It’s Thursday morning, I just got off the phone with my contact at the Department of Commerce and it sounds like I will get word on my application requesting to “export” Pandora to Cuba in about a week.  That’s good news as that application is one of two key parts of the puzzle regarding our hoped for visit to Cuba this winter.  Based on our conversation, I am optimistic.

As you may recall, another key question in all of this has been the regulations on visiting Cuba from a third country, in our case, The Bahamas.  Our plan, for some very practical reasons, such as the prevailing winds, mean that we’d like to travel to Cuba from the Bahamas, head south, transit the Windward Passage and explore the southern coast of Cuba prior to visiting Havana and heading back to the US.  The good news is that as of November the rules governing travel to Cuba by private vessel were further loosened.  In the recent past, you were required to travel to Cuba directly from the US and return directly to a US port, without a stop in any other country.  Now, that restriction has been lifted as reported in a very recent document from the Treasury.    If you want to read the whole thing, you can refer to item #32 but this is what is says and it’s a major change.

“32. As an authorized traveler, may I travel from a third country to Cuba and from Cuba to a third country? Yes, a person subject to U.S. jurisdiction engaging in authorized travel-related transactions may travel to Cuba from a third country or to a third country from Cuba. Persons subject to U.S. jurisdiction traveling to and from Cuba via a third country may only do so if their travel-related transactions are authorized by a general or specific license issued by OFAC, and are subject to the same restrictions and requirements as persons traveling directly from the United States.”

As I have mentioned, I need to gain approval to “export” Pandora as well as get a formal “general license” for me and Brenda to visit for longer than two weeks. For a visit of two weeks or less, you can do so under a “self directed license” as long as you believe that you satisfy the requirements for that category of travel. However, you must keep records for five years following your visit and be prepared to share them with Uncle Sam if he asks.

As far as approval to “export”  Pandora is concerned, that’s looking positive and I expect to hear in about a week.  fingers crossed.  It will likely take longer for a decision on our application under the “Journalistic activity” statute but we have our fingers crossed.    In case you are interested, here’s the wording for the current statute within that category.

“9. Who is generally authorized to engage in travel and travel-related transactions for “journalistic activity”? OFAC has issued an expanded general license that incorporates prior specific licensing policy and authorizes, subject to conditions, travel-related transactions and other transactions that are directly incident to journalistic activities in Cuba. Among other things, this general license authorizes, subject to conditions, full-time journalists, supporting broadcast or technical personnel, and freelance journalists to travel to Cuba. The traveler’s schedule of activities must not include free time or recreation in excess of that consistent with a full-time schedule. An entire group does not qualify for the general license merely because some members of the group qualify individually. For a complete description of what this general license authorizes and the restrictions that apply, please see 31 CFR § 515.563.”

In my last post I included a short video of travel in Cuba on an “ultra low budget”. I’ll admit that it highlighted a travel approach that was a bit rougher than Brenda would likely be interested in (roaches are not her thing) so today I’ll highlight two videos that I think are more her speed.  To that point, my brother Bill has questioned me as to why we want to go to Cuba so hopefully these clips will answer that question.  Are you listening Bill?

Architecture has always fascinated me, in part because my late Father was publisher of an architectural magazine for many years and the possibility of seeing colonial architecture, some in rough shape for sure, is high on my list.

As no blog post is complete without a picture or video, it’s the whole “picture is worth a thousand word thing”, I thought that you might enjoy this short five minute clip of traveling around Cuba and it’s architecture, believed by many to be some of the finest from the Colonial Period in the Caribbean.  The segment also touches on Santiago de Cuba. the second largest city in Cuba which has been designated by UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) as a World Heritage Site, for it’s cultural and architectural significance.  It’s about 35 miles west of Guantanamo Bay (a place we CAN’T visit) and  likely our first stop on the southern coast.  There is also discussion of Trinidad de Cuba which we hope to visit as well.  I was also intrigued by a PBS report on the state of architecture in Cuba in htis segment.  Check it out.Pretty amazing stuff and I sure hope that the opening of Cuba and the development what will quickly occur, doesn’t destroy the “time capsule” charm of today’s Cuba.

Oh yeah.  One more thing Bill. Here are the rules about bringing rum to the US from Cuba.  If I were you, I’d be cautiously optimistic about there being some Cuban rum in your future.

“30. Can I purchase Cuban-origin cigars and/or Cuban-origin rum or other alcohol while traveling in Cuba? Persons authorized to travel to Cuba may purchase alcohol and tobacco products while in Cuba for personal consumption while there. Authorized travelers may return to the United States with UPDATED NOVEMBER 25, 2015 8 up to $100 worth of alcohol and/or tobacco products acquired in Cuba in accompanied baggage, for personal use only.”

Let’s hope that it’s cheap so I can afford to bring some back.  Cheap or not, I’ll just have to work hard to focus on the “personal consumption while there” part while I am visiting.  Boy, I sure hope that we get to go.  Uncle Sam, are you listening?

And, if all of this isn’t enough of a reason to visit.   For now, Cuba is one of very few spots you might want to visit where you won’t find a single Starbucks or McDonalds.  Now that is something to look forward to.

Let’s hope that we get to go soon.

 

 

 

It’s been about two weeks, I think,  since I began the process of applying for a license to visit Cuba with Brenda aboard Pandora.  As you may recall, visiting under one or more of the “12 rules” is fairly simple now provided that you don’t plan to stay for more than two weeks.  Most Americans visiting these days do so as part of a tour and the operator takes care of all of the work so you can just board the charter plane and head down.  Simple, right? It is actually, unless you want to go by private boat and stay longer than two weeks.  In that case, not simple at all.

As word has gotten around about Brenda’s and my plan to visit Cuba for a month or two, the most common reaction is “wow, that sounds terrific”.   However, some have then gone on to question us on exactly what our plans are and if we are going to hire a “guide” to show us around.  When we say, “no, we are just going to visit and make our way around by ourselves” they tend to get a look on their faces that speaks “Really? Better you than me”.  And, when they learn that we don’t speak Spanish, well, it’s more like “REALLY? You’re nuts!”  I do take some consulation knowing that some of these folks are the same ones that say “do you sleep on your boat every night, all winter?”.

I guess we will have to see if “WOW, THAT’s SO COOL” carries the day or if it turns out to be, well, not so cool in the end.  This plan isn’t completely without precedent, as we visited Portugal for a month last year (y plane) and that went fine even though we didn’t speak the language and only had the first few days of travel and hotel planned out prior to leaving the US.  Brenda handled all the bookings, on the fly, and it went swimmingly.  You go girl!

Those that know Brenda are aware that she doesn’t exactly bill herself as an “adventure traveler”.    I’d say that she is just that and more when compared to many of the folks we know who favor tours for their international travel. Somehow, driving from place to place on a “hermetically sealed bus” with a bunch of other Americans, leaves us a bit cool.  Perhaps it’s just because we are too cheap for all of that.  For sure, that’s a big part of it as by our way of thinking, we can travel for a month or two, or more, aboard Pandora for what a week to ten days of “real travel” would cost.  However, as Brenda has reminded me from time to time, that doesn’t count the cost of Pandora.  Point taken Brenda but we won’t dwell on that right now.

However, before we get all lubed (my word, not Brenda’s) up about going to Cuba, we have to get State Department approval.  No make that approval from State and the Commerce department.  I am told that it’s going to take another month to find out how our application has been viewed.    I did reference our blogs in my application, along with other writing and speaking that we do, and it’s hard to know if posts like this will help or hinder our request. Does Uncle Sam have a sense of humor.  Not sure…

Another issue that we will have to face relates to where you must depart from to go to Cuba.  We may be required to begin and end our visit from US soil without an interim stop in another foreign country.  And, as we would like to first travel to the Bahamas and then on to the southern coast of Cuba and back to the US, that may prove to be a problem for us.

We do plan on spending time in the Bahamas prior to heading to Cuba so if we are told that we have to head back to the US prior to going to Havana, that’s going to pose a logistical problem for us as it will entail a lot of backtracking.

I am hopeful that the folks that are reviewing our application understand that our desire to visit Cuba includes the “real Cuba” which means visiting some of the more rural areas.  Including the southern coast is a must for us and going there from Havana, against the strong easterly trade winds just isn’t practical.   I’d love to write about the things that we encounter along the coast and contrast that to what the more cosmopolitan Havana has to offer.

And speaking of “real Cuba”, I ran into this video by a couple that produce the “Naked” series of travel videos.  Yes, I will admit that the title did attract my attention.  However, more to the point, they travel the world on a tight budget and tell their story.   And, the story they tell about Cuba is a compelling one indeed. I guess that we will just have to wait and see what “State” and “Commerce” decide to do about all of this.

However, I do so hope that they give us the “go ahead” to do the trip and will let us do so in the the way we have planned.  Besides, I “sort of” have approval from Brenda to do the 350nm run from the Bahamas to the south coast with me. Amazing.

Anyway, I guess all of this will become clear when Uncle Sam gives us the word.  I sure hope that it’s a simple “sure, go for it”.  Then, we will see what Brenda really thinks.

Fingers crossed.

It’s Wednesday morning and today when I checked my e-mail, I was greeted by a note from Damon the President of the New Mexico chapter of the Navy League, sharing a copy of the League’s quarterly newsletter. Damon is the guy I have been in touch with as a result of my chance encounter with the USS New Mexico submarine off of New London back in early September.

I wrote a post about that day and if you missed that post, here’s a link.  It was an amazing experience.  As a contrast, when I was taking Pandora south a month or so ago, I was off of GA and was hailed by a Navy ship on the horizon that told me to divert so that I wouldn’t pass within something like 7 miles, a very different experience than the one I had with the USS New Mexico.   Clearly, the “rules” are a bit more lax in the confines of Long Island Sound. Or, perhaps they wanted to get a better look at Pandora.  Yes, I’m going with that.

Anyway, Damon passed me copy of the New Mexico Navy League newsletter and directed me to page 9 that includes one of the photos that I took of the boat as she passed.  How cool is that.  They even included a link to my blog. Now, that’s “promotion”…

Here’s the page with my “contribution”.   But wait, there’s (possibly) more.  Get this…  I might get to go on a “day sail” aboard the USS New Mexico sometime in January or February, out of FL where she will be visiting.  Damon did tell me that it’s a bit of a long shot as there are lots of “friends” of the New Mexico, like the Governor of NM, that will no doubt be in line way, way ahead of me.  But hey, you never know as I am getting pretty good at the whole “long shot thing”.  Now that I think of it, perhaps I should be buying lottery tickets.  “Bob, Bob, down boy, down boy.  Don’t get to full of yourself!”

Whatever… As I was saying, a ride on a nuclear sub?  Now, that would be a hoot and a half.  The skipper of the SV Pandora meeting the skipper of the USS New Mexico.  You can’t make this stuff up.

I have to say that all of this makes me feel warm all over, which I really, really need as it’s getting chilly, no make that %$#@#$% COLD, here in CT.

It’s Monday morning and Thanksgiving has come and gone.  It was great fun but now might be a good time for me to cutting back to part time eating for a while or I risk increasing myself from ultralight to full displacement cruising mode.  It was fun though.

Anyway, time to put up the Christmas decorations, if only for a few weeks.  After that, on to Pandora and a winter of cruising.

Since my last post, I have put some time into finding out more regarding the rules for American’s that wish to spend time in Cuba.  With the “warming”, if you can call it that, of relations with Cuba, American’s can visit Cuba without a permit, for one or more of the 12 reasons (check back to a previous post for those) but to stay longer requires more formal approval and the filing of what is called a SNAP-R form.  It’s a sort of export permit for the boat in order to keep her in Cuba for more than the two week limit.  The same process applies for Pandora as would be needed if I wanted to export a shipload of grain to Cuba so some of the paperwork is a bit hard to understand for mere mortals like me.  Fortunately, I was able to find someone, Mark, in that department, who walked me through the application.  Sound like fun?  Feel inclined to get one yourself?  You can find more information  at this site.

I have applied under the Journalism category and have been told that this process, for which I have been told I have a good possibility of being approved, should take about 6 weeks.   I guess that our final plans for visiting Cuba will have to wait until we hear back.

For now, we continue to consider options and research the possibilities for our visit.  The two major options are.

Option one:  Spend some time in the Bahamas, we particularly want to visit the Berry Islands and spend some time in Great Harbor Cay at the marina there.   After that, we would head south along the Exumas and then on to Georgetown.  From there we would sail the 250 miles south to the Windward Passage between the eastern end of Cuba and Haiti where we would enter the Caribbean and turn west to explore the southern coast.  We would spend about a month exploring the south side of the island, round the western coast and head on to Havana and Marina Hemmingway.  After that, back to the US where I’d rendezvous with crew for my run to CT and home.

Option two:  Spend time in the Bahamas and then head back to Florida.   From there we would continue south through the Keys, make the 90 mile crossing to Havana and spend a month exploring the island using Marina Hemmingway as a base of operations.  That’s surely the easier option if perhaps a little less interesting.   However, we weren’t too happy with our time in the Keys from last winter and spending a few weeks in the Keys again leaves us a little flat.   However, we could also continue beyond Key West and explore the Dry Tortugas and Fort Jefferson before jumping across to Havana.  That would be fun.

I wrote about the Tortugas last year when we were thinking about visiting.  We opted to skip but there’s always this season.   This link is to the Park Service and gives a good history of the fort. As another thought on all of this is that our friends Dick and Anne on the cat Nati have expressed an interest in going to Cuba too and seem to favor option one.   We buddy-boated with them a few years ago in the Bahamas and had a great time. They have one of those funny boats with two hulls but we try not to hold that against them. Lots to think about, I’d say and However, for now I’d better get cracking on preparing my presentation for the folks at the Essex Yacht Club next week. I’ll be talking about our cruises down the Intra Coastal Waterway and Bahamas.   Perhaps my talk will inspire them to take the plunge and head out cruising.

And as far as my discussions with Uncle Sam are concerned and the quest for my own personal SNAP-R, it’s plenty complicated but I am of the opinion that if it’s simple it’s probably not worth doing anyway.    Not completely confident that Brenda shares that belief but that’s another story.

Yes, life can be complex but it’s sure interesting.   That it is, indeed.

 

It’s Wednesday morning and 25 degrees here in CT.  Burrr….

With just a month to go until Brenda and I rejoin Pandora in FL, I am thinking about what we’ll do and where we’ll go when we head to warmer climes.    All of this has me recalling our past visits to the Bahamas.  Yesterday I saw a very nice video of the Bahamas Sloop Tari Anne.  It was three years ago, the year that Brenda and I made our first run south, that I was fortunate enough to crew on a “Class B” sloop at the Little Farmer’s Cay Regatta.  It was a trip, let me tell you.  I wrote about this wild, and totally fun, experience here.   What a hoot…

Seeing this video last night brought back so many memories and has made me long for clear blue waters and warm breezes.  The video was filmed in Georgetown Exuma, a beautiful harbor in the southern Bahamas where as many as 500 boats congregate every winter when cruisers converge from all over the world to enjoy the protected waters of the largest harbor in the Bahamas.  I assume that it was summer when Tari Anne was filmed as the harbor is all but empty.   Note that you can watch the video in HD by clicking on the icon in the lower right and choosing, you guessed it, HD.
In my last post I wrote, with barely contained excitement, about the possibility of visiting Cuba this winter.   I learned after speaking with someone from the State Department, that Brenda and I could visit under the “journalism” category of travel.  As a next step I called my friend Frank, author of numerous Cruising Guides to the Caribbean. Frank is a prolific writer and maintains a site of FREE cruising guides, brilliantly named www.freecruisingguides.com.  He has written, quite a few guides on all aspects of getting to and cruising the islands of the Caribbean.  Anyway, I asked him about the best way to combine a trip to the Bahamas and Cuba in the same season.  His answer was, predictably, “well it depends”.

My first thought was that we would make a run over to the Bahamas, work our way south to Georgetown, on to the Ragged Islands and then jump over to the north coast of Cuba.  Sounds simple enough.  NOT!  Frank told me that the north coast is very rugged with almost no marinas to stop at.  Actually, between the eastern tip of Cuba and Havana, on the western end, there is only one marina and it’s in the middle of nowhere.   Setting aside the rugged coastline problem, the Cuban Government doesn’t allow anchoring out or landing on the north shore which really limits your options. Besides, the waters are pretty rough and, to make matters worse, it’s a lee shore.  Brenda doesn’t like lee shores and Frank reminded me of this too.

As an alternative, Frank suggested that I get crew, assuming that Brenda wouldn’t do the run from the Bahamas (a long shot at best), to join me in Georgetown and run south through the Windward Passage, the body of water between the eastern tip of Cuba and Haiti, a run of 250 miles.   It’s not as far as I thought, which would probably only mean one night at sea.  We’d have a fair current of 1-2 knots and it’s a beam to broad reach the whole way. After transiting the passage we’d hang an right and make the 250 mile run to Jamaica where I could loose crew, rejoin Brenda and make the 80 mile over to the south coast of Cuba with Brenda.

Another option would be to just make Cuba our first stop.  Brenda flies and meets us there and have crew leave by flying from Cuba to the Dominican Republic (DR), and then back to the US.  However, this option does mean that Brenda would have to fly from Georgetown to Nassau, from there to Florida, on to the DR and then to Cuba to rejoin us, a trip that I expect would take about the same amount of time as her sailing there with us.

Editors note:   As you can imagine, Brenda hasn’t immediately jumped at the “let’s cruise 250 miles to Cuba from the Bahamas” option.  Her reaction was more akin to “I am going to have to think hard about that so don’t push it Bob…”, delivered with a stern steely eye glare.   I was encouraged by that.  Very encouraged.  You know me, “ever hopeful”.

Once in Cuba, we would cruise the south coast, continue our way west, round the western tip of Cuba and go on to Havana where we could jump the 90 miles to the Keys, on to Miami and home.  Isn’t that simple?  Yes, excepting the thorny part of getting Brenda to agree.  Hmm…

Another option is to run down the FL coast, make the 90 mile jump directly to Havana and not cruise the south coast this season.    However, Frank said that the south coast is not to be missed.    So many choices.

So, what’s a cruiser to do?  Frank can provide answers!  Along with the free guides that Frank publishes, he has also written a book “A thinking Man’s Guide to Voyaging South:  The Many Facets of Caribbean Cruising“, which is available as for Kindle @ $9.99 from Amazon. This book describes, in great detail, the two options that Frank laid out for me, along with lots more information.  I downloaded it today and will let you know what I learn.

Yes, there’s lots to think about but there’s one thing for sure.  We are heading south and the water is going to clear, blue, warm and I can’t wait.  Did I mention that it’s 25 degrees outside?  Yuck.  No make that double YUCK.