Thursday, April 8, 2010

Half Mast Soufriere and boy racers on the water

Coffee in the cockpit in the morning is how I start my day. I am a coffee junky and it better be good coffee or there will be trouble.

Anyway as I looked around Falmouth harbour many of the bigger boats had their ensigns at half staff. I had not heard any mention of this on the morning "show" from English Har,bour Radio as it is mostly weather but they usually add a bit of news as well. But it was the son of one of the megayacht skippers who had died with almost no warning. Another life gone too soon like all those snuffed out in Haiti.


Soufriere on Montserrat is smouldering away and I got a couple of good shots today as the air is clearer for the first time. I do not know if it is the ash from the eruption or kust the usual high presure crud that has been giving us poor visibility but whatever it was it has gone for today at least. I looked for some recent data on the eruption and this is the best I could find.

26 March to 2 April 2010
Activity at the Soufrière Hills Volcano has been low this week.
There have been seventeen rock fall signals, and one hybrid earthquake recorded this week.

Sporadic rockfalls and pyroclastic flows are still occurring on the western and southern flanks of the lava dome.

The average sulphur dioxide flux this week was 194 tons per day, with a daily minimum of 105 and a maximum of 304 tons per day.

The Hazard Level is 3. There is no access to the terrestrial Zone C and daytime transit access to shipping through the maritime extension of the zone.


The boy racers of the islands do it on the water.with carbon fibre masts and crisp paper sails.

As well as the fast and the furious come the old and the elegant.
as this lovely schooner showed as it beat up to English harbour.

2 comments:

  1. That's sad. How did he die?

    I was just reading, a couple of days ago, about a sailor from the BVI, a lawyer, who died on the first day of the Rolex Regatta. It wasn't race related. At the end of the day, he slipped and broke his neck on the companionway. His name was Guy Eldridge. 47. So sad.

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  2. I believe he was about 7 years old and started vomiting in the afternoon and was dead a little while later but that is about 4th hand info. so may not be accurate.

    The family are trying to get back to the UK asap.

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