Where do I begin? There is so much to say about this place that I am overwhelmed and don’t know where to start.

Should I begin with the remarkable architecture, some lovingly restored and others gently held together with the hope that someday it too can be brought back to their original wonder?  Is it the wonderful people, out on the town celebrating “The National Day of Women” on a day set aside much like our mother’s day, many carrying a rose?  Is it the street food vendors selling pastry, ice cream, fried foods and ham sandwiches out of a window or doorway?  Or perhaps with the dozens of tiny shops meticulously displaying their limited wares or the pet stores with amazing colorful birds and tropical fish.

Perhaps I should begin with the vehicles.    Coming from the “disposable” culture of the U.S. it’s amazing to see how Cubans recycle and reuse in a way that puts us to shame.   Some vehicles look like they are about to travel their very last mile and others, like this 1950s vintage Opel that our driver from yesterday, clearly have many miles left under the hood.Even the interior was perfect, if a bit off of the original specs. There are thousands of old cars, trucks and motorcycles spewing choking exhaust on impossibly narrow colonial streets so clogged with traffic that crossing is a life threatening experience. Not all of the cars were in as nice shape as this vintage VW.  For sure, plenty will be changing in Cuba as they open up to the world.   Perhaps there is no better illustration of the challenges that this country faces than the long lines of young people waiting outside of the cell phone store waiting to enter for service.  And,as in the U.S. , it seems like nearly everyone is busy huddling over their phones, perhaps, like us, trying to use the horrible wifi in public squares.   For sure, wifi is not great as it took me an hour yesterday and all of the time on my prepaid wificard to get just a simple post with one photo to publish.  Today I am in a cafe using their computers so it´s going much better, so far…

As we spoke with Cubans, at the marina, in taxis and some that we met on the street, there is an air of excitement that Obama is visiting later this month.   However, tempering their enthusiasm, is a fear that the influx of American’s and their money will take away the “good” of Cuba.  However, it seems that most feel that there will be more good than bad as Cuba “joins the world” again after so many years of isolation.

There is a constant parade of “buses” adapted from old Ford trucks with large rear areas,complete with benches, packed to the gills with customers racing through the narrow old streets.  Yes, the grey section with the tarp is the ¨bus¨ and passengers are packed in cheek to cheek. Surrounding the public squares are fabulous buildings, hundreds of years old and in perfect condition, at least from the outside and yet only a few blocks away homes in a terrible state of disrepair. Yesterday we had lunch at a Paladar, a family run restaurant on a rooftop overlooking the harbor and countless homes on the hillside.  Wonderful food and reasonbly priced.   Great Mojito too.The nearby market had some interesting items for sale.  I sure hope our lunch didn´t come from this stall. Perhaps this fruit stand is more our speed. On a nearby rooftop,  a dog that looked much like or Son Rob´s Bobi.  There are many busy and beautiful public spaces.  I still do a double take when I see the Cuban flag flying high.

There is street music most everywhere. We stopped at a local hotel in the heat of the afternoon to cool off with fresh lemonaid.  What a spot. I could go on for hours and surely,  with all the ¨fun¨ of finding a good spot to download all of this, perhaps I should quit while I am ahead.

One way or the other, Cuba is surely a feast for the senses.  What a place.

It’s Tuesday morning and we are getting ready to head out later this morning to explore the city of Santiago de Cuba.  We have hired Noel, a local taxi driver that was recommended to us a couple, Brian and Nancy from Canada sailing aboard “Afreeka”.  Love that name for a boat.  After buying the boat in June, they got ready in record time to head out and have spent the last six months heading south, beginning with the Erie Canal, down the U.S. coast all the way to Marathon FL in the Keys.  They have spent the last month cruising the south coast of Cuba on their way to their ultimate destination, Trinidad.  They are quite the adventurers, although new to boating, having spent a lot of time in Tanzania Africa by land over the last few years.  Can you find Tanzania on a map?  I surely can’t.

We spent some time with them yesterday to get a lay of the (Cuba) land.  As they are heading east toward Haiti, against the prevailing winds, they do their sailing at night and headed out from the marina  at dusk last night to take advantage of the katabatic winds coming down from the mountains overnight.

Katabatic winds are the cooling air from the mountains rushes downhill towards the coast at night and shift the easterly trade winds from east to the north.  That makes for a nice close reach sail toward the east as opposed to having winds on the nose as is the case during the daylight hours.

It was nice to get their perspective, albeit a bit negative as they were plenty frustrated from waiting for fuel and water for the last few days.  The marina’s fuel pumps have been out of commission for years and water has to be brought in by tanker truck and that had been promised for days and not yet delivered.  I checked again this morning and they said “today, we hope”.  Sounds familiar, I guess.  It’s a good thing that we have a watermaker as Brenda isn’t happy when she has to skip her shower.  Me too.  Can you say sticky?

Water is a problem in this area and all homes have large water tanks on their roof so that they can store water when the municipal supply is working and still have some to use when it’s not.  I was told by Noel that sometimes they can’t get water for ten days at a time so they have to keep plenty on hand, just in case.

After all the months of preparation for getting to Cuba, I can’t believe that we are finally here.  In spite of all the reading about what the experience is like, it’s quite different than what we had heard.  We had read that the clearing in process took hours and that we’d have to give up most or all of our fresh food and that any chicken would have to go too.   We were prepared for “whatever”and had all of our documents in place, ready to go.  We even prepared a detailed “crew list” document with all the particulars of the boat and crew which I printed out in duplicate.

As we made our way west along the coast, we were entranced by the views of the mountains.As we approached the entrance of the harbor, and a dramatic one it is, we began hailing the Guarda Frontera on the VHF radio.  We had been told to begin calling when we were about 15 miles out with the understanding that they probably wouldn’t respond until we were within a few miles as they only have hand held VHF radios.

After spending time in the Bahamas, with its low lying islands, over the last few years, I wasn’t prepared for the dramatic landscape and tall mountains of Cuba’s south coast.   What a dramatic view of the coast with mountains everywhere.

As we approached the harbor, we were greeted by a fabulous fort, Castillo de Morro, built in the 1500s.  What a sight. We continued past the fort and into the harbor, all the while hailing the authorities, again with no response.   The channel near the fort is literally hundreds of feet deep with cliffs looming up dramatically on either side.   I was busily snapping photos of the fort and was startled, no make that shocked to hear a booming voice shouting in Spanish so close that I thought someone was in the cockpit with us.  It turns out that I was almost correct as a moment later I saw a head bobbing in our wake, complete with snorkel and wet suit.  There was someone in the water and I had nearly run him down.   What the %$#@ was someone swimming in a major shipping channel with ships like this heading in and out all day long.

As we came within sight of Marina Santiago, we were finally hailed on the radio by Guarda Frontera and instructed to anchor on the other side of the harbor in the “quarantine” area, about a mile from the marina.    Moments later a launch pulled up and dropped off the health inspector, a young Cuban woman with really, really red hair.    We offered her a cold Coke which she accepted with thanks and quietly slipped it into her purse.  She took our temperature with a laser thermometer pointed at our foreheads smiled and declared Brenda to be “hot”.  Yes, she can be that, I agreed.

She knew only a very little English and patiently waited while we thumbed through the phrase book to find answers to her questions. The whole process lasted about an hour and was very pleasant. When she was finished she started talking about “toasting” our arrival.  After a LOT of back and forth and puzzled looks from us, we finally realized that she was looking for a beer.  Of course!  Brenda and I split one and she finished her’s off in short order.  We exchanged information about family, showed photos of children all around and posed for a “selfie”.  What a hoot.  “Welcome to Cuba!”After that, we raised the anchor and headed back across the harbor and anchored as there was no room at the dock for us.  We dropped the dink and took her ashore and us to meet with Immigration.  That process took another hour and was followed by that official coming out to Pandora where he searched every nook and cranny for who knows what.   After that, a beer together.

The whole process indeed took several hours and was very interesting.  Brenda posted her impressions on her blog about all of this and it’s really worth reading.  Check it out here.

There is a small cove adjacent to the marina where we anchored for the night but the holding wasn’t good at all in soft lumpy mud and in nearly 50’ of water.  I am not used to anchoring in water that deep and it took nearly all of our chain.  The next morning we moved to a shallower area nearby to try our hand at another spot, this time in about 15’ of water.  The hook went down and we backed down to be sure that it was well set and settled down below for lunch.

About 45 minutes later we were rousted by voices on deck, poked our heads up and were shocked to learn that while we were having lunch we had dragged our anchor somehow and were now nearly a mile across the harbor and less than 100’ from a very nasty concrete dock.  WHAT!

We never heard or felt anything as the boat slowly dragged into deep water.  And it wasn’t particularly windy.  We could not believe our luck that someone had seen us drifting slowly across a busy harbor and was nice enough to warn us as we were literally moments from hitting a really nasty concrete dock.    Our rescuers advised us that it was “very dangerous”.  No S#*T Sherlock.

Like the well-oiled machine that we are, we picked up the anchor, which was hanging straight down and moved back to the first place we had anchored to try our luck again.  We still wanted to be on the dock but now the wind was blowing too hard and directly onto the dock.  As the docks are concrete and massive, we didn’t want to risk it.   Enough excitement for one day.

Anyway, I set an anchor alarm and we still had a nervous night.  No more anchoring for us so this morning, in light winds, we tied up to the dock all by ourselves as there wasn’t anyone from the marina responding to help.  No loss of life.

Interestingly, you pay in Cuba for both anchoring and for tying up at a dock.  The fee to anchor is about .25 per foot/day and .45 foot/day on the dock, water and electricity included.    That’s $21.15 per day on the dock or only about $9 a day more than anchoring.   Such a deal, Cuban style.

So, what about money?  We had been told that the Cuban tourist peso or CUC had an exchange rate of about $.85 Canadian and about the same for American and that the “Greenback”, on top of the exchange rate, was also “taxed” at a rate of about 20%.   For that reason, we were advised to bring Canadian, which we did.  Keep in mind that if we run out of funds while we are here there is absolutely no way to get more money from our account.

That’s what we were told…  So, here’s what actually happens.  Canadian trades at about $.55 per CUC and U.S. at $.85 CUC.  That doesn’t sound too bad but we traded U.S. for Canadian in FL at $.85.   Anyway, the math confounds me but all I know is that will have to be very careful not to run out of $$ before we leave the country in about 6 weeks as we have less than we thought to spend.  Fingers crossed.

The marina and area is beautiful if quite run down.  It’s clear that the Cubans take good care of what they have and try to make the most of their circumstances.  Everything is old but tidy.

There are ferry boats constantly moving about, jammed to the gills with “commuters”.  So, how many life jackets are there on board?  I don’t expect that the Cuban Coast Guard is charged with policing that particular detail.

It’s illegal for a Cubans to own a boat that’s more than about 20’ long and there are plenty of fisherman out working the waters, some floating around on nothing but an inner tube.    Most of the boats are inboards, probably repurposed land based engines putting along noisily.

I guess that’s about all for now as we have to get ready to head into town, a 15 minute cab ride.  Our driver Noel, will take us there and come back later today, with many stops along the way for $20 total for much of the day.  How much is that after the exchange rate?  Hmm…

Oh yeah, we have seen a few great cars.  How about this Karman Giha?   What a paint job.  Love the rear view mirrors.  I’ll bet that this would get lots of second looks at a car show in the U.S.

Welcome to Cuba, indeed.  It’s good to be here.

It’s early on Sunday morning and we are just about abreast of Guantanamo Bay on the southeastern end of Cuba and still about 50 miles from Santiago de Cuba, our destination where we plan on clearing in later today.

As I mentioned in my last post, we opted to skip stopping along the way and decided to continue on directly to Cuba, finishing the entire 350 mile run in a single leg. That turned out to be a good decision but has made for a long trip of nearly three days. Seas were mostly calm and wind light much of the way but that meant that we ran the engine a good deal of the time.

However, as I write this we are romping along at 7+ kts in less than 15kts of apparent wind. It’s a very nice sail and all at about 12 degrees of heel.

As we approached the Windward Passage yesterday afternoon it was impressive to see just how many ships converged on this area from everywhere. We saw a tanker headed to Houston, a cruise ship heading to Aruba as well as a number of medium sized, 500-600′ cargo ships that were on their way to deliver cargo in the Caribbean all converging on the same area simultaneously.

Chris Parker had warned us about confused seas in the passage when the wind pipes up out of the North East and based on last night, I’d bet that it gets plenty nasty indeed. There was a fairly strong current heading north and with about 15kts of wind opposing it, we definitely experienced some pretty confused seas. It was tough to get a good feel for it as it was pitch dark, but I’d say that it felt like waves were coming from every which way and the boat was lurching around quite a bit. And with the wind from behind and the boat slamming from side to side, Brenda wasn’t a happy camper.

By rounding eastern tip of Cuba after dark, we didn’t get an opportunity to see the mountains that dominate that part of the island, rising some 2,000′ above sea level. The water drops off very quickly to thousands of feet deep less than a mile from shore so you don’t have to be very far from land to be sure of enough water. I stayed offshore by about 2 miles and the coastline was positively dark with almost no lights on shore with exception of the occasional lighthouse, so I had no visual reference to see just how close I was.

As I write this we are passing Guantanamo Bay, the U.S. Naval base in Cuba. I can only imagine how much having us there must piss off the Castros. I’d guess that they frown on the base hooking into the local electrical grid which would explain why there are a number of huge wind generators on the adjacent hills near the base. From the time we approached the exclusion zone, a small Navy boat shadowed us to be sure that we didn’t do anything out of order. They abruptly stopped when the reached the western end of their “zone”.

I expect that there was someone from the Cuban military watching them watch us. “I see you!”, no make that “I see you watching the gringos”.

After spending time in the Bahamas that boasts it’s highest “mountain” at about 200′, It’s really impressive to see the mountains of Cuba rising several thousand feet right up from the shoreline. The landscape is quite stunning and in spite of being on the dry side of the island, it’s quite green.

Brenda did very well with the motion of the boat over the last few days however, as we approached the passage last evening and it’s very confused following seas, not so great. I don’t think that she will be begging for more time there any time soon.

Well, today should be an interesting day as we go through the hours long clearing in process. I expect that it will be a very different experience than what we have experienced in the Bahamas where everything is finalized in about 15-20 minutes. I have been told that it takes forever here (they love process) with a parade of officials coming and going as they go through the boat and our paperwork leaving plenty of time for chat too.

I also understand that there is a whole host of foods, such as chicken, eggs and citrus that aren’t allowed. However I read that someone was able to avoid tossing everything by wrapping each item in plastic wrap.
I’ll report back on that one.

Well, perhaps clearing in will be a topic for tomorrow’s post. Until then…

It’s Saturday morning and we have begun the second day of our passage to Cuba.  At the point when we had been underway for 24 hours, we found ourselves about 50 miles from Great Inagua and about 75 miles from the eastern most point of Cuba.

Earlier today I spoke with Chris Parker, the weather router, and asked if he would recommend that we skip Great Inagua and just keep going to Cuba for a total nonstop run of about 350 miles.  His recommendation was to continue on and head directly for the Windward Passage as he feels that we will enjoy moderate winds behind the beam that will carry us all the way to our destination on Sunday afternoon.

For the first 24 hours we motor-sailed as the wind was just too light and clocked in direction from SE to SW and ultimately settling in to the 10kt NE wind we are enjoying now.  Pandora sails well with apparent wind near 10kts with the larger forward sail, the Code Zero.  It’s a huge light sail and can’t be flown in more than about 14kts apparent.  As I write this we are sailing along on a beam reach with about 8-10kts and are doing between 5-7kts through the water.  Fortunately, there isn’t much current to speak of so we are making good time and staying near our target speed of 6.5kts SOG much of the time.

Last evening was uneventful and Brenda stood watch for about half of the night, by herself so I could get some rest although it was pretty warm down below with the engine running.  This is the first time that Brenda has been underway for more than 24 hours and I have to say that she is doing great.  The fact that it was a clear evening with no moon made for some fabulous star gazing, one of her favorite pastimes.  At one point I came up on deck to check on everything and found her tipped back in her chair listening to music while watching the stars set on the western horizon.  That passed the time nicely for her and although she’s a bit queasy now and then, she has a great attitude.

After a hot 24 hours of being underway we both felt pretty grubby so we took showers in the cockpit this morning.  With Brenda reclining in one of the adjustable deck cushions, I washed her hair and then she showered out in the breeze.  Me too…  We both feel very refreshed. It’s very private out here as there is absolutely nothing within 40 miles of us in every direction except an occasional ship heading north from the Caribbean.

I have to say that I am still a bit surprised that we expect to arrive in Cuba on Sunday after so many months of preparation and to be one of the few American’s doing so by boat legally after more than 50 years is a big deal.

Brenda appreciates this and has been very supportive all along the way.   She wrote a funny post yesterday afternoon while we were underway (that’s a big deal in itself) that’s worth reading.  You can see it here. (put in www.argoknot.com link here)

Yes, this is a big deal and I am so pleased to be sharing it with Brenda.  Who knew, way back in Highschool, when we first met, that we’d be doing this together now.   And, speaking of Highschool, we both wish that we’d taken Spanish as it sure would have come in handy on this trip.

Indeed, we are very close to arriving in Cuba and after all the planning and setbacks, I’d argue that we are WAY closer than half way there.

Well,  today at 06:15 we hoisted our anchor and headed out for Cuba, finally, after months of work and head scratching on how to do it legally and safely.

So, off we go and our next landfall will be Great Inagua where we will spend the night before continuing on to Cuba Sunday morning.

As we left George Town today, threading our way between electronic way-points, as there are very few navigation aids or buoys anywhere in the Bahamas, our electronic chart plotter started acting up, rebooting every few minutes and freezing the screen.  We were blind, at least electronically blind.  Fortunately, we have backup charts on our i-Pad as well as paper charts but the idea of loosing our primary plotter at the helm was very bad news.  We continued on while I tried to figure out what had happened and after about an hour I decided to call Raymarine Tech Support for a solution.

Fortunately, The Bahamas have excellent cell coverage so I was able to get someone on the first try.  The solution, it seems, is that we somehow suffered a voltage spike, perhaps when I started the engine, that had sent the plotter into an endless loop and the only way to solve it was to do a “factory reset”.  Simple enough but all of our routes and waypoints were gone.  Not the end of the world as I can put them in again.  And that’s far, far better than loosing our Radar, AIS and electronic charts.   However, it’s resolved now but not without a few, well more than a few, nervous moments.

There has been a lot of discussion over the last few years about the question of the value of paper charts in an era of electronic charting and today’s experience is just one more piece of evidence that paper is here to stay, at least aboard Pandora for years to come.  Call me old fashioned, but today is not the first time I have had my plotter act up and I shudder at the thought of what would have happened if the hardware instead of a simple “reset” as there aren’t many places to have equipment fixed in the middle of “frigging” nowhere

Anyway, problem solved for now.

A little while ago I spoke by radio with my friend George on Trumpeter and he told me that he and Nancy had visited Great Inagua many years ago and had been amazed by a huge number of parrots that they had encountered on shore, making a huge racket.  I can’t recall ever seeing a parrot in the Bahamas so I guess it’s very different there, so much further south and close to the Caribbean.  The island is also known for their huge flocks of pink flamingos.

Interestingly, Morton Salt has a huge plant on the island where they harvest salt in enormous evaporation pans where ocean water is pumped into shallow “lakes” on an industrial scale where the sun does it’s work and all that’s left is salt.   This part of the Bahamas gets very little rain so production of salt by evaporation is practical, unlike other areas of the norther Bahamas that are too wet, if still arid by our standards.

As I write this we are making our way south along the eastern side of Long Island.  In a few hours we will pass the southern tip and head out into the ocean for the over night portion of our trip, prior to landing in Great Inagua on Saturday afternoon.

When we are making passage, we settle into a routine that involves reading, preparing meals napping and some boat chores.  As Brenda and I will have to spell each other during the over night hours to be sure that someone is “on watch” at all times, we try to take it easy and prepare simple meals.

My favorite spot to read when the weather is settled.I will say that it’s pretty hot and a bit uncomfortable down below.  Unfortunately, because of the risk of spray getting down below through open hatches, we have to keep the boat well buttoned up.  We do have fans but with the engine located under the galley in the main cabin, there is extra heat down below so it’s pretty warm.

There is also very little wind which is a bummer so we are motor-sailing with both sails and motor to keep moving.   The weather forecast calls for light conditions for much of our trip meaning that we will be under power most of the time, at least until we get to Great Inagua.

We should pick up some good wind on Sunday as we pass through the Windward Passage between Haiti and Cuba prior to turning west along Cuba’s south coast until our arrival in Santiago de Cuba on Monday.    Our landfall is about 30 miles past Guantanamo Bay.

It would be nice to be able to sail but there is a risk that we will encounter very strong winds upwards of 30kts going through the Windward Passage if we don’t get through there by mid day on Monday.  And, even though the winds would be behind us, we have been advised to press on as the seas there can be quite confused with a strong NE wind.

Well, that’s about all I have to report but I thought that I’d put up a post while I still have cell coverage.   After we pass the southern end of Long Island later today we will loose coverage until we get to Great Inagua.

I expect that I’ll post again sometime on Sunday morning.

Until then…