Hemingway Marina, Havana, Cuba to Old Bahama Bay Marina, West End Grand Bahama Island

22^nd April

With Dave’s help I left the berth at 0700 and motored to get fuel and then on to clear customs. I was done by 0800 and motored out of the channel through the reef which was a lot calmer than it had been on my way in. The plan was to head for either Bimini or direct to West End depending on whether it was daylight or not by the time I was off Bimini.

We sailed well North Eastwards under full sail until about 1700 when the wind died and thunder storms starting erupting all around. None were directly overhead but the lightening was sufficiently close for me to deploy the lightening conductor. I sincerely hoped it would not be tested. It was also pissing with rain and the sea was still very sloppy, we therefore rolled around making about 3 knots under power. There was also a lot of shipping about and being under power I sometimes had to take avoiding action. It was a thoroughly miserable couple of hours.

By 1900 the wind had returned and quite fresh too and so two reefs went in the main. There were still numerous thunder storms around and it was still pissing with rain but we were sailing once again and on course for Bimini. As dusk fell a large Eagle like bird kept on trying to land on top of the mast and I was fearful that it might damage the VHF antenna which was already slightly bent due to an argument with a tree in Amsterdam in 2012! Eventually after numerous aborted landings and about 30 minutes it gave up and went elsewhere.

23^rd April

The  wind increased in force such that I was forced to put in a third reef at 0100. I was glad I had rigged the pennants to by-pass the first reefing point in Jamaica so that now the first reef was actually two reefs and I could put the third reef in without having to mess around with re-running the pennants – not something you really want to have to do when the wind is getting up. I had a bit of a problem with Angus during this period. I still had the large vane on – which in these conditions was too big – but I did not fancy hanging off the back of the boat to change it. Angus kept slipping so that I constantly had to adjust him to bring us back closer to the wind. I think the wind resistance provided by the bigger vane was the problem. It still occurred even after I had tightened the friction wing nuts using pliers.

The wind eased during the course of the night such that by 0830 we needed full sail once again. I messed up big time – or rather messed up at some earlier point without noticing. To my horror as I shook the reefs out the mast end of the first reefing pennant disappeared into the boom. The stop knot had clearly not been tied properly and had untied itself. Now I had no means of using the first reefing point and it was going to be a devil of a job to re-reeve the pennant through the boom. Indeed it may require dismantling the boom itself, obviously not something that could be done at sea. Clearly that was not a tenable situation. Fortunately, I had some spare blocks (pulleys) and was therefore able to use 2 of these to rig the pennant on the outside of the boom. That sorted things for now.

By 1230 despite no increase in the wind our speed was up from 6 knots to over 8. We were clearly getting a very considerable lift from the Gulf Stream. Shortly afterwards the nearby eastern sky was ominously black and we were skirting a very large thunderstorm. By 1430 the wind had died completely and I the engine on. We were still making 6 knots over the ground despite using only mid revs on the engine which would normally produce about 3 knots. By 1630 the wind was back and we were making 8 knots once again.  It was now clear that we would be off Bimini in the dark and I therefore decided to carry on direct to West End. At 1730 the wind freshened and backed requiring two reefs and preventing us from laying West End! At 2000 I tacked to head north. By 2200 we were becalmed again and so the engine went back on and we headed directly for West End. By 2330 the breeze was back and we were able to lay West End. 

We were only about 30 miles East of Miami around this time and I could see the loom of the city lights to the West. It seemed strange that I was so near the USA but that I would not after-all set foot on it's territory during this trip. 

24^th April

Around 0630 we had a too close for comfort encounter with a ship that was heading directly for us only a mile off. For some reason he did not show on the AIS until then. This encounter heralded a plethora of shipping and I was kept on my toes making sure we had no further incidents. By mid afternoon the breeze was on the wane once more and by 1530 it was clear we would need to motor if we were to make West End before dark. I’m glad we did because of course by the time we were approaching the harbour the wind was back and there was quite a swell running in the very narrow entrance channel that did not open up until we were right on top of it. I would not have liked to have tried that in the dark. Thankfully, we were moored up safe and sound by 1930.

Old Bahama Bay Marina, West End

A pretty marina/resort with a beautiful beach. Very expensive however. $66 a night plus $15 a day for water whether or not one used any.

For me, only making a short stopover in the Bahamas the additional $150 for the required cruising permit made it a very expensive stop. They did though have wifi and an internet connection that worked enabling me to catch up on communications with family and friends. I ate ashore once - $14 for a decent Cheeseburger and Chips at the Beach Bar. On day two, Scott and Laurie from the USA, on board Whiskey’s Whisper (one of the few boats I have come across that is smaller than Arctic Smoke) invited me for dinner which I gratefully accepted. Scott advised me on the best route to take across the little Bahama Bank and we had a most enjoyable evening. On day three I took a bike ride (bikes and use of the pool were included in the price of the Marina) into the West End settlement to do some shopping. It had been devastated by Hurricane Matthew in October and the locals were still very much in the recovery phase.

The Marina/Resort had been hit too but by comparison got off lightly. In West End, numerous buildings, people’s homes had been completely destroyed and many others were very badly damaged.

Visas bloody Visas, Havana, Friends, on-board Technology and Next Steps (Wednesday 19th April)

I started writing this on Saturday 14^th April but it may not get posted until much later due to the sudden unavailability of the internet cards one needs to buy to get access to the internet.

Today has been one of the less enjoyable days here. It’s been the second successive day I have spent trying to extend my Cuban Visa. On arrival one is issued with a Visa which is valid for 30 days and which can be renewed for a further 30 days. My initial Visa expires on Monday and so I had set out early on Friday morning to renew it. As far as I could tell having read several tourist web sites the process is rather cumbersome requiring the purchase of special stamps from a bank which one then has to take to the Immigration Office along with Passport, travel insurance and details of one’s itinerary. They all warned it would take a long time. I had found what I thought was the address of the Immigration office but suddenly remembered it was Good Friday and then established that Friday and Monday were National holidays here in Cuba like many other places – the likelihood of the office being open seemed remote. I therefore changed decided to visit the Port Customs/Immigration office at the entrance to the Marina in the hope they could shed some light on the process. Fortunately another Yachty, Peter, was good enough to lend me his bike because it was quite a trek to the Port Office.

It turned out that the address I had was no longer valid and I got some rather vague directions from the local chap who was not sure whether the office would be open or not. I decided to go in search of it because it would at least be one step forward to locate the office whether closed or open. The local chap also told me there was no need to buy a stamp from the bank because the Immigration Office would undertake the whole process. Encouraging, or so I thought at the time.

Back at Peter’s boat, he offered me the loan of his bike once more which turned out to be an absolute blessing. On arriving in the area to which I had been directed there was no sign of the Office. Fortunately I stumbled across a government official of some sort who knew where it was and gave my directions (in Spanish of course which I did not understand but I got the general drift). After another half an hour of peddling, 2 Policemen and various locals later I finally found the Office. It was closed but I was told it would be open in the morning.

I headed back to the Marina and returned Peter’s bike did a few small jobs on the boat and went out with Dave and Kimberly for a meal in the nearby town. It was our second visit to the simple restaurant there. The food was very simple but extremely cheap. The three of us ate for less than £10. After that we watched one of the films that Laurent had given me in Cayo Largo – Babel. Good but heavy going.

Today  (Saturday 16th) I was up early at 0700 and got a taxi to the Immigration Office and arrived at 0830. Despite the early hour there was a long que already, I took a seat and settled down for the wait. After a while I noticed that the other people already had stamps with their documents. After a period of indecision I decided I best go and get one. It turned out that there was a bank only five minutes’ walk away so I should be back fairly soon.

Ha, ha. I was in the que in the Bank for nearly two and a half hours. There were only two counters staffed (it was a Saturday) and the first to Customers appeared to be conducting business transactions because they both took more than 30 minutes to conduct their business with stacks of paper going back and forth interspersed with resounding stamps. At last one of them finished and the lengthy que of ordinary customers gradually began to move. Finally, it was my turn. I explained I needed to buy a stamp to renew my Visa. The young man spoke some English and asked how many I wanted. I had not the faintest idea. After talking to a colleague, he asked me if I was sure I needed a stamp! Oh heck! I remember reading somewhere that the cost of the stamp was 25 CUC PESO and eventually I left having purchased 25 CUC’s worth of stamps. The only way I would know for sure whether I needed the stamps would be once back at the Immigration Office. By now it was 1100. I was back at the Office by 1110 only to be told that it was now closed but would be open again on Monday. By now I was thoroughly fed up. I walked back to the Marina and spent an equally fruitless afternoon trying to make up mosquito nets for the hatches and companion way. After two hours with the netting, elastic and needle and thread I manage to construct a completely useless net and gave up on the whole project.

Dave had come round to ask if I would like to go into Havana again with him and Kimberly but I was too knackered and hacked off and so declined.

It seems that rather too much of my stay here has been given over to battling with bureaucracy. Over previous days I had spent numerous hours trying to apply for a VISA for the USA. I only found out some weeks ago that because I was travelling on a private boat I was not covered by the ESTA which I had got before leaving Spain. Stopping off in Florida would be useful both from a passage planning perspective and in order to provision the boat fully. It was not to be however. The combination of the very unreliable internet connections and the painful VISA application form meant I had spent many hours on the process. Having at last completed the form I could request an appointment. And guess what – the earliest appointment available was August 17^th! No stopover in Florida for me.

The above aside the stay here has been most enjoyable.

Dave and Kimberly have more or less adopted me and the three of us have spent a lot of time together. So far we have been into Havana twice and on both occasions we did a mixture of the classic tourist locations and also the ‘real’ Havana where the locals live and go about their business. Old Havana has been restored to its former glory but the restoration process elsewhere is proceeding at a far slower pace. Outside Old Havana one is in a third world city with crumbling buildings and streets strewn with rubble. In some streets nearly every other doorway seems to house a little enterprise of some sort – some just selling bric a brac, others more established shops and services including nail salons. Some of them are squeezed into doorways of only a few square feet, others are in stairwells disappearing into the crumbling building above. The people are for the most part cheerful despite the very considerable hardships of day to day life. Rationing is still a fact of live in Cuba and therefore most ordinary people have to make do with very spartan supplies of basic goods at subsidised prices which, if they can afford it, they can top up at market prices at the numerous independent retailers that have sprung up in recent years.

Crossing into restored Old Havana, one crosses from the third world into what could be a Rome or a Paris or any other historic city centre in Europe. Of course the specific architecture is unique but the general feeling of the place the same. There are posh shops numerous bars and restaurants and the historic sites to admire. One of the landmarks on the edge of old Havana is El Floridita Cocktail Bar made famous by Hemingway who frequented it during his Cuban period. They do make very good cocktails, especially the ‘Daiquiri’ and on the two occasions we were there they had excellent life music too. As well as drinking in famous bars we visited the equally famous Ice Cream parlour, Cappolia and the Chocolate factory XXXX. Of course we had to sample the goods at both.

Havana is packed with of all sorts of classic America cars from Chevy’s to Buicks and everything in between. Some are in almost mint condition but most are unsurprisingly showing their age. There must be a lot of ingenuous mechanics in Havana. Nearly all seem to operate as Taxis of one sort or another and sometimes it feels like almost every Cuban is associated with a Taxi when one is repeatedly asked, “Taxi Sir?”

Tomorrow we’re off to the world-famous Tropicana Club to see a show.

Last week I got to know my immediate neighbour, a fascinating Frenchman, Phillipe. He too was sailing single-handed on a similar sized but modern boat. He’s an ex computer programmer turned Personal Development teacher. The night before he left we all (me, Phillipe, Dave and Kimberly) went out for a meal in the cheap restaurant in the local town – Jaimanitas and then back to his boat where we yarned and drank rum for a few hours. It was a most enjoyable evening – one of those special ones which encapsulate the comradeship of the cruising life. Phillipe is heading up the Eastern Seaboard of the US as far as Boston and will then cross back to France via the Azores in June so there is a chance we may meet up again there.

Oh and I finally got my Visa extended on Monday after hours of yet more queing!

On Saturday I met Daniel and Anna a Brazilian/Scottish couple from their boat Noomi. They have been cruising for the last couple of years and will be heading up the Eastern seaboard too when the weather allows. We shared a bottle of wine and stories on Arctic Smoke and had a very pleasant evening.

I’m planning on leaving round about the 20^th if the weather co-operates. Agustin, Port Officer for the Ocean Cruising Club in Gran Canaria, is by complete coincidence flying in to Havana on the 17^th for work (he’s an Aeroplane Engineer) and we’re meeting up on the 19^th. It’s proved to be most fortuitous that he’s coming because the main Tablet I use for detailed coastal navigation with Navionics software, failed in Cayo Levisa. That itself was a replacement that my son Vincent brought over to Jamaica. Agustin is therefore bringing two replacements with him which with my existing fall back tablet will mean I’ll have three which should be enough to get me home.

Yesterday (Tuesday 18^th) I had another day out in Havana with Daniel and Anna from Noomi. We took local buses into town which though crowded were extremely good value – just a few pence each to cover the 10 or so miles into town. We visited the Art Museum – a bit too modern for my taste – had a good lunch and just explored the city on foot.

The winds have been blowing from the East/North East pretty hard for most of the time since arriving here and I could really do with them going South East before I leave. Headwinds against the North East flowing Gulf stream would make for a very uncomfortable and slow passage. The talk on the grapevine amongst the yachties is that the winds are forecast to go South East towards the end of week which would be good for me. My likely route now that Florida is out will be to Bimini about 250 miles which with fair winds would be a 2-day passage. From there to West End on Grand Bahama, about 60 miles, a 1 day trip and then on to Bermuda, about 800 miles which should take between 5 to 10 days depending on the winds. Weather permitting, I’ll only be making short stops in the Bahamas because I’m due to pick up Tom in Bermuda for the onward passage to the Azores.

Reflections on Cuba (from Old Bahama Bay Marina, Grand Bahama Island)

The Man!

And so, on the morning of Saturday 22^nd April it was time to leave the strangest and most complicated country I have ever visited. I had coveted Cuba as my ultimate destination for so long and at times it had seemed so unlikely that I would actually make it, that to be leaving after experiencing only a small fraction of the landscape, beauty, desolation, colour, squalor, bureaucracy, music, history and people, left me feeling a little flat and a little disappointed. I had experienced crystal clear waters and a couple of enchanting anchorages and the beautiful beaches at Cayo Largo and Cayo Levisa, and I had snorkelled below the waves a few times and it was delightful, but the slow cruise around the south and north west coasts that I had imagined where I would snorkel on pristine reefs and swim every day for days on end, vanished under the demands of time and weather. Cuba has a huge coastline replete with numerous islands and reefs – a cruiser’s paradise, but I now realise a month is just nowhere near long enough to explore all that, AND do Havana AND do the interior - which I never did.

As always when sailing anywhere especially rocky reef strewn coastlines, the weather is the primary factor. In order to make my rendezvous with Tom in Bermuda in mid-May, I had decided it would be prudent to leave Havana in mid-April – that should give me enough time to visit a couple of the Bahamas on route. I planned to spend a week in Havana before leaving and therefore in theory I had three weeks to explore the coast between Cabo Cruz in the South East and Havana in the North West. That’s roughly 500 miles of coastline ignoring all the squiggly bits. The first 225 from the Anchorage at Cabo Cruz (where I had headed from Jamaica to wait for a change in the winds and where I had to stay on the boat) to Cienfuegos, I had to do in one hop because that is where I had opted to ‘check-in’ to Cuba. There are only a limited number of Ports where one can do that and only after checking-in can one go ashore. Indeed, strictly speaking I should not even have anchored there, but I got away with that.

Fish for Rum at Cabo Cruz

Cienfuegos is a sizeable town (but nowhere near the size of Havana) and I spent eight days there including a day trip to Trinidad which was a delight) exploring the place, listening to live music and simply experiencing Cuba. 

Town Square

Dancers Posing

Street Games

I also made friends with Laurent the Frenchman and went out a number of times with him and another friend he had made. Eight days was longer than I had planned on staying but I needed to wait for fair winds. From there it was a day hop to the tiny island of Cayo Guana de Estate for an overnight stop and then another day hop to Cayo Largo with its gorgeous beach, and rather scrappy holiday resort.

The Beach at Tropical Island, Cayo Largo

Laurent arrived there the day after I did and we spent a very enjoyable 5 days exploring the beach and resort together and just generally hanging out.

Laurent the Action Man

Then a day hop to Cayo Rosario followed immediately by another to Cayo Matias and another to the beautiful, Ensada Puerto Frances where I indulged in nude snorkelling in crystal clear waters. The next leg was to be a much longer and challenging one south of Isle De La Juventud (Isle of Youth) and round Cuba’s most Western cape, Cabo San Antonio. The seas off the cape can be very nasty in Westerly to Northerly Winds and even in the prevailing Easterlies my sailing guide book urged caution. With time marching on and the wind in the East I therefore decided to by-pass the enticing island chain of the Cayos De San Felipe to the North West of the Isle Dela Juvented and round the cape. A day and a half later I was anchored at Cayos De Lena. Not a pretty place but with lovely local fishermen who traded fish and lobster for rum.

The enchanting Golfo De Guanahacabibies lay ahead with the possibility of days of island hopping but the weather forecast warned of north easterlies arriving within the next few days and so I opted to make ground while I could and sailed outside the reef up to Cayo Levisa. Ironically, I was sheltered from the swell by being outside the reef in fresh south easterly winds and made great progress. Cayo Levisa was a jewel and where I met Dave and Kimberly who adopted me and we had great times together there and in Havana, but once again the weather forced me to make ground while I could. 

The north easterlies were delayed by 48 hours but the forecast showed them then entrenched for at least another week, so we spent one night there only and headed eastwards again. I made the passage to Havana in one hop whilst Dave and Kimberly did it in two. 

Arctic Smoke in Hemingway Marina, Havana

My two weeks in Havana are summarised in an earlier post, suffice to say it is one of the most intriguing cities I have visited. 

A typical Havana street

Cuba's Capitoli with Dave in foreground

Street art in Havana

The Cradle of the Daiquiri - inside Floridita - one of the haunt's made famous by Hemingway

Yet again though I left feeling I had not done it justice. I never got to the Museum of the Revolution. The day I was there with newly made friends Daniel and Anna who had sold up and sailed, the que was so long we bypassed it and went to the Art Museum instead. Nor did I get to Hemingway’s House Museum, although I did manage to get to Floridita a few times - the Daiquiri's were great!

Daniel and Anna outside the Museum of the Revolution, Havana

However, with Dave and Kimberly we did see a lot of Havana on foot and took in two Iconic shows – the Tropicana and the Buna Vista Social Club. The first an amazing extravaganza of dance and scantily clad – mostly female flesh, the second, simply wonderful Cuban music that got even this stick in the mud off his bum to dance.

Buna Vista Social Club

Cuban bureaucracy is second to none in its complexity, slowness and inefficiency and Cuban internet access is simply awful. The combination of the two equals hell on earth. My painful experience of trying and failing to get a US visa and only just succeeding in renewing my Cuban visa are also related in my Havana posting.

The most special experience of my time in Havana however, was the evening spent with Dave, Kimberly and new friend, Phillipe the night before he left Havana. We all went for a simple meal at a local restaurant in the village next to the Marina (which is about 10 miles East of the city) and then returned to Phillipe's boat for rum and yarning. I took my bottle of St Kitts rum - which went down very well.

Me, Phillipe, Kimberly, Dave and two of the locals

A fellow sailor has asked me whether I would recommend Cuba as a cruising destination. My answer is “Yes most definitely but……”

Sunset at Cayo Largo

Arrived Hemingway Marina, Havana

It's Saturday morning the 8th April and I've just had my first hot shower for goodness knows how long having spent a couple of hours checking in with the various authorities and getting the boat moored up here at Hemmingway Marina, Havana.

My previous stop was at the idyllic little island of Cayo Levisa about 60 miles west of here. [I still can't get used to the fact that after months of going west I'm now going East, the sunrises and sunsets seem back to front!]

I arrived there on Thursday morning after a day and night at sea from Cayos De la Lena just inside be Cuba's South West Cape, Cabo Santanio. The highlight of that stop was not the scenery but the delightful local fishermen with whom I exchanged a bottle of rum, two baseball caps and two razors in exchange for 3 fish and a  lagustine. Despite our inability to speak eachother's language we spent a couple of hours "chatting".

The sail from there to Cayo Levisa took about 24 hours and included two hours of record breaking sailing for Arctic Smoke during which her speed did not drop below 7 knots and some anxious moments in some very shallow water in the approach to the Anchorage. It was however very sheltered flat water.

On the way in I was passed by a Catarmaran that turned out to be named Island Girl captained by Dave with his crew Kimberly. Dave very kindly ferried me ashore having spotted I apparently had no dinghy to do the paperwork and the three of us spent the rest of the afternoon and evening together and indeed the following morning.

Ideally, I would have spent a few days at Cayo Levisa. A beautiful little island with a small resort complex by far the best kept facility any of us had come across in Cuba. A couple of lazy days on the beach and snorkeling in the crystal      seemed in order. Unfortunately, the weather had other ideas. The updates from Mick via my Yellow Brick confirmed we had two days of NNE/NE winds on Friday and Saturday before the wind settled in the East and fresh for at least another week. We would either have to move immediately or risk being wind bound for a week or more. We decided to move. First we had to clear out with the authorities which involved tracking the local guys down and then going through the paperwork again. I wasn't ready either and had to rush around getting the boat ready. We had agreed a 1200 noon departure and I wanted to go out together because the passage involved some pretty shallow water and a reef pass and if anything went amiss it would be good to  have company. All went fine until we got to the reef pass where we had to head north into a north easterly wind. It got very, very lumpy and poor old Arctic Smoke could only just make 2k over the ground. After about an hour we got out into deep water and I decide to head off NW on the starboard tack to get away from the coast before tacking east. After about three hours and nearly fifteen miles I decided we had made enough ground to windward to enable us to tack and it was with some relief that I found we were indeed able to lay our desired course.

I settled down on a close reach under two reefs until dusk when the wind eased considerably and with Mick’s forecast information predicting 10 knots I decided to shake out the reefs. For most of the rest of the night we went along pretty comfortably at between 4 and 5 knots albeit in some fairly big seas. The wind increased again around 0300 and we were off again at 6+ knots. The GPS was predicting we’d be off the fairway buoy around 0700 which was pretty good timing because entry to Hemingway in the dark was not advised.

By 0500 the wind was up a further notch and we were on the edge of needing a reef but laziness won out, thankfully without any adverse con whichsequences other than the boat steering a rather erratic course as we approached the Fairway buoy. The buoy is located about half a mile off the cut through the reef which is marked by starboard and port hand stakes. It’s the only way in so if you miss the buoy and get any closer inshore you’re on the reef. Fortunately I located the buoy about a mile out in what were already rather big seas. The next challenge was getting the boat ready to dock. The Pilot book says you need to be ready to dock with Customs immediately on entry and I took that literally which on reflection was pretty dim. Getting the fenders and warps out and in place, Angus off and stowed and the sails down with the boat dancing all over the place was not very pleasant. After getting the fenders out whilst still underway my brain kicked in and we hove too to complete the rest of the chores. That made life manageable if still bouncy. The last job was getting the sails furled because whilst I could have done with some extra propulsion to get into port I was not sure how much room there would be and the thought of careering into a strange port at 6k with possibly no stopping room, was slightly more worrying than the prospect of not being able to make enough way with AS’s 10HP Buhk. The possibility of it conking out was also something I worried about. If it did I would have to get some Genoa out bloody quickly or we’d be on the reef in no time.

So we were hove to a mile down wind of the reef/pass – which at least meant we would not get blown on to the reef whilst sorting out the sails but it did mean that we’d get blown off even further whilst sorting out the sails. I got the engine on and furled the Genoa and then tackled the main. Thankfully even with no sail up, with the tiller lashed to leeward AS continued to lie (relatively) comfortably hove to whilst I got the mainsail down and roughly stowed. However by the time I had sorted all that out we were a mile and half away from the fairway buoy and even flat out AS was barely making 2 k. So nearly an hour later we were close to the buoy and I could see the channel markers leading into the marina. The pilot warned of cross currents between the buoy and the first channel markers. Another yacht was coming out as we were going in it was probably 45 feet longer and very likely packed a far bigger punch that AS’s 10 HP Buhk but I could see it was being tossed all over the place as it came out of the channel, by this time we were passing through the reef and the cross currents were playing merry hell with AS, twisting her one way and then the other. The channel was about x metres wide but felt considerably narrower. As I struggled to keep AS in the centre of the channel and out of the way of the approaching yacht the cross currents continued to play with AS. Thankfully the wind was now abaft the beam and so we were making better progress and within 15 minutes or so we were in the quieter waters of what turns out to be a huge marina and very shortly after that moored up on the Customs dock to go through all the formalities yet again. Despite the office being well equipped with computers everything was done on paper and yet again, the officials diligently asked me the same questions and completed the same forms as at the other ports of entry. The whole process took about an hour which apparently is fast track compared with a few years ago. On completion I was told where to head for in the marina where I also had to check in to and then finally I was visited by the Health Officials – they had slightly different roles and different forms but eventually I was done with them too.

Whilst I was tidying up the boat (a bit) the security guard came over for a chat. Once he had established I was on my own he appeared even more interested and hung around after our pleasantries were over. It turned out he had an ulterior

First he asked me if I wanted a ‘cheek’ for tomorrow. When I made it clear I didn’t understand he used his phone to translate. The translation of ‘cheek’ was ‘small’! I was even more confused until the penny dropped – he was saying ‘Chick’. After I turned him down he came back a few minutes later with an even more confusing translation on his phone. It seemed to include a word that looked very much like “anus”! I got the drift and refused again at which point he laughed and finally walked off.

After that encounter I had my shower and a light lunch and started writing this up whilst keeping a lookout for Dave and Kimberly on Island Girl. They arrived at around 1500 and we were both very glad to see we had all come through the passage safely, particularly the bumpy entrance into Hemmingway.

May go into town with Dave and Kimberly tomorrow.

Cienfuegos to Cayo Largo (25-26/3/17)

On Friday afternoon, I did some last minute shopping by taxi into town for some fresh fruit and veg in which I was moderately successful. I should have delayed departure another day so that I could have gone to the Saturday market which is supposedly pretty good. On my return, I managed to complete check out with Immigration and Customs. It seems they were doing me a favour by checking out the day before departure because they were insistent that I didn’t delay and must be gone by 0730 the following morning.

The forecast was for a mixture of winds over the next couple of days – moderate NE’s to variables.

In the event I got going just before 0730. The winds were fairly light and so whilst I had the mainsail up I motored out of the bay and the approach channel which I saw for the first time in daylight.

By around 0930 I was well down the approach channel and the wind freshened allowing us to sail for a few hours. The first part of the passage required a diversion around the exclusion zone west of Cienfuegos. By the time, I had got to the south western extremity the wind had died and the rest of the leg to Cayo Guano Del Estate was under power. The Cay is a very small island and the anchorage is noted for being rather rolly but I was not going to make the better one at Cayo Sal another 8 miles to the west before dark. Additionally, should the predicted NE wind arrive I would have better shelter at Cayo Guano. The wind arrived just as I anchored and would have been a perfect one for the leg! The anchorage was rather rolly and so I did not get much sleep.

I was therefore rather dozy in the morning forgetting that to make the most of the winds an early start would be required. In the event I did not get going until around 0930. After 3 hours of ever decreasing winds we were down to less than 2 knots and would clearly not make Cayo Largo before dark. After much debate with myself about the best course of action which included the possibility of anchoring off a tiny Cay for the night and the fact that fuel should be available at Cayo Largo, I decided to motor once again. The engine was required for the rest of the leg although we did get a bit of help from the wind for the last couple of hours. We tied up at the Marina at 1815. I went ashore to report to the authorities and having completed the immediate formalities I cleaned myself up a bit and went back ashore to look for food and drink. A drink first, a Mojito at the Marina bar watching the sun go down and then over the nearby hotel for a simple, OK meal, but the most expensive yet at around £20 including two glasses of wine.

This morning – 27/3, I visited the Marina office, payed my mooring fee (about £25 per night but they only charged me for one) and found out how to get fuel. I have to notify the office how much I need today, pay them for it and then go to the fuel dock at 0730 tomorrow morning to get the fuel. So, I’ll do that and then move out to the anchorage for which there is no charge. I found the showers too and apparently, they have warm water. I should also be able to fill up with water – but not drinking water quality. I don’t use the main tank for drinking water anyway so I may as well top up the tank – I’m not sure when I’ll next get the chance to get more fuel and water.

I’ve been considering the passage plan for the next leg(s) partly because I need to tell the local authorities what my next port will be. The next proper one is Nueva Gerona on the north east coast of the Isla Dela Juventuo some 70 miles west of here but it doesn’t sound very inviting and would require a significant detour northwards. I’m therefore considering going south of the island and stopping off at a good anchorage at Cayo Matias. There are a number of Anchorages en route which I can use to break the journey. The first and likely next stop will be at Cayo Del Rosario about 20 miles west of here. Probably the most challenging leg comes after that – getting around the western most Cape – Cabo San Antonio through the Yankut Channel. It looks like the choice is between getting round the Cape and then coming inshore into the sheltered waters of the  Golfo De Guanahacabibes, or to stay off-shore in the favourable current and keep going until Havana. That will require longer at sea but will be quicker. In the Gulf I would be able to stop off for at least some nights. The prevailing weather will probably be a main factor.

Anyway, that’s it for now. I’ll post another update before leaving here. It might turn out that Havana is the next place I can get an internet connection.

Cienfuegos 5 – Thursday 23-Friday 24 March

Had a bit of a lie in yesterday after my day out in Trinidad and on rising at about 0930, noticed that my French neighbour Lauren had just returned from his outing to Havana by bus. He’s been away a few days and had asked me to keep an eye on his boat. Thankfully for both of us there were no problems.

Lauren’s a sometimes single hander too (more than me I think) and having spent a year in the Caribbean is heading for Panama at the weekend. We went out for early evening drinks and a snack before rendezvousing in town with a German he had met on the bus. I’ve forgotten his name but another interesting character who has visited Cuba multiple times and despite the challenges obviously loves the place. They both speak Spanish and so I that evening I got a bit of a free ride on the back of their ability to communicate with the locals. Nevertheless, it was a challenge to find an open restaurant. Night-life here is much less developed than in Havana apparently. We found somewhere eventually and despite being the only customers and interesting service, we enjoyed some very good food at reasonable prices – circa £10 per head with a tip. Then we found some great live music at the Theatre Bar - £2 to get in and drinks at standard prices.

Talking of the price of drinks. Early in the day I went shopping to provision for the next step of the journey. It’s a good job I’ve still got plenty of tinned food and pasta and rice on board because food stuff is not easy to find. Guess what was in plentiful supply in all the shops? Yes, rice, pasta and puréed tomatoes and cooking oil; all of which I had ample supplies of already!

I did find cans of beer and a slab of local beer – 24 cans cost about £18 – the same price one pays for a beer in the cheaper bars! It was a bit of a comedy routine buying it though because the shop used the local Peso currency and I had cash in CUC the tourist currency. I did not realise this at first and having established the cost was $18 CUC I could not fathom out why the shop keeper was unable to give me change of a $20 CUC note. Just lots of shaking of heads when I offered the note. Once the penny or should I say peso finally dropped I wondered where I would be able to get Pesos from. The shop keeper was clearly no entrepreneur and was as honest as they come (why not just charge me £20 CUC) because he was quite happy for me to walk away from probably his biggest sale of the week. Being pretty slow witted myself, I nearly did, until it occurred to me that he could surely throw in a few more cans to make the value up to $20 CUC! So four cans of fizzy orange later I struggled out of the shop with a slab of beer, some pasta bases and pack of the soft white rolls that pass for bread here. I also picked up a local cake I think that’s what it is) from a street vendor.

Back on the main road I succumbed to the offer of a bicycle taxi back to the marina. On the way, we stopped off at another supermarket where I bought some rum and a lemon mixer and the only meat products I could find in small quantities – two different types of processed chicken bits in bread crumbs. I expect they will be disgusting but…

That left me with eggs and fresh veg still to get. Both seem to be available at the marina and so I hope I can get some there a bit later.

Other than that, and the need to clear with customs and immigration which I also hope to do shortly, I am almost ready to go. I filled up with fuel and water this morning and finished off all the must do jobs on the boat.

Hopefully I will be able to get internet access at Cayo Largo (ETA Monday/Tuesday) and post a further update.

Trinidad (Wednesday 22nd March)

I got up at 0700, got the dinghy launched (it’s a requirement here to have the dinghy on deck by nightfall – not sure exactly why that is – perhaps to deter theft – but Cubans seem to be the most law abiding of people – or perhaps to do with the concern that yachties may wish to smuggle Cubans out of the country), the outboard motor on, had a quick breakfast of muesli and got ashore by 0840.

The promised taxi in the shape of a classic American car complete with driver, Nelson, turned up a few minutes later. Nelson could speak as much English as I could Spanish and so communications were fairly limited. However, it was evident he was waiting for another couple of passengers. They soon arrived a charming German couple who had been passengers on one of the Charter Catamarans. Their English was much better than my non-existent German and so we chatted pleasantly on and off during the trip whenever one of us could summon up the strength to speak above the roar of what I am sure must have been a tractor engine under the huge bonnet (or should I say ‘hood’). Then we picked up another couple from one of the local guest houses and the 6 of us including Nelson we were off to Trinidad, 50 miles away.

The roads were pretty good – all two-way carriageways, but the surfaces were in general nothing worse than one encounters on A and B roads in the UK. However, I’m sure the car had no suspension at all and the only thing preventing serious injury to my back-side were the springs in the bench seats. The interior of the car was sparse to say the least with a complete absence of the bells and whistles one associates with classic American cars. The steering wheel was bare metal and apart from the seat coverings all the other surfaces inside were painted metal and judging by the way Nelson negotiated corners, if there had ever been any power steering it no longer existed. I’ve no idea what make of car it was, but it was huge and probably accounted for Nelson’s very thick arms! After a while I noticed he was using hand signals to indicate and that when on-coming vehicles flashed him (either because they knew him or to warn him of the next speed trap up the road) he would respond with a wave. It then dawned on me that the car had no functioning lights! Needless to say, there were no seat belts.

As we moved out of the town centre the (curious) colonial architecture gave way to more basic functional buildings, most but not all in a fairly shabby state. We passed schools, hospitals and blocks of flats and simple slab sided dwellings. Some were VERY run down.

Then we were in open country. Immediately after the town we drove past a vast mango orchard. Then the countryside was a mixture of rough grassland and sparse forest comprising the sort of scrawny deciduous trees we’ve seen on the other islands. Here though there were very few ‘jungle’ type trees, for want of a more informed description, except when we crossed rivers. Hazy mountains were evident in the distant spine of the island although I later realised that it was not mist but smoke. A lot of the land was being burned I assume deliberately either to clear it or prepare it for the next crops (not that I saw much sign of crops being grown – it was nearly all wooded grassland with cows and goats grazing. Now here’s a thing, pork, chicken and fish are seemingly plentiful in the restaurants, but I have not seen any beef or goat and on our trip and out and back I didn’t see a single pig or chicken!

The most enduring images of the drive out and back were the horses and their riders. The riders ranged from the very young to the very old. All boys and men (no women that I noticed) who looked like they had been born in the saddle. The rode with consummate ease. Many of them were clearly working on maintaining fences – I saw groups of them along the road working on fences with their horses nearby. Horses also ranged across the landscape in significant numbers. Others were being used to pull carts and carriages. I had noticed lots of horse pulled taxis in town but assumed they were just a response to the growing tourism industry. Clearly that’s not the case rather the horse is a major feature of Cuban life.

We didn’t pass any villages as such, just small collections of usually very featureless bungalows. Most very shabby but every now and again some were better kept and some included roadside restaurants with trees, shrubs and flowers.

The outskirts of Trinidad were little more than a shanty town, albeit it one heaving with people going about their lives. In truth, the colonial architecture for which Trinidad is so famous is restricted to a pretty small area around the pretty main square – the Plaza Mayor. What a feast for the eyes and other senses though. I felt like a tourist in an Agatha Christie novel in some exotic setting. Yes, there were lots of other tourists but the town was still essentially Cuban it hadn’t morphed into a Disney caricature of itself. It seemed every other building was either a restaurant or an Art Gallery if it wasn’t a museum and of course the museums had Art Galleries in them. The museums were a cut above those in Cienfuegos and despite very limited English signage, and probably because they were still very simple, they succeeded in conjuring up Cuba’s turbulent history and revolutionary roots.

The Art Galleries ganged up to assault one’s vision with one vivid display after another. I’m no expert but was enchanted by the vibrancy of the art to an extent I do not recall before. I shopped for a few gifts in the craft market – a cut above others I have seen and reasonable prices too. Then lunch in a charming little restaurant/bar on the square. A simple dish of rice, chicken and vegetables, followed by a gorgeous baked custard dish and a very good cup of coffee – around £15, including a cocktail and beer! Over lunch I chatted with a Haitian/American couple. She was the American and it turned out had an Uncle in Croydon! I was interested in Haiti, having sailed by without stopping partly due to concerns about its violent reputation. He didn’t think there was any reason not to visit there however.

After lunch, I drifted across the square, tried to get in the Cathedral but it was closed and then found myself sitting in another Café with another beer, listening to a street band play traditional Cuban music. Then a short walk up the hill past VERY dilapidated houses to the ruined church overlooking the town. Then more wandering until the sound of more live music drew me into another bar. This time in return for giving the band a generous tip and buying their CD, I got my picture taken with them and for a moment was a trumpet player! Shortly afterwards I met Nelson around 1700 and took the long ride back to Cienfuegos. This time I was the only passenger and sat up front. It was however, no more comfortable than the back seat!