As we are endlessly sweeping ash from our decks and mopping floors, it's hard to believe that a few days ago we had climbed the boulder trail and were sitting at the top of Shirley Heights, overlooking Nelson’s Dockyard in Antigua. Marvelling at the beauty and colours of our surroundings, with our boat safely anchored below in Freeman Bay, all seemed right in our world.
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| View from Shirley Heights looking down on Nelson's Dockyard and Viridian on anchor |
We
were feeling blessed having had two months in Antigua and Barbuda, and despite
the lockdown and the evening curfew when we first arrived, reflecting on our time there, we agreed it had been a fabulous and varied experience.
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| Greg at Carpenter's Rock |
We returned by way of the Carpenter Rock trail from Shirley Heights, along the coast to Galleon Bay which we highly recommend coming down rather than going up that way as its very steep! We also enjoyed the Goat Trail from Nelsons Dockyard over to Pigeon Beach.
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| There are goats and goat poo in abundance all along the trail |
We celebrated Greg's birthday twice - first at a great Indian restaurant called Indian Summer in Falmouth Harbour - we can fully recommend the tandoori prawns and the lamb. Then again at Catherine's Cafe when we walked over to Pigeon Beach.
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| Happy birthday Greg! |
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| It's a lovely spot and the food is excellent - just waiting for it to arrive! |
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| Lunch at Catherine's Cafe - the continuation of the birthday celebrations..... |
Part
of our enjoyment involved catching up with our friends Jaxs and Iain on FatJax
where we met up in Jolly Harbour and in Falmouth Harbour and enjoyed a couple
of lovely evenings with them and their lovely children Sophia and Dugald.
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| Viridian in Jolly Harbour - no filters! |
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| FatJax in Jolly Harbour - no filters! |
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| Found a swing on the beach in Hermitage Bay |
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| Fab views from restaurant Sheer Rocks recommended and near to Jolly Harbour |
Naomi and Guy who we met last year in Bonaire, were also in Antigua on SY Zambezi. We had a lovely supper with them in Freeman Bay. I wondered why Guy was wearing a TShirt with SUNSET on it.... it soon became clear!
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| Lovely evening and sunset with Naomi and Guy on Zambezi |
Then we had a very memorable experience. There is a Nobu restaurant bang in the middle of nowhere on Princess Diana beach in Barbuda. This has to be the ultimate destination location, because for sure there is not much passing trade.
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| Princess Diana beach looking south towards Viridian on anchor |
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| Princess Diana beach looking North towards Nobu |
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ceviche |
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| Enjoying Nobu - hard not to |
We socialised with new yacht friends Bruno and Mimi on SY Silhouette who told us they had sharks living under their boat. Greg was going to swim over to investigate but decided to go in the dinghy instead. After a bit of research and consultation, he decided they were probably remora. After Mimi and Bruno left, they all moved to live under Viridian, and we enjoyed chucking scraps of food overboard at night, and shining a torch to see them thrashing. They could probably give you a nasty suck as they were huge.
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| Remora usually live on the backs of dolphins, whales and sharks, suck their parasites off and eat their shit. We decided not to bother trying to fish for one. |
After bumping into Lance and Claire on Spirit of Affric, we arranged to meet up in Barbuda
at Uncle Roddy’s restaurant for a lobster dinner.
It was a beautiful evening with wild horses running on the beach
outside. This was an amazing anchorage
inside the reef and Greg made a brilliant drone video of Viridian serenely afloat, in
viridian seas.
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| Wild horses on the beach |
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| The lobster at Roddy's |
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| Lance and Claire |
We had a lovely evening just before Lance and Claire flew back to UK to get their Volvo 70 racing yacht experience, back in business, in readiness for end of lockdown.
It was a relief to find good yacht services and the Budget Marine chandlery, so we got the engine and generator serviced,
sails cleaned and serviced and sadly an expensive repair to our new washing
machine, which may still be in guarantee, but impossible to claim from here.
We hired a car on several occasions and explored more of the interior of Antigua, gasped at the abundant trees laden with wild mangoes and enjoyed the villages and towns. We visited Devils Bridge and Betty's Hope Sugar Plantation which collapsed with the abolition of slavery. Some of the buildings are being restored.
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| Restoration of the Betty's Hope Plantation sugar mill |
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| There are remembrance signs everywhere on the roadsides for loved ones who have died |
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| This seemed an odd combination for a specialism |
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| Wild mango trees everywhere - the season is May to September |
There
were a few things we liked less about Antigua.
Compared to most other Caribbean islands we have visited everything is
very expensive, including supermarkets, repairs, car hire and restaurants. Food in the supermarkets is definitely a lot more expensive than in the UK.
In some aspects, it doesn’t seem as environmentally aware as other islands we have visited; sadly the fish market in St John seemed to be selling any fish - including reef fish - we saw little cow fish and parrot fish on the slab which might be why the snorkelling was a bit disappointing. The donkey sanctuary was also alarming.
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| Greg was not happy about the condition of this donkey that he groomed and this was one of the better looking ones |
They all seemed very thin and unwell. They were kept in a pen with no grass and a lot of faeces everywhere. The donkeys and goats we saw roaming wild and not in the sanctuary, seemed positively glossy in comparison.
But
on balance Antigua and Barbuda was a brilliant experience, and in retrospect, and compared to our current circumstances, we were surely in heaven!!!!
So now to hell!
Many of you have asked why we have not just run from St Vincent, given what is happening - hopefully this will explain it.....
We
take many factors into account before embarking on a journey to a new
country and that is even more complicated during the travel restrictions
associated with the pandemic. Each
Caribbean country has its own protocols involving getting and reporting results
of PCR tests, endless forms to complete and quarantine periods. Some countries are closed to yachts
altogether, others are open with provisos.
In addition, we must consider the wind strength and direction, timing of arrival so we arrive in daylight, especially if it’s an anchorage with coral reef or other hazards, ensuring we know the checking out arrangements of the country we are leaving and any provisioning and pre-cooking for a long journey.
After
two months in Antigua and Barbuda our plan was to start making our way south
for hurricane season and it seemed sensible to head for St Vincent and the
Grenadines (SVG) because this country includes 30 different islands, at least 8 of which
are suitable for visiting of yachts and which you can freely visit once you have
checked into St Vincent.
We
applied to enter SVG and checked out the protocol. We gained permission to visit providing we
had a PCR test no more than 72 hours before leaving and we had to send the
negative result along with our checkout documents as we left Antigua. Then on arrival in SVG, we had to go to the
quarantine buoys in Young Island Cut which is in the south of the island of St
Vincent. We must use an agent and stay
on board until told to come for our arrival PCR tests. We must quarantine until our results are
returned and then as long as we have been in quarantine for 7 days in total
including our journey travelling time, we are checked in and free to visit
other islands.
We left Antigua on 6th April and arrived in St Vincent just before dawn on 8th April after a two-night journey. I was on watch at 0530 and, I thought I could smell burning. I ran around checking the boat and then got Greg up to ask if he could smell burning; he couldn't, so I went back on deck and took some photos in the daybreak as we approached the island and by then I could see and smell a massive yellow/orange cloud which could have been due to the sun coming up behind it, but it was plume like and looked like ash and smoke.
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| The smell of sulphur was strong and the plume had an odd colour |
As the
sun rose, it was clear it was something coming from the volcano. ‘It’s La Soufriere,’ Greg
said, ‘I think you can trek up there and look into the crater, - it says so in
the guide book’. ‘Hmm’, I said, thinking of the demise of the sightseers
during the Mount Pelé eruption in Martinique.
But as we sailed on and the sun came up, we could see the island looked beautiful, very mountainous, lush, and tropically exotic. We decided we would hire a car and drive around once sprung from quarantine, and Greg kept reading out exciting places to visit from the guidebook including the botanical gardens and the cove where Pirates of the Caribbean was filmed.
A
couple of hours later having settled on our mooring buoy for our quarantine,
there were emergency broadcasts on the radio and the Prime Minister Ralph
Gonzalves addressed the nation in a tremulous voice. At first we thought he was
just not a very good public speaker, because he was very hesitant and uncertain,
but then we realised he was overwhelmed by the enormity of the situation he
found himself in, and was very emotional as he explained that he was putting in
place the orders that allow him to announce the arrangements for evacuation of
the northern part of the island nearest to the volcano. The scientists believed
La Soufriere could be about to blow, it had recently grown a new magma cone about
1km in diameter and there were 500 earthquakes over last Easter weekend
alone.....
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| Growth of the cone |
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| The new cone emerging rapidly |
A couple of hours later he was back on the radio, with the very articulate and competent seismologist, Professor Richard Robertson from the University of the West Indies; advising that there were more signs of an imminent explosion, so the evacuation should start immediately and that NEMO (National Emergency Management Organisation) was swinging into action to get 16,000 people out of the red zone into shelters which were in churches and schools. Cruise ships were on their way to help and other Caribbean countries were offering assistance to take people who were vaccinated.
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| The red zone has been evacuated and many have also left the orange zones A lot have moved to the south to stay with friends and relatives |
That’s
when we knew our caldera trek might be cancelled!
Well good old Prof Robertson called it right, because the following morning when we woke up, things had deteriorated. There was a strong sulphurous smell in the air and through the haze we could just make out the cruise ships standing off in deep water.
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| It was very hazy but the promised cruise ships had arrived overnight |
The first explosion was about 08.30. We didn’t hear the explosion, but we could see the ash cloud in the distance. The evacuation order had been in the nick of time.
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| The first sign of the eruption from where we were anchored was a towering cloud of ash |
The prime minister came on the radio again along with Prof Richard Robertson and the Director of NEMO Michelle Forbes to give an extremely detailed report of what has happened, what is in place to help people and what people should do. This is a prime ministerial broadcast unlike any we experience in the UK.
First of all, the guy actually cares about his people, he cried on national
radio, he took advice gratefully and said how overwhelmed he felt by the
support he was getting. He accepted that
mistakes would be made, but he took full responsibility, and he clearly has
faith in god to see him and the people through. It felt as though he was
talking to every single person face to face and with care and concern.
The aviation authority reported that the plume was 6km up in the air already.
Then
as we waited for the ash to descend on us all, the national radio station played very biblical
and emotional gospel music throughout the morning which made us pretty tearful too.
Unsurprisingly,
the nurse didn’t come to do our PCR tests at 0930 as scheduled, probably
because she was busy doing vaccinations and helping elsewhere. We were wondering whether to leave at this
point, but where to go that was the question and would we be allowed in given the restrictions on movement? We were anchored in the green zone which is
the safest place to be, so when the agent contacted us and said the nurse was
coming, we carried on with our plans and had our tests done at 1330. All our paperwork and passports were now with
the agent, so we accepted we would be here for the time being and were feeling
optimistic because the cloud seemed to be blowing east and away from us.
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| We are anchored at the blue dot. the volcano is in red |
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| At first it seemed that the ash cloud was blowing eastwards out to sea and away from us |
The
second massive explosion was about 1430, just as we got back from our
tests. We could see the ash cloud
towering above us and it was terrifying. The cloud formations around it were
fascinating, creating what looked like a halo or a silk scarf wrapping around
the blast material. We sat on deck with a glass of wine and marvelled at our
view!
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| The second eruption was truly majestic apparently reaching above 50,000 feet |
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| This is how it looked from space apparently |
Overnight the wind changed and we woke up to find ourselves in deep ash which we have since been trying to clean up and to which we should have been playing Mendelssohn’s
Fingal's Cave/ the Sorcerer’s Apprentice as a musical accompaniment, because it
was falling as fast as we were sweeping.
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| It was morning but it was still dark! The saloon windows were black with ash |
We
had taken note of the advice of our hero Prof (now) Richie Robertson. He gave a detailed description of the likely
fallout of ash and he said sweep it first because if you add water to deep ash,
it turns to mud and then can dry like cement.
Greg did most of the sweeping on decks, whilst I played WordFeud and
chatted on Facebook down below😊 with the
odd bit of interior floor mopping in between.
Finally, I went on deck in my mask and did a bit more to help, but to be
honest it’s not an enjoyable task at all and feels downright unhealthy!
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| That's exactly how I felt when I went on deck at first light |
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| Greg did a brilliant job of sweeping it up, but I wish he would wear a mask! |
Then last night there was another massive blast and we woke to more ash and persistent rain. Operation clean up has taken place again, with me helping a lot more today. We can't afford to use fresh water, which has now become a precious commodity, so have been hauling buckets of sea water over the side of the boat to use for rinsing. Who needs the gym!
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| Cockpit before cleaning |
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| Cockpit after being scrubbed with buckets of sea water |
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| It requires quite a lot of arm and stomach muscle strength to haul hundreds of buckets of water up and over the side of the boat and lift over the guard rail. |
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| Looking a bit grim and very grimy after my efforts |
So, although we are holed up in 'hell,' waiting to be released, we are grateful that we have 1200 litres of water in sealed tanks and lots of provisions, whereas the water supply on the island has been cut off and thousands of people are homeless.
We will leave here soon, sadly without exploring the island, but you can be sure we will never forget St Vincent.
