A momentous start to the day

We started hearing about La Soufriere volcano erupting while we were having our morning tea in bed. There had been red warnings for a couple of days and amber warnings for months, so it was not totally unexpected. The volcano is in the unpopulated northern section of St Vincent, we sailed passed it 10 days ago and we could smell the sulphur, even out at sea. It obviously has been belching sulphur for decades as the name Soufriere means sulphur. Jan and Greg who we met sailing last year, arrived in Young Island Cut a couple of days ago to do their St Vincent quarantine and entry requirement tests. They have sent us incredible pictures of the ash cloud and their boat covered in black ash. The volcano is about 26 miles away from us, but the sky is like a white out, completely hazy and cloudy, so we can’t see very far at all.

Photos taken by Greg in St Vincent of the volcano, his boat below covered in ash

The other momentous news was hearing about the death of Prince Phillip. We have a rather soft spot for him, as all 3 of our kids received their Gold Duke of Edinburgh awards from him in St James’s Palace. He was in his nineties for each of their awards and did an incredible job of having something to say to each group. He even managed to talk directly to both Phoebe and Hannah, a huge effort considering how many hundreds of kids were getting their awards. We have always thought the D of E program was most probably one of the most impressive parts of the kids entire education.

We decided to head back north as we have really reached the limit of what there is to see down south. The winds are still gentle and Rowan was so excited as we had the perfect gentle conditions, with wind in the right direction for him to try out his enormous new Spinnaker sail. All a bit nerve wracking as it took many attempts to master our Gennaker sail which is 40 square meters SMALLER than the Spinnaker! This sail instead of furling around to take the sail in and out, has a huge sock that goes up and down it, looking suspiciously like a condom! Full of trepidation (on my part) as we have yet another technique to master, we got it up. Tom the guy in Wales who has been our helper throughout the two sailing trips was very impressed that we had got it up the right way around first time! We had a wonderful sail with it, cruising along perfectly in about 12 knots of wind. As we reached the Pitons the wind just started creeping up and up, we know the wind rushes down in great gusts between the two Pitons. We hastily decided to get it down. With Rowan all kitted out in his life jacket, and me asking what the hell my drill was, if I landed being on board on my own! Amazingly it went like clockwork, the sock snuffed out the wind from the sail, and it came down like a dream. What a relief!

His new sail he is so excited about.

Below is the condom, no better description for it!

We decided to get a mooring ball on the other side of Soufriere Bay, confusing I know, as it is the same name as the volcano in St Vincent. Again this town is called after the sulphurous smell from the volcano nearby, which we drove through last week. It last erupted sometime in the 1700’s, so not a threat. The same boat boy helped us onto our ball which is about 50m from an enormous long thin cave, famous for its bats.

Soufriere town

Moored not too far from the Pitons

Famous bat cave

Our view!

We decided to go into town and have a wander around as it had looked very quaint on our drive through last week. Friday night is obviously party time and the town was humming with hundreds of bars open. All locals out and about, we never saw a single non local looking person. Rowan found a recommended restaurant on trip advisor, so we went to have a look at about 5 o’clock and surprisingly someone answered the door, we had a table booked for an hour later at Orlandos. The only resort was closed but a new development of stall holder bars was open, very nicely done, apparently for the cruise ships. But as there is not a single tourist besides us, the locals are using it . As we sat and enjoyed a beer chatting to some locals the sky cleared and we could suddenly see the ash cloud from the volcano. Earlier, before we headed to town we heard some low rumbling, Rowan said it was the volcano which I couldn’t quite believe, but now I think he was absolutely correct.

Enjoying the beach bar

The skies clear and we can see the volcano cloud

We had a great surprise at Orlandos, we were greeted by Orlando himself who was born in Birmingham to parents from Trinidad. He moved here 20 years ago. First working as a chef at Ladera a fancy resort here. He went out on his own about 7 years ago and has the absolute gift of the gab! The restaurant had a tiny balcony where we sat with 3 other tables, his restaurant was full for the first time this year! As the evenings have been so quiet, he just does one menu and tonights happened to be a 5 course tasting menu! Luckily it was delicious, a bottle of rose and an impromptu rum tasting in the middle helped make it very enjoyable. All very entertaining and sociable. One table had an American couple who are both medics, they have been going out for 7 years and now work in separate cities, so Orlando was pressing them to make this their engagement dinner! The other table had 6 girls celebrating a 21st, they were all beauty therapists from the smart Sugar Beach resort, there was a mix of Russian, Chinese, European and Americans, sadly not a single local. Their conversation was driving Rowan mad, it was all quite intimate up on the balcony. There was one particular screech when one girl exclaimed ‘ OMG, OMG, OMG, I had no idea you got baby ants’!!! The last table had a single American girl who was crewing on a super yacht down the road, she did finally get joined by another couple of crew. It all made for a very entertaining night out, ending with a rather precarious time getting ourselves off the rickety dinghy dock and then finding our way back in the inky darkness to our boat.