Pandora, the “Rolling Stone”, gathering no moss.

It’s Thursday and Pandora is anchored in Cienfuegos Cuba about half way down the southern coast of Cuba.  Nearby is the Cienfuegos Yacht Club and a throwback to a very different time here in Cuba.  It’s now used as a high end spot to cater meals for tourists and it’s hopping most every day.    It’s nice to see the club from Pandora.  OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAThis is the grand view from the street.  And, there’s a nice pool and tennis courts on the property.  We arrived several days ago and have enjoyed touring this very unique city.   After a few weeks of cruising in very remote areas, it is good to be back in “civilization”, although a very different one than Brenda and I are used to.   Interestingly, we had been told that boats had to use the marinas and could only anchor out, for a modest fee, with permission.  However, we are finding that most all boats anchor as the docks are pretty rough and the electricity isn’t particularly good either.  And, as we prefer to anchor out this is good news.  Besides, as a practical matter, there are not nearly enough slips to accommodate all the visiting yachts so anchoring “permission” is granted.  I think the fee is .25/ft per day.  Happily, the holding here is very good in mud and sand unlike that in Santiago where we dragged a few times.

And now for something completely different..  On Friday Brenda and I will leave Pandora at anchor and head on a bus(or is it the back of a panel truck?)  for a 3+ hour ride to Havana with some other cruising friends, including Lars from Luna.  Lars is the free spirit from Norway that has lived aboard his sloop Luna for the last 14 years or so.  We have shared an anchorage with him several times over the last few weeks.  I guess that it’s his “free spirited” influence on Brenda that we plan to attend, believe it of now, the Rolling Stones concert in Havana.

If you were to have asked me a few months ago what we’d be doing here in Cuba I have to say that going to a Stones concert with perhaps as many as 500,000 of our closest friends and leaving Pandora unattended on the hook here in Cienfuegos, I’d have said that you were nuts.

In any event, off we go to Havana tomorrow and to really complete the picture, we don’t even know if we have a place to stay or if we will be coming back to Pandora right afterward.   Don’t blame me, it’s all Brenda’s idea.   Now, that will keep us up well past “cruiser’s midnight” AKA: 9pm.

Brenda has been the driver behind seeing the Stones and I’d  say that this cruising life is really corrupting her as she throws caution to the wind, or is it the influence of that Norwegian scallywag Lars?   Hmm…

Well, I guess you will just have stay tuned to learn if we end up sleeping on a park bench or worse, in Havana.    Frankly, I am wondering if we will even be close enough see the concert using our binoculars given the fact that a similar concert in Rio Di Janeiro a few years ago drew over a million people.    Well we missed Woodstock so at least we will be able to tell our boys, Rob and Chris, that we “went to see the Stones in Havana” even if we never actually “see” them.   Details to come…

One thing that’s certain is that our trip to Havana will be good for another post so stay tuned.

As we were making our way toward Cienfuegos, Chris Parker had told us that a strong cold front would be coming through the day that we were headed here so we planned to time our arrival to happen before the front arrived with adverse winds.

We left that morning early in very light SE winds to make the last 50 mile run to Cienfuegos and Chris predicted that the wind would shift against us around sunset, about the time that we expected to arrive here.  Oops.  That’s not what happened.  A squall line came through about noon when we still had about 35 miles to go and brought with it adverse winds, nearly on the nose that gusted to 30kts.  It made for a very rough and slow ride motor-sailing into the wind.   However things got better as the day progressed with the wind shifting enough to allow us to motor-sail on a close reach so our speed over the bottom went from about 4kts to over 8kts at the end and we arrived before it got dark.  It was a very long and unpleasant day for Brenda but she was a good sport.

Cienfuegos, like Santiago de Cuba, is a very large harbor, about 50 square miles and very well protected behind an impossibly narrow deep entrance guarded by a fort. And just in case we might have forgotten that we were still in Cuba, were greeted by this inspiring message as we entered the harbor.   Images of Fidel, Raoul and Che are everywhere.  Interestingly, the images of Fidel displayed make him look like the kindly grandfather now and not the fire-breathing revolutionary of the past.

The day after our arrival we enjoyed a nice, if overpriced lunch at a government run restaurant in a magnificent “Moroccan” style mansion.  What an amazing building and in near perfect condition.The interior was totally over the top.  3-23-16a 018 3-23-16a 017 - CopyOur son Rob loves remodeling so perhaps he can take a cue from this and do some carvings in his dining room.   How about it Rob?  How would this look with Kandice’s Home Goods décor?

There is a rooftop bar with an amazing view.  Perhaps Brenda and I will go there tonight to watch the sunset.  There’s quite a view from the bar.  OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAI wonder how we’ll do coming down the spiral staircase after a few mojitos?

Even though this is a major city, clogged with cars, trucks and motorcycles spewing exhaust as they zoom by, it also boasts a healthy population of pedal cabs and horse drawn carts. The contrast of the old and (sort of) new is amazing and yet It seems to fit here.  And with everyone employed by the State, there are plenty of workers to keep the streets clean and bushes neatly trimmed.  While in many ways things are run down but they are very neat and tidy way that only “full employment” would allow.

Unlike Santiago de Cuba, with perhaps less than ten visiting boats in the harbor, Cienfuegos has dozens of boats at anchor and there are even four boats here from the U.S. the first cruisers that we have seen from The States, since clearing into Cuba in early March.

Yesterday, I decided that we needed some bread so I set off early to find a bakery.   As the only bakery nearby was in downtown Cienfuegos, a 30 minute walk, I opted to take a “Peso bus” with the locals.   As I have mentioned, there are two types of cash here, the CUC “cook” that trade at about $.85 U.S. and the “Local Peso” that trade at 25 to one CUC.  Anyway, the bus, used by Cubans, costs one Peso, about  five cents.   As you can imagine, these busses are very popular and wow, was it packed with morning commuters.   Forget about finding a seat. It was standing room only, at best.

After asking several locals, Spanish/English phrase book in hand, I found the bakery.  There was a long line outside of locals waiting to purchase bread and after about a half hour in line, the bread came out of the oven and in we all went to make our purchases.  Most shops in Cuba do not provide any sort of shopping bag so you have to bring your own.  Often, there is someone standing outside the shop selling plastic bags for one “local” Peso.  My purchase, two foot long loaves of bread, 8 local pesos each, less than a dollar total.

Any sort of “necessity” for the locals is heavily subsidized and very cheap.  However, that’s not the case with fuel that is sold for a set rate of $1 CUC/liter, about $5 a gallon.

It’s always interesting to see lines form outside of shops waiting to make their purchases when they find that something they need will soon be for sale.   There are no fully stocked stores so any shopping trip is more like a scavenger hunt to many shops, looking for what you need.  As an example, yesterday Brenda and I purchased butter and cheese.  The “deli” counter had only one type of cheese, sold in one kilo chunks, sort of salty mozzarella, and small half pound blocks of butter in a silver wrapper.  Oddly, we had to pay for the butter at the checkout and then show the receipt to the person in the deli before he would give it to us.   No so for the cheese which was weighed, priced and then given to us to pay for at the front register.  Needless to say, the process was very confusing for us and caused quite a backup at the register as we tried to understand the procedure.   I think that it had something to do with butter being rationed however everyone was good natured as we muddled our way through the process.

In the center of Cienfuegos, is a lovely square surrounded by magnificent buildings and a magnificent theater or opera house.  The buildings are in beautiful condition.3-23-16a 038 What a ceiling decorated to the max. 3-23-16a 037Some of the buildings on the square had cafes out front. We stopped and sat for a while in one while listening to a wonderful group of musicians.  They performed beautifully.  What a treat.   3-23-16a 036Love the spiral stairs in this tower.OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAWe went into the theater to take a look around.  It was built in the 1800s and is in near perfect condition.  It was a throwback to an earlier time of great wealth in Cuba.    We learned that there is a play being put on in the theater on Sunday so if we aren’t totally “concerted out” by then, perhaps we’ll give it a try.

When we return home to CT I hope to give a talk at the Essex Yacht Club and couldn’t resist getting a shot of myself holding the club colors.  I’ll bet it’s been a long time since the EYC colors have been flown in Cuba and this shot “proves it”, I guess.Of course, there was a great selection of beautifully maintained classic taxis to feast your eyes on here like everywhere in Cuba.  OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA 3-23-16a 021How about this old Ford?  As is often the case, not all together original.  Love the roof racks.  It must take an amazing amount of dedication to keep them looking like this after decades of hard daily work.  Of course, many don’t look like this at all but many re just amazing.

In any event, with the Stones concert in Havana on Friday, our pending bus trip and who knows what else that may lie ahead as we make our way through Cuba I guess it’s safe to say that “Rolling Stones gather no moss” is a phrase that certainly applies to Pandora and her crew this winter.

Perhaps even more amazing, Brenda, the “vagabond” and risk taker?  Who knew?  I guess more contact with wayward sailors like Lars will fully corrupt her.  Before you know it, she’ll be puffing away on a cigar and having shots of Cuban rum.  Now, that’s an image…

And speaking of the “for the moment, free spirit” Brenda, you should check out her blog at www.argoknot.com to see if I speak the truth.

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