{"id":5190,"date":"2016-01-07T12:21:58","date_gmt":"2016-01-07T12:21:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/?p=5190"},"modified":"2016-01-07T12:36:54","modified_gmt":"2016-01-07T12:36:54","slug":"do-laundry-learn-about-cuba-from-kiwis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/?p=5190","title":{"rendered":"Do your laundry. Learn about Cuba from Kiwis"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s Thursday morning and today looks like the day, after a week here, that we will be peeling ourselves \u00a0away from “Velcro Beach”, that’s Vero Beach to landlubbers and even “CLODS”, Cruisers Living on Dirt, to head further south. \u00a0Along the way \u00a0we will have to make a quick stop to have few more things done to Pandora however, just about everything is shipshape now, which is good. \u00a0 I am particularly excited about exercising my now-up-to-good-RPM engine which is working so much better now that it’s been properly tuned.<\/p>\n

Yesterday, dancing between the raindrops, I decided to do laundry and headed with a massive load into the marina. \u00a0Yes, it’s been raining nearly every day since we got here a week ago and I have to say that it’s getting a bit old. \u00a0At least we can take comfort in the fact that its not snow. \u00a0When I check the weather each day there is always at least a 20% chance of rain in the forecast \u00a0and that often seems to morph into a 100% as the heavens open up in the afternoon.<\/p>\n

I can just see the weather guy sitting in his office pouring over weather data and proclaiming “20%” only to glance out the window to see that it’s now raining cats and dogs and then scrambling for his computer to change the forecast. \u00a0Yup, 100%. \u00a0What a great job when you almost never have to be right and don’t get fired.<\/p>\n

Of course, that means my 600 watts of solar panels don’t do a whole lot \u00a0on rainy days and I am sure glad to have my little portable Honda generator to top things up and heat hot water for showers. \u00a0 Key point: \u00a0Brenda doesn’t like cold showers but then you probably already knew that.<\/p>\n

Anyway, as I stood around watching the washing machine rattle and spin, I overheard a “doing her own laundry lady” talking about the “wonderful cruising on Cuba’s south coast”. \u00a0 In spite of my pathological shyness, I jumped right in to ask questions. \u00a0It turns out that Jules is here in the US from New Zealand with her husband Gary and live aboard their 38′ Ingrid Ketch. \u00a0They cruised extensively throughout Cuba’s south coast this past summer. \u00a0Perfect, just what I was looking for!<\/p>\n

Of course, I immediately asked her if she and Gary could come to Pandora for a drink so that we could talk about their visits to Cuba. \u00a0We have so many questions. \u00a0I also had it in the back of my mind (actually right in front) that perhaps they could speak about their experiences at the SSCA Gam that I am planning for June in Essex if perhaps they found themselves in the area. \u00a0 \u00a0Good news… They might very well be there as their travel plans probably include New England this summer. Fingers crossed.<\/p>\n

So, Jules and Gary came to Pandora last night and patiently spent 2 \u00a01\/2 hours telling us all sorts of great info about their visit. \u00a0I’d love to give you a detailed blow by blow of what they had to say but I don’t think that you could wade through that much “Cuba stuff” so let’s just agree that it was fascinating.<\/p>\n

Ok, ok…. Just a few things that they mentioned…<\/p>\n

I had recently learned that, as Americans, we would only be granted a 30 day Visa when we checked into Cuba and would have to leave the country for at least 24 hours prior to clearing back in. \u00a0 The option that they suggested was to go to either Jamaica or the Caiman Islands, each an overnight sail from Cuba. \u00a0 We would check in there, stay for a few days, and then return to Cuba, get a new visa and continue our trip. \u00a0 Makes sense.<\/p>\n

They went on and on about how wonderful and welcoming the Cuban people are and how great it is to visit the more rural towns and cities along the way. \u00a0They did not spend much time in Havana because the other areas were just to wonderful and worth exploring to cut things short. \u00a0They did suggest that we leave Pandora for several days and travel inland to stay in some of the many small inns that dot the countryside.<\/p>\n

Another question I had been fretting over is about staying in marinas \u00a0as when traveling through Cuba by boat, you are required to go from marina to marina. At each port, departures and arrivals must be cleared with the Guarda Frontera, the Cuban Coast Guard. \u00a0It is illegal to just stop along the way and go ashore.<\/p>\n

Brenda and I much prefer to be anchored out away from bugs, both flying and crawling and the idea of tying up at marinas that are often described as rough and in great need of repair is a total non-starter for us. \u00a0I had read that, with the permission of the Guarda Frontera, you could anchor in many harbors for a small fee, usually about $.25\/ft per night but only if the marina was full. \u00a0Not so, it seems, as Gary and Jules cruised the coast for many months and almost never tied up in a marina. \u00a0Brenda and I were relieved to hear that.<\/p>\n

They patiently went through our three chart books and marked them up with points of interest and even included the names of people who could help us along the way.<\/p>\n

We wish that Gary and Jules could have stayed longer and we are hopeful that they will come see us this spring when we return to CT as Gary has some work planned in New England this summer so being at our Gam might work out for them. \u00a0That would be terrific and as an added bonus, their NZ accents will add an exotic touch to the event.<\/p>\n

They maintain a blog<\/a> and posted when they visited Cuba last summer. \u00a0 Check it out,it’s worth reading. \u00a0 Our visit was just terrific and helped fill in a lot of blanks about Cuba for us. \u00a0And, if that’s not enough, perhaps I have found another important piece of the puzzle as I look for speakers for our \u00a0SSCA Summer Solstice Gam in Essex next June. \u00a0Heck, that would make them a “toofer” and that’s even better.
\n\"\"We were so focused on Cuba that we didn’t have much time to get to know more about the two of them but we did learn that Gary is a professional sailor with some America’s Cup campaigns under his belt. \u00a0Perhaps he will enjoy meeting Tom Whidden, \u00a0a member of the America’s Cup Hall of Fame, at the Essex Yacht Club. \u00a0Tom is our Commodore and will be speaking at our gam about the current Cup races.<\/p>\n

It is an amazingly small world, isn’t it? \u00a0 \u00a0Yes, and I LOVE doing laundry.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s Thursday morning and today looks like the day, after a week here, that we will be peeling ourselves \u00a0away from “Velcro Beach”, that’s Vero Beach to landlubbers and even “CLODS”, Cruisers Living on Dirt, to head further south. \u00a0Along the way \u00a0we will have to make a quick stop to have few more things […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","_s2mail":"","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5190","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5190","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5190"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5190\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5199,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5190\/revisions\/5199"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5190"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5190"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5190"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}