Friday, January 31-Anchoring at night - we’ve done it twice, once at Ile Fourchue and when we arrived in Montserrat. I don’t recommend it!
Saturday, February 1 - We motivated early to go check into customs. 🛃 Somehow we have not had one single uneventful customs/immigration clearance yet. They all do it differently. The hours are weird and the agents come and go as they please so you’re never guaranteed that anyone will even be there, even when it’s “open.” We’ve been threatened with all kinds of fines, or “boots” as they call it, for not checking in or out properly. But it’s literally the most confusing process. However, when it comes down to it, these people could really care less. They’re grumpy as the DMV employees.
We when arrived at the immigration office we were dumbfounded to find the building open but no one in sight. <joking 🙄 > We walked up the road a bit toward a security gate and out popped a very annoyed immigration officer from a trailer. He informed us that it is free to check in anytime Monday through Friday but since it was a weekend we would be charged overtime fees. 🤑🤑He told us we could wait until Monday to check in but then we would have to stay on our boat and would not be allowed to go anywhere on the island. Um, NO! The officer made a phone call to request a customs officer to assist us. A few minutes later a dude literally showed up in his pajamas. Unreal! He was so perturbed that we’d have the gumption to arrive ON A SATURDAY MORNING, of all days, to his island! But bed-head took care of us so we were free to roam.
As customary, directly next to the dinghy dock was a stretch of beach bars and you couldn’t even cross the threshold of the security gate before 3 or 4 taxi drivers were approaching you to offer their services. They yelled profanities at each other while competing for our attention. It’s crazy! We got a ride to eat lunch with a guy named Sam Sword. He made a ten minute ride last about 30 minutes and the entire ride he ran his mouth about how much he didn’t like the Jamaican guy that also offered us a ride. We couldn’t understand much of what he said as the combined dialect and mumbling sounded like a foreign language! Just before Charlie took a bite of his own hand -starving- we arrived at “Hanks” But it wasn’t really called Hank’s. It was called Isle Bay Beach bar. That’s another odd trend in the islands —-all these restaurants tend to have new names but everyone calls them by the name of the person who used to own it. The restaurant was on a beach on the southwest side of the island, adjacent to the restricted zone from the active volcano that still exists. The beach sand is completely black because of the ash from the volcano that last erupted in 2010. Sam returned to get us after lunch and on the way home we made sure to identify a church that we could attend the next morning. St Peters Anglican Church - as the Methodist service the weekend before was a little too long for all of us. We arranged a ride from someone different for the 9 AM service.
Sunday, Feb 2 - Joe was waiting for us promptly at 8:30 AM to transport us to church. We arrive 10 minutes early to St.Peter’s. Not a soul in sight in any of the historical stone buildings on the church property. All the doors were locked to the Parish Hall and the sanctuary. It was 8:52amand we thought, hmmm, maybe the minister and all just arrive a couple of minutes before nine in this culture?? We waited and waited ..9:00, 9:01, 9:02.. still no one around. We were standing on the side of the road watching other families dressed in church clothes pass by. We finally flagged someone down to ask if they knew what was going on or why St Peters was not having church this morning ???? They shared that often congregations from several churches will have a joint service at one of the other churches. But they did not know where the St Peters members were joining this morning. They did invite us to join them at the Pentecostal service.. we politely declined. Suddenly Joe reappeared. He told us to hop in... As we were getting in the car he shouted “oh there’s Delores, she’s Methodist! We can follow her.” So we tailgated Delores a mile or two down the road to the Methodist Church where they were also having a joint service. We filed in from the back and found space on two different pews and joined in the hymn. At 11:40am -the service ended. 😳I may never get my kids back to church. Last week it was an hour and a half long, and this week it was two hours and 40 minutes. And there are no Bojangles to swing through and get my starving kids lunch otw home.
It was a super hot day and we had talked about hiking but decided we would do something a little cooler instead. We found out that there were no restrictions on independent diving on Montserrat so we loaded up all of our gear and went around the corner to Rendevous Bay to check out what was below. It was a pretty cool reef, not quite as good as Saba but enjoyable. We had also read about the famous bat caves on the side of the cliffs. We pulled up pretty close to see thousands of bats 🦇 flying around bumping into each other and the walls in the caves. Gross!
Monday, February 3- We absolutely could not leave the island without experiencing the history and learning a little bit more about the volcano on Soufriere Hills. Joe came back to pick us up and take us on his world famous Volcano Tour. He had an iPad chock full of pictures from before and after. We went to the volcano observatory and watched a short documentary about the island and the multiple eruption‘s from 1995 to 2010 that basically buried the southern half of the island. We got a police escort to follow us down to see many of the buildings and homes that had been buried by the Ash. It was worth the wait. We could not do it over the weekend because the observatory was closed. Joe allowed us to get out and explore the inside of one of the evacuated homes. There was still furniture, clothes, and trinkets left from when the people departed not knowing they would be unable to return to their home. We grabbed a few items as keepsakes. Joe also showed us how the shoreline had changed over the years from the wash off of the volcano ash. The beach used to be at least 200 to 300 yards farther in than it is now. It was really phenomenal to experience and understand this type of natural disaster. It does not happen in one day,one month, or one year. The burial of Montserrat happened in phases over an 8 to 10 year period. The former capital city of Plymouth is now a dusty terrain with old roofs peaking out from beneath. Really cool! One last fun fact Joe shared is that George Martin, producer for the Beatles, had his recording studio on the island from 1970-1989. It is where many famous songs were recorded including Ebony and Ivory By Stevie Wonder and Paul McCartney, Volcano, by Jimmy Buffet (written about the Montserrat volcano 🌋) and several albums by Elton John. He pointed out the studio from the balcony of the observatory.
DJL List:
New items- table, flip flops
HOS Lesson of the Day: Never pass up an opportunity to see, experience, or learn something new.
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