{"id":5215,"date":"2016-01-16T13:54:01","date_gmt":"2016-01-16T13:54:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/?p=5215"},"modified":"2016-01-16T13:54:01","modified_gmt":"2016-01-16T13:54:01","slug":"cuba-bound-who-knew","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/?p=5215","title":{"rendered":"Cuba bound. Who knew?"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/em>It\u2019s Saturday morning here in Ft Lauderdale and it is shaping up to be a really nice day. \u00a0That\u2019s particularly good news as the weather has there hasn\u2019t been much sun here since we arrived in FL in late December.\u00a0 It\u2019s been very cloudy and rainy with temperatures lower than you\u2019d expect for \u201csunny Florida\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0 And no, I don\u2019t expect any sympathy from my \u201cbuds\u201d up north who are experiencing a \u201creal\u201d winter.\u00a0\u00a0 However, you can take some solace in knowing that while you were snoozing all warm and snug in your bed the other night, I was out in the cockpit for hours on anchor watch lest we drag in the squalls and strong winds that roared through the anchorage at \u201c0-dark-30\u201d.<\/p>\n

Anyway, today is a beautiful day and makes up for all the rain that kept us cooped up on Pandora yesterday.\u00a0 This is the view that greeted me today as the sun rose over Ft Lauderdale.\u00a0 Beautiful.\u00a0 What a difference a day makes.\"\"Rain or not, yesterday was a big day as it was Brenda\u2019s \u201creal\u201d birthday and the culmination of the \u201ccelebratory period\u201d that began back in November when I threw a party dubbed as \u201cBrenda\u2019s not even close to 60 years old, birthday party\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0 We had to begin celebrating early as I wanted to be sure that she\u2019d enjoy her special day with old friends, well not really that old, while we were still in CT, knowing that we\u2019d be aboard Pandora on her \u201creal\u201d birthday.\u00a0\u00a0 It is worth mentioning that she shares that day each year with Martin Luther King, as well as the national holiday that is held in their honor.<\/p>\n

As we watched the weather forecast for the week we also saw that her \u201creal birthday, day\u201d, yesterday, was likely to be rainy, and it sure was, so we celebrated ashore for \u201chappy hour\u201d a few days ago.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 This photo is supposed to document that we are more \u201chip\u201d than old with the stage lighting pulsing in the background.\u00a0 Not sure that the photo offers definitive proof of \u201chipness\u201d.\u00a0 I guess you will have to be the judge.\u00a0 Never the less, it was a lot of fun and there were plenty in the bar that were even less hip than we. \u00a0Well, I cling to that belief. \u00a0I won’t mention that it wasn’t even dark out when we arrived. \u00a0Pretty pathetic. \u00a0 \u00a0Question: What did we do before we had \u201cselfies\u201d.\u00a0 Hmm\u2026\"\"So, yesterday was the \u201cit\u201d and Brenda enjoyed a quiet day aboard while the wind whipped us and everyone else around the anchorage.\u00a0 However, due to my excellent advance planning, I was ready.\u00a0 Well, almost ready, as I didn\u2019t have any ribbon to tie up her present.\u00a0 Not to be deterred, I found some \u201cdesigner cording\u201d and a \u201cnatural fiber decoration\u201d plucked fresh from a local shrub. \u00a0 \u00a0How many cruising boats have a supply of wrapping paper and tape on hand? \u00a0Like most everything aboard a cruising boat, one needs to improvise.\"\"Another big event yesterday was receiving the \u201cfinal final\u201d approval from the Commerce Department that included the definitive \u201cyou go Bob\u201d notice that givs us approval to visit Cuba aboard Pandora. \u00a0 It was a long time coming as I began exploring the process of visiting Cuba back in early summer with a call to my congressman\u2019s office to learn what the process for visiting Cuba looked like.\u00a0\u00a0 Well, here we are in mid-January and it finally came.\u00a0\u00a0 I won\u2019t bore you with all the details but it was a long and involved process.\u00a0\u00a0 I have to say that, as I downloaded the approval document today, I was a little disappointed that it wasn\u2019t accompanied by a \u201ctrill of brass horns\u201d as I opened it on my screen.\u00a0 However, everything is now in place.\u00a0 Amazing, actually.<\/p>\n

I say that everything is \u201cin-place\u201d but we still have plenty of provisioning to finish up with and one of Brenda\u2019s prescriptions was wrong from Express-Scripps and getting that corrected will take a few more days, at least.\u00a0 Getting three months\u2019 extra supply of medications is no simple feat and getting it right, and sent to the correct address, well that\u2019s nearly impossible. \u00a0Did you know that when you use a UPS store as a drop point, it costs $5 per day per package once it has arrived. \u00a0Yikes. \u00a0When I visited them yesterday I was presented with a bill for $185 as some packages had been there for a while. \u00a0 Fortunately, they took pity on me and I ended up paying somewhat less. \u00a0I won’t make that mistake again.<\/p>\n

This morning I listened to Chris Parker, the weather router, and there may be a window to cross over to the Bahamas on Wednesday and if that doesn\u2019t happen, we might be another week till the forecasted strong cold fronts have passed and another window presents itself.\u00a0\u00a0 The prevailing winds are from the east, as are the Bahamas, so getting there can be tough. \u00a0For every day that\u2019s good for \u201ceasting\u201d, there are many more that are unfavorable.\u00a0 I won\u2019t go into details on that except to say that making the run across the Gulf Stream can be tough and \u201ctough\u201d doesn\u2019t play well with Brenda, self-described \u201ccreampuff\u201d that she is. \u00a0\u00a0Actually, she\u2019s a lot tougher than she lets on but I had better not push it as there\u2019s a lot of water to be crossed until we get to Cuba.<\/p>\n

For now, I\u2019ll focus on getting ready to go so if we get the go-ahead from Chris in a few days, we\u2019ll be ready.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s hard to believe that we finally have our approvals in order to visit Cuba, a country that has been off-limits to U.S. citizens for as long as I have been alive.\u00a0\u00a0 It\u2019s safe to say that when we first thought about making this trip, I never thought it would actually happen and now it is. \u00a0I guess that there\u2019s nothing as consistent as change and changing it is.<\/p>\n

So, that\u2019s my report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s Saturday morning here in Ft Lauderdale and it is shaping up to be a really nice day. \u00a0That\u2019s particularly good news as the weather has there hasn\u2019t been much sun here since we arrived in FL in late December.\u00a0 It\u2019s been very cloudy and rainy with temperatures lower than you\u2019d expect for \u201csunny Florida\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0 […]<\/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-5215","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5215","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=5215"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5215\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5219,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5215\/revisions\/5219"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5215"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5215"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5215"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}