Arriving in Montserrat 2023.
December 31st 2022.
Me, my classmates, and professors landed in Antigua. Tired and grumpy, yet excited, eagerly anticipating the next leg of our journey after leaving our snow painted campus in Massachusetts at midnight the night before. As we awaited our next flight I rushed and got a turkey Rueben, and by the time I got back the first puddle jumper was ready to board. I was in the first group so I went out to the small neon yellow plane and boarded along with the 5 other people that could fit. The pilot stepped on, quickly explained what do do in case of emergency, and started up his engines. We were quickly in the air with much less turbulence then I expected, and within 15 minutes we were flying over Montserrat. My first view of Montserrat being from a small plane circling just a few thousand feet above the island was a remarkable experience, I couldn’t believe I was going to be spending the next three weeks in such a beautiful place. Birds flew around 100 foot cliffs that shimmered gold with reflections from the beautiful turquoise water crashing below.
Image looking over the excursion zone of Montserrat
The beautiful water seemed shift into at least three shades of blue depending on where you looked, and densely vegetated forests packed along the faces of tall steep mountains. As I gazed mindlessly out the window at the views, face stretched with a grin we began our descent and suddenly I was entirely present in the plane again. It was my first time flying in a plane that small, and I wasn’t sure what the landing would be like. We headed toward a runway that seemed much too short for the speed we were going, only one wheel touched down at first, and after about fifty yards the other, the plane quickly slowed to a stop, and the pilot turned around with a big grin and said “Welcome to Montserrat”
After landing we drove back to what would be our house for the next three weeks, aptly named Green Flash after the meteorological-optical phenomenon occasionally visible from the porch of the house. I unpacked my travel rod, fishing gear, snorkeling and spearfishing gear, made sure it was all in working condition and prepared to get out on the water. I walked down to the beach with my friend Lyle, snorkeled over the reefs for about 30 minutes, but didn’t run into any Lion fish so I swam back to shore and began to cast a big 6 inch popper from the rocks. After two hours of fishing, and getting my first skunk out of the way we headed back to the house to eat. The meal was a delicious jerk pork and jerk chicken dinner made at a local restaurant. After eating dinner I tried to do some more research on the fishing in the area and went to bed early to prepare for getting up in a few hours to fish at dawn.
I was woken up at five AM by the sound of the Roosters, made my instant coffee, grabbed my gear and went down to the beach. I made a few wrong turns, but ended up at the beach by 5:30 and met up with Lyle for some more spearfishing and surfcasting. After about an hour of spearfishing and no Lion fish I began casting off the outcropping of rocks shown to the right. Within five minutes what was a sunny morning turned into a torrential downpour, and after another hour of surfcasting and no bites we headed back to the house to get changed before our first morning of classes.
I was woken up at five AM by the sound of the Roosters, made my instant coffee, grabbed my gear and went down to the beach. I made a few wrong turns, but ended up at the beach by 5:30 and met up with Lyle for some more spearfishing and surfcasting. After about an hour of spearfishing and no Lion fish I began casting off the outcropping of rocks shown to the right. Within five minutes what was a sunny morning turned into a torrential downpour, and after another hour of surfcasting and no bites we headed back to the house to get changed before our first morning of classes.
After an easy day where we discussed the ground rules for the trip, and our schedule for the upcoming week me and Lyle planned our fishing trip for the night. We decided to go to a new area named Lime Kiln, a small cove surrounded on both sides by rocky outcroppings. Once we were in the water I didn’t see much life, but the few things I saw were strange enough to make it worth it. I saw a lizardfish, and a peacock flounder, and followed the peacock flounder around until it hid underneath a rock. After about 30 minutes I got out and fished for a 6 inch topwater for the until sunset but didn’t land any fish.
On the way back I saw Donald driving down the street holding his speargun out the window with two lion fish attached, a sight i won’t be able to forget any time soon. We went back to the house, and Donald gave us the lion fish so I filleted them, and Lyle threw them on the grill.
