dragon Island, where we were already planning our reunion to be. We headed to shore after an early lunch and were warmly greeted by Scriber. He was a local on the island and one of the few who stayed through the multiple evacuation warnings during the last few volcano eruptions. We squeezed into another small taxi bus and drove around some sites that could have been categorized as post-apocalyptic. The roads were constantly up and down, with hills that twisted through the mountains. He took us to a side of the island that had an amazing view of the massive lava slides that had taken out multiple villages, with scattered cement and wood houses along the hillsides. Most were filled with ash or cut in half from the heavy mud and river floods. We drove up to the observatory and had an awesome view of the volcano, as well as other damaged areas around the island. It was breath taking to see the images that had been caught on camera when the eruptions had occurred. On our way down we stopped by a river bed with scattered volcanic rocks and even a 3-story building that was completely covered by mud and ash up to its roof. Seeing the power of the lava and how devastating layers of ash were to these villages was truly eye-opening. We were also fortunate enough to stop by a local ice cream parlor and shared some exotic and delicious flavors like sour sop, coconut, guava and mango. When we finally came “home” some of us went to explore the caves that were just a short snorkel away. We were surprised to hear and see thousands of bats stuffed in the cracks and flying around the narrow opening. It was an awesome end to the day besides our delightful curry chicken dinner prepared by Albert and Eduoard. Despite our busy day, I have a feeling that the crew will be restless tonight because of how anxious we all are for our 2 day passage to Grenada. setdate:2012-10-05