Recently I left the warmth and sunshine of our cozy harbor in the Caribbean to fly back to the frigid northeast.
Captain Linda Perry Riera
In conversation with my Bostonian friends, I found myself responding to questions with "...I will fly back home Thursday", or "It's been a great visit but I look forward to returning home". It dawned on me that despite living happily in Boston for nearly 12 years, it is not really home anymore. Home is now wherever Argon is.
Antigua home
Montserrat home
Saba home
Les Saintes home
Virgin Gorda home
St. John home
It has been two years since we sold the house, purged most of our possessions, and moved aboard Argon. Some of our preparations and process of downsizing our lifestyle is chronicled in a prior blog post, The Three Year Plan. We were proud to have retained only one small 6x10 storage locker but now we know that most of what was saved in that small space was not necessary.
Moving on to Argon in Boston 18 months prior to departing for our trip allowed us to focus on preparations. The warm months were much more fun than winter. Our home during this time was located at a slip on D dock and our neighborhood was Constitution Marina.
Pulling our home away from home 6 months ago at the onset of this one year trip.
I love our presumably impermanent semi-nomadic cruising lifestyle jumping among Caribbean harbors, islands and countries frequently... often deciding day by day where we will go tomorrow (this has been a much needed contradiction to my type A personality). Figuring out where (or if) to go, how to get there, and what are the options once there is part of my regular routine. However, driving around the familiar streets of Arlington, Lexington, Boston, and North Reading recently felt, well, comfortable. And easy. I forgot how relaxing it can be to not have to constantly study maps (or charts), to know where to arrange to meet up with a friend for a nice dinner, or pick up fresh produce. Being able to visit with my son for long or short visits, scheduled or ad hoc, across several days was heaven. Having WiFi or mobile data all the time. To have a car. Catching up with many friends over coffee, wine, or just chatter filled my yearning to keep these relationships alive. I guess my recent time back in Boston was just... normal. Do I want normal or do I want adventure?
When a nor'easter came roaring in just as I was scheduled to fly back home (which at that time was Soper's Hole, Tortola) and delayed my return, I enjoyed an additional day with a dear friend as we curled up on her sofa watching and discussing movies as the snow and wind whipped outside.
Back Home on Argon
How long will we have this mobile, floating home?
When will we have a conventional land dwelling again? Where will it be?
Do we return to our lives before later this year as scheduled with a land house and crazy jobs?
Although there are still many months ahead for this sailing trip, I find myself pondering these questions frequently. Argon's track is generally (and somewhat hesitantly) northward these days as we weave through the British, US, and Spanish Virgin Islands, and soon off shore to Turks and Caicos, then on to the Bahamas. Then back stateside. I will keep considering these questions... but not too much just yet.
Recent view from the family room (aka cockpit) at anchor.
Pre-dinner evening stroll around the neighborhood. I was probably pondering the questions above a bit while paddling. But not too much.
When you approach Saba, you are deceived by scale. It looks like a small round island with some cliffs and mountains. Then you realize that you are still 5 miles (not 200 yards) out and as you get closer, the sheer cliffs around the perimeter of the island tower above you. And on top of those towering cliffs, are some very tall and very steep mountains - a dormant volcano, actually.
Bob Damiano
We departed Simpson Bay in St. Maarten and headed Southwest toward this tiny Dutch island 30-ish miles out in the distance. We stayed in St. Maarten a little longer than we planned because of my collar bone incident, so we were on the fence about hitting Saba or just going directly to the BVI. We're both glad we did as Saba was one of the most unforgettable experiences so far.
On approach to Saba from the northeast. That cloud was over Saba the whole time we crossed from St Maarten. This is common with mountainous islands in the trade winds. The trades run up the windward side of these mountains, cool and condense.
Saba looks absolutely uninhabitable from the water (save for the houses you can see on slopes of the Northeast side). And, don't come here for the beaches. There are none. Well, I mean there are usually none. Apparently an occasional beach washes up on the western (leeward) side of the island near "the steps" (more on those later) and remains for a few days to a few weeks. Sabans take advantage of this beach whenever it appears. The lack of a beach is a selling point to me. Since breaking my collar bone at Maho Beach in St Maarten, I can say with authority that beaches are dumb!
Besides the lovely scenery, villas, hotels and great restaurants, Saba is also a major diving and snorkeling destination and lots of people come here just for that. We didn't have a lot of time to play in the water (and with my shoulder...) but we found some of the clearest waters so far here.
Sure, lets build a town, and an airport on that thing!
Jagged, dramatic cliffs along the entire perimeter of Saba. One would think that Sabans do not want to be bothered with visitors, but the opposite is true. Saba has an extremely welcoming culture.
There are two main places to grab a mooring at Saba: Well's Bay on the northwest side and Port Ford pier on the south side of the island. The latter is where you must go first to check into customs. Neither place is especially protected - or to be exact - protected at all. One of the reasons we decided to come here was that we were in for a spell of very light winds and calm seas. Saba can be a miserable place to sit on a mooring in any sort of weather. As it turned out, we were perfectly comfortable in both mooring areas.
The view from Port Ford is not so inviting. There is a commercial pier surrounded by sand mines, an auto graveyard and very steep cliffs. At this point, you are maybe questioning why you came. It gets better. Anyway, we grabbed one of the free (and very well maintained) moorings and took our long-ish dinghy ride to the customs dock.
The commercial pier.. and sand. LOTS of sand. It is Saba's main export.
Aside from the occasional cruising sailboat who wants to brave the conditions, Port Ford also is a cruise ship destination - for tiny cruise ships, that is. Apparently there is one that comes once a month with about 40 passengers and it actually arrived the 2nd day we were there. She dropped a very large anchor a few hundred feet out (too big for the pier) and a shuttle boat brought passengers to Customs, a "welcome" station and of course the waiting fleet of cabs. Besides that, there is ferry service from St Maarten.
Pop's Bar near the pier and dive center
Some of the sand mining operation and a bit of the junkyard can be seen too.
Customs and the harbormaster office.
After Customs clearance, there is not much to do right in the immediate area (unless you are into sand mines and junk yards). While passing the harbor on the way to the moorings, we caught a glimpse of one of the settlements up in the hills. It didn't look that far and we wondered if we would just walk it. Well, it's not that far in 2D but the Z axis is a killer here. We wandered into Pop's Bar (the only bar near sea level on the entire island) outside of customs and asked about a taxi. Two different taxi drivers happened to be drinking in the bar at the time (Hey, it's the Caribbean, mon!) and we had our ride. (We think that the driver who had had less alcohol volunteered to drive us.) All four wheels had all lug nuts - a bonus as we have been in some interestingly maintained vehicles among islands.
Wider shot of Port Ford harbor. The beginning of "the road that could not be built" can be seen as well as a bit of The Bottom settlement.
Long and Winding Road (that could not be built)
Prior to 1950, the only way for people and goods to get on and off the island was from Well's Bay (completely exposed) up crazy steep stone steps and with no sort of dock... only a thin strip of rocky, surf battered shoreline at the base. We wanted to go ashore here but even with our mild conditions, beaching the dinghy was untenable. It is hard to imagine the dangerous conditions that residents must have had to deal with for hundreds of years.
These 800 winding, steep steps lead up to The Bottom. This was the only way for people and goods to arrive/depart the island until the harbor and "the road" were built in the 50s.
Another shot of the steps
Warning: Any pictures in this blog that attempt to capture the insane steepness and height of these roads and structures fail miserably to do so. I suggest you read the blog while up on a wobbly step ladder standing on one leg. That might help.
Today there is a semblance of a harbor (Port Ford on the south side) and an actual road connecting the harbor to the small capital of The Bottom and on to the other town of Windward Side. After quickly ditching ambitions to walk up the mountainside, our driver, Willum, started up the steep road from the harbor. Very soon you realize the absolute insanity of building this road. Within the first half mile there is a "S" turn that is incredibly steep with very sharp, tight hairpin turns. They also happened to be resurfacing this part so one lane was out. At this point in the road, you've gone less than a half mile from the sea but are 617 feet above it. (This link has a great topographical view of Saba and you can see elevations at any point by dragging the marker around.)
"The S" from our taxi.
"The S" from space.
In fact, until the 1950s, this road did not exist and conventional wisdom held that it would be impossible to build a road that could transit this island. Sabans are a very stubborn and proud people and telling them something can't be done is apparently a sure way of getting it done. A man named Josephus Lambert “Lambee” Hassell took a correspondence course in Civil Engineering, designed and led the building of the road that couldn't be built in the 1940s and 50s. Needless to say, he was hero and remains a legend among Sabans.
Generally speaking, the well-maintained roads in Saba do not look wide enough for two
vehicles to pass - yet they do and with a friendly "toot toot" of the
horn because of course everyone knows everyone here.
The Road as it cuts across the south of the island. The huge retaining walls remind one of "the great wall".
A plaque in honor of Lambee - the builder of this road. The house he lived in is still in Windward Side
Eventually you get to a somewhat flat area of the island, and it is here that the lower settlement called "The Bottom" is built. The Botttom is a mere 917 feet above sea level (about .9 miles inland). This is a fully equipped small town with government offices, stores, shops and a restaurant or two. The Bottom is situated in the crater of the dormant volcano. By the way, on wikipedia, Saba's volcano is classified as "Potentially Dangerous". It has not erupted since 1640, but in geological time scales, that is like yesterday. I would say Sabans worry about the volcano about as much as Americans worry about Yellowstone.
Looking down on The Bottom (and the medical school) from the roadside en route to Windward Side.
We stopped briefly in The Bottom but had our taxi take us on up to Windward Side. On the way up, we passed the Saba University School of Medicine (yes, you can go to med school in Saba) and picked up a student who was hitch hiking up the hill so she could watch Sunday night football in one of the bars. Windward Side is the big city of Saba. Here, you will find a few hotels, restaurants and bars, art galleries, museums, churches, markets and the hospital and pharmacy. Windward Side is over 1300 ft above sea level and about a mile inland from the southern shore.
This graveyard is solar powered.
The next day, we hired "Lollipop", a local jack of all trades and lovely woman who not only runs a taxi/tour, but a laundromat, guest houses and student apartments. She also does home visits to take care of an elderly woman on the island. Lollipop is what you call a good person. She acquired her moniker from one of her elderly clients who thought he was "as sweet as a lollipop". Lollipop gave us an excellent tour of the whole length of the road explaining lots of local trivia and telling us about her family as we went. Later we ran into her again in Pop's bar of course.
Lifelong Saban "Lollipop" - our taxi driver and excellent tour guide.
Looking south east from the road. On this very clear day, we could see Eustacia, St Kitts and Montserrat. It's very rare that they can see all the way to Montserrat
Another view of The Bottom.
Lollipop dropped us off in Windward Side for a few hours so I could log in to work for a while (using restaurant wifi was the only option here), and we could explore a little on foot. It was here looking out over the Caribbean so far below and seeing these incredibly steep, high mountains all around that the whole thing started to feel like a strange dream. This beautiful, vibrant picturesque town in the middle of this totally forbidding environment. It just seems impossible. But there you are.
My office for the day at Scout's Bar. We're probably 1500 feet above sea level here. Mount Scenery, the highest point in the Netherlands, towers above this area rising to 3,000 feet.
Linda and our new friend, Picky.
Still on the mend from my broken collar bone enjoying some local medicine.
View over some hotels and homes and the blue Caribbean far below.
And churches too.
A very good pizza at Long Haul in Windward Side.
Cleanliness
We started appreciating how incredibly clean and well maintained everything was. And we noticed more than one person outside of their home or business with a broom sweeping the street. Lollipop explained to us that this type of pride in their community is ingrained in all Sabans from a young age and it's just part of the culture now. There is also reportedly virtually no crime as all of the less than 2000 inhabitants seem to know and support each other. A real community.
A resident out painting his fence and generally keeping things beautiful. As you do in Saba.
Signs like this are for us tourists (and maybe newly arriving American medical students). Locals would never have to be reminded not to litter.
By Air... on the shortest runway in the world
Saba is challenging to visit by sail boat. You really need a good weather window to be there. You will either need to stay in Well's bay which is in the lee of the island, but a very long dinghy ride to the port, or near the port which is completely exposed to the easterly trade winds (and still a relatively long dinghy ride). Another thing they said couldn't be done was to build an airport here. So of course they did. We met a pilot in St Kitts who described Saba's airport as like landing on an aircraft carrier. Apparently you are not allowed to land there until you've co-piloted with someone else who has.
Juancho E. Yrausquin Airport (IATA: SAB). Not a lot of margin for error there. The runway is the shortest commercial airstrip in the world at only 400 meters long with a steep mountainside on one side and cliffs at both ends.
There was a flat enough spot on the Northeast corner of the island that, with clearing lots of rocks and boulders, was just big enough to build Juancho E. Yrausquin Airport. Flying in to this airport on one of the small Winair planes is said to be quite the thrill. The road to the airport is also full of sharp winding s-turns as it rapidly climbs the mountains.
SAB airstrip from space and the extreme road connecting it.
Moving On...
We moved Argon from the Port Ford mooring up to one of the balls in Well's Bay. It was from here that we would depart at midnight for the British Virgin Islands under a moonless but star filled night.
The
much more picturesque, albeit intimidating and isolated, northwest
coast. Thankfully there are a handful of well-maintained moorings (all
were vacant, we were the only boat in sight) as it would be impossible to anchor here due to the depths
and likely rocky bottom.
"Read the cruising guide and decide if you want to go to Montserrat or not" she said. So I did, and it sounded interesting enough. So our next destination after English Harbour, Antigua would be to the Southwest instead of due west to Nevis/St Kitts.
Bob Damiano
The reliable easterly Trade Winds made sailing to either Montserrat or Nevis/St Kitts very doable. The nearly equally reliable "Christmas Winds" made either of these sails a bit challenging as well. During this time of year, the Trades are blowing more like 18-28kts instead of 15-18kts. Doesn't sound like much of a difference but that whole 1/2mv2 thing makes it a big difference! For a background on the Christmas Winds phenomenon, here is a great article written by our very own favorite weather router Ken McKinley.
In the Eastern Caribbean, there is nothing to the east to prevent seas from building up, and with the trades above normal for many days, things can get a bit fun out there. Your simple "island hopping" puts you effectively in offshore conditions as soon as you leave a harbor.
Picking Our Day
As much as we loved Antigua and English Harbour in particular, we were itching to continue exploring. The forecasts showed a slight decrease in winds and seas on Wednesday December 28 - very slight. The passage would be about 35 nautical miles and would be nearly all in totally exposed water. We both popped a Stugeron that morning to lessen the chance of our stomachs rebelling. We got a later start than we wanted because of the procedures at Customs and Immigration including putting me back on the crew manifest since I flew to the states and back the previous week.
Sunset over Montserrat viewed from English Harbor Antigua about 30 nautical miles away.
As predicted, conditions were a bit challenging. We were sailing almost dead downwind but the seas were hitting us at a shallow angle from behind. Mostly 2 meter swells with an occasional group of a few 3 or 3.5m waves. Argon feels like a very tiny boat in these conditions! It was a pretty rolly ride and we had to be hyper vigilant to avoid an accidental jibe. We opted not to rig the preventor on this trip. We started out on a port tack with a reefed main and only the 90% jib and that's what we still had going when we arrived in Little Bay, Montserrat 4 hrs 50 minutes later.
PFD and tether conditions on this trip.
Arriving at Little Bay
As soon as you round the northern tip of Montserrat, you are in sight of Little Bay - the main anchorage and entry point. Well - it's the main one now but before the devastating volcanic eruptions in 1995-1997, Plymouth to the south was the main port of entry and indeed the capitol city. Now it is an abandoned disaster area in a strictly enforced exclusion zone (from land and sea). Much more on all this later.
From the sea, Montserrat is spectacular with huge mountains and sheer cliffs and lush jungle. You can see the highest mountain to the south and see the gasses still escaping from the Soufriere Hills Volcano.
Montserrat about 5 miles away
Little Bay has a reputation in the cruising guide and on Active Captain for being a bit rolly. After what we went though in Dominica, our idea of rolly is very different with higher thresholds of tolerable conditions. In here, there are some small swells that come in from the northwest. Since you are usually facing east in the anchorage, you do get rolled a bit but it was well within our comfort range.
Argon in Little Bay as seen from the beach bars. The rocky island of Redonda is in the background about 12 miles away.
Argon anchored in Little Bay taken from a distant hill during our tour
"Argon, Argon, Come in Please" came over the radio about as soon as we dropped anchor. Wow - is customs watching AIS and contacting us already? No - it was none other than Joe Phillip (regarded very highly in the Doyle Cruising Guides) offering to give us an island tour. This guy is very enterprising. He monitors AIS, Air and Sea communications and basically knows when anyone is coming to the island. He is very quick to beat his competition at contacting you and offering his services.
We got to land (there is no dinghy dock per-se, just a small platform along the commercial dock/ramp). We got finished with Customs fairly quickly, painlessly, and inexpensively then met Joe outside of one of the beach bars where we planned our tour for the next day.
Overnight, a couple of small tankers approached and anchored out in deeper water awaiting daylight. Early the next morning, one them (a container ship) approached the dock/ramp and attempted to offload. The ship and its ramp were bouncing off of the concrete dock in the swells and they ultimately gave up and returned to the deeper water anchorage. Later, they came back in and for a second successful attempt at offloading. This harbor could really use a breakwater and apparently one is in the plans.
Containers being offloaded in Little Bay
About Joe Phillip / Avalon Tours
Joe is a lifelong resident of the island. When the eruptions started and they evacuated his town, they told everyone it would be for a weekend and put them in "temporary" housing in a school. Well, that temporary situation turned into weeks, months and years and the evacuated areas are still uninhabited. Joe's old town is about to "celebrate" the 20th Anniversary of the evacuations and have cleaned up a few buildings and fields in the old neighborhood for a gathering in early 2017. Joe had the amazing foresight to take and collect lots of photos and videos. Photos of mundane things like street corners, the high school, a church, a golf course - stuff that no one would normally waste film on. But he knew that these would become anything but mundane and instead would become amazing/unbelievable "before" pictures of the devastation to come.
Joe showing us one of his hundreds (and hundreds) of photos of scenes of the island before the devastation. This photo is of the spot where the vehicle is stopped now.
What sets Joe apart from his competition is that he brings these photos and videos along on the tour on a very large screen iPad. He is constantly stopping and pulling up photos of your location to give you the contrast of then vs. now. Some of this reminds me of photos of Centralia, Pennsylvania in the states (the town that was abandoned after a coal fire started under it) but here, it's on a mega (seriously, mega) scale. The before pictures show streets and sidewalks, with curbs, houses, street lights and gardens. What you see out the windshield is a jungle with a barely visible collapsing roof here and there.
In case Joe doesn't contact you first, he can be reached on phone and WhatsApp at 1-664-492-1565 or by email at joephillip@live.com.
There is a ton of information and photography / video about the Montserrat Volcano online. I'm probably not adding anything significant other than the impression it had on us to see it first-hand.
Special Permission - Exclusion Zone
When we were clearing out of customs in Antigua someone overheard that we were going to Montserrat and said "you have to go to in to Plymouth!". I asked if he took a tour and he said "no, we just went. It's totally illegal but you have to do it".
This is very bad advice! We asked Joe and there is a legit way to see Plymouth but it requires some red tape and a bit more money. They take this exclusion zone thing very seriously, so don't "just go". Do it right. Essentially, Joe has to get permission from the Montserrat Volcano Observatory (MVO) and a police escort. The latter costs an additional $150EC. The next day, permission was granted (based on the threat level) and we were to meet the police at the gate of the exclusion zone at 10AM.
The Montserrat Volcano Observatory (MVO) - a playground for geologists. Soufriere Hills Volcano is one of the most actively monitored volcanoes in the world.
Chopper at the MVO; Soufriere Hills Volcano is in the background
Panoramic photo with labels at the MVO
Soufriere Hill Volcano in the distance as viewed from the MVO
Zoomed in a bit on the volcano
The no-go zone. They won't have a sense of humor if you are in here without permission
While in the exclusion zone, you are not to venture very far from the vehicle and the vehicle engine must be kept running at all times. The police van is never too far away either. The tour guide is also given a two way radio which keeps him in contact with the MVO at all times. Joe had to report our position every 15 minutes or so. Like I said, they are serious about this stuff. Joe pointed out some "escape roads" that have been cleared in case something happens.
Plymouth
The former capitol city of Montserrat was totally destroyed in the eruptions that started in 1995-1997. It is buried under meters of mud, ash and volcanic flows from all the subsequent eruptions (as recent as 2010). Any single story building is completely underground. Only the three and four story buildings rise above this and give a hint of their former structure. You see lots of rooftops at ground level.
Me and Joe walking along a former market towards a former Hotel (round building on the left)
This was a busy downtown street now buried under 5-10 meters of ash and mud
More scenes of a former vibrant, busy downtown with the volcano in the background
Linda in front of the 3rd and 4th story of this building
second story
Plymouth in the debris field of Soufriere in the background
Overlooking what was once the flourishing capital city of Plymouth; the volcano is in the background still spewing sulfur plumes
The Rest of the Tour
We had to do Plymouth first because of our arranged time with the police escort. After this, Joe did his more "standard" tour with us. As it turns out, you can get great views of the Plymouth Ruins without actually going into the exclusion zone, but I'd still recommend that you do if you come all this way!
Now. The pyroclastic lava flows consist of huge amounts of ash and mud. The mud and ash form a new rich soil bed for vegetation to flourish. There are several buildings partially covered in ash and completely covered now in brush and trees.
Then
Joe took us all over the island making numerous stops and showing us how things were before on his iPad (I told him I really hope he has good backups of these photos).
High school, second story. The ash/mud road is more than 6 feet above the original road.
The MVO from below
Abandoned Condos
Musical Connection
As a special treat for me, there also happens to be the remains of a very illustrious recording studio here. Associated Independent Recording (AIR) Montserrat was built by Sir George Martin (the fifth Beattle of course) to be a sister facility to his AIR in the UK but in an exotic location. The Police recorded Synchronicity here. Jimmy Buffet (no Jimmy Buffet jokes) recorded Volcano here. The Stones, Elton John, Pink Floyd, and many many other big names have been through this place.
Today, AIR Montserrat is in ruins and is abandoned. It was not the volcano that did it in, but a combination of Hurricane Hugo and a changing Music Business that killed it after ten active years creating great music in the 1980's.
Here is the late Sir George himself talking about AIR and Montserrat as he walks through the ruins.
The studio is closed to the public, but it's location is well known if not a bit out of the way. It is even called out on the panoramic photo at the MVO.
Joe drove us through the gate up to the property and waited outside as I walked the hallowed grounds. The complex is a large house with an incredible mountain view and a swimming pool with a studio building next to it.
At the entrance of the house
The pool. I told Linda that Sting probably swam naked in here.
Me walking into the studio
The control room with the glass looking into the live room behind me
The live room. Note the beautiful wooden diffusion in the ceiling and the stone wall sections. The light colored wall on in the background is also a stone diffusion wall.
Linda in the control room
The trashed doghouses where the main studio monitors once were
An iso room. The floors in here were very squishy so I didn't walk through it.
Me in the live room. Why didn't I think to at least record a hand clap impulse on my phone?
The live room looking back towards the control room
Power breakers
Looking out of the studio back toward the pool and house
The parties that must have taken place here!
Out at the main gate
AIR Montserrat as seen from the MVO (and zoomed in)
In case it's not clear: We think Montserrat is a must-visit place for anyone - sailor or landlubber. If you ever get confident in humankind's ability to build anything - anywhere it wants, just come here for a day. You very quickly realize who is boss between earth and humans. If you are not a sailor, Montserrat has a perfectly good airport! You can also do a ferry here from Antigua (although at the time, googling for information on this was not very successful).
Our few days on Montserrat will be some of the most unforgettable ones of this whole voyage.
It also must be said that although most people focus on the volcano and destruction to the south, the north of this island is very safe, vibrant and beautiful. Many people apparently believe that Montserrat is totally abandoned but in fact, there is still a population of around 5,000. The government offices have all been re-established in the north as well as schools, hospitals, banks and a surprisingly robust infrastructure overall.
