{"id":5663,"date":"2016-04-25T17:21:38","date_gmt":"2016-04-25T17:21:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/?p=5663"},"modified":"2016-04-25T17:21:38","modified_gmt":"2016-04-25T17:21:38","slug":"yes-heading-home-soon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/?p=5663","title":{"rendered":"Yes, heading home soon.\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s Monday morning and I just spoke with Chris Parker on the SSB about the weather for making our way to FL later this week.\u00a0 Chris told me that we should be fine for a departure most any day this week,\u00a0 The \u201cflexible schedule\u201d he described didn\u2019t surprise me as the weather in Cuba has been pretty consistent while we have been here.\u00a0 If I recall, and I\u2019ll admit that it does blend together, we have only had one meaningful cold front to contend with in the nearly two months that we have been cruising here.<\/p>\n

That is a tremendous contrast to the weather we have experienced in FL and the Bahamas over the last few years, where cold fronts and contrary winds come through as often as twice a week.\u00a0\u00a0 When we were planning our trip to Cuba, Frank Virgintino, who has written quite a few Caribbean cruising guides, had told us that we wouldn\u2019t have to worry much about the weather here as compared to the Bahamas, and he was right.<\/p>\n

So, getting back to what Chris told me.\u00a0 In addition to the question of when to leave (most any time this week) he recommended \u00a0two possible strategies.\u00a0 One option, the fastest, is to head out of Havana and stay in the middle of the Gulf Stream to take full advantage of the favorable current of 2-3kts for nearly the entire run.\u00a0 And given the fact that we will be underway for nearly 250 miles the current in the stream will give us a significant boost that would put us in Ft Lauderdale perhaps as much as ten hours sooner than if we do not take advantage of the current in the GS.<\/p>\n

There is also a meaningful diurnal wind pattern, meaning, in this case, that there is more wind in the late afternoon\u00a0 when a sea breeze combined with the actual gradient winds kicks in.\u00a0 And as those winds are from an easterly direction, it could make for some pretty snotty conditions in the stream.<\/p>\n

The other option is to head directly for Key West when we leave Hemingway and let the current in the Gulf Stream carry us east.\u00a0 That option would have us head on a more northerly course and we would exit the Gulf Stream east of Key West and then skirt along between the GS and the reefs off of the Keys.\u00a0 That approach would make for a more comfortable trip but it would take considerably longer as we would not have the benefit of the Gulf Stream current.\u00a0 It would also likely involve a lot more motoring and motor-sailing into the wind once we reached the Keys.<\/p>\n

Brenda and I have talked about the two options and we are inclined to go for the Gulf Stream assisted option, even if it\u2019s a more uncomfortable, given the faster passage time.\u00a0 Of course, we can always adjust our run to leave the GS, once we are underway, if we decide it\u2019s just too uncomfortable.<\/p>\n

Anyway, it looks like we will be heading north on Wednesday for an arrival in Ft Lauderdale on Thursday or Friday.\u00a0\u00a0 Oh yeah, and I did I mention that we are excited about being back in the U.S. of A., the land of UNLIMITED INTERNET?\u00a0\u00a0 Here in Cuba, you purchase a \u201ccard\u201d with codes, for $2CUC that allow for one hour of internet.\u00a0 And that connection can either be very SLOW or SORT OF SLOW, depending on where you are.\u00a0 And, that connectivity is always in the lobby of a government hotel.<\/p>\n

Yes, we are pretty excited to be back in the \u201cland of easy\u201d but visiting Cuba and now Havana has been pretty amazing.<\/p>\n

I am also looking forward to sailing north to CT with my friends Chris and Dave who will be flying to FL to join me.\u00a0 Chris and I have sailed together for many years and he\u2019s actually the guy that introduced me and Brenda to sailing way back in Highschool.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 That was a LONG time ago.\u00a0 And, I expect that Brenda will curse his name at some point when we are in the Gulf Stream for \u201cgiving me the bug\u201d so many years ago when he took us for a day-sail in his Dad\u2019s 19\u2019 Alberg Typhoon.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 When I say \u201cthanks for that, Chris\u201d it means something different than when Brenda utters those same words.\u00a0\u00a0 Hmm\u2026<\/p>\n

I believe I mentioned yesterday that I had accidentally deleted a number of photos of our visit to the wonderful restaurant that we ate at a few nights ago in Old Havana.\u00a0 Well, we decided to walk there again yesterday and \u201cretake\u201d the shots.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a shot of the entrance to Paladar Los Mercaderes complete with one of the guys to \u201cguide you in\u201d and announce your presence to the staff upstairs with the ringing of a bell.\u00a0 That\u2019s a very nice touch and makes you feel that you have indeed \u201carrived\u201d.\u00a0\"4-25-16aThe foyer leads to a lovely rose petal strewn staircase with candles as you make your way upstairs.\u00a0\"4-25-16aThe dining room is very intimate and appointed with some lovely antiques.\u00a0\"4-25-16aThis is an amusing sign at the top of the stairs. \u00a0The ballerina sort of reinforces the point, I guess. \"4-25-16aBrenda recounted the experience, and menu, in a recent post.\u00a0 And, as she is much more of a \u201cfoodie\u201d than I am, I\u2019ll leave the description of the \u201cexperience\u201d to her<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I have mentioned the wonderful work that has been done to restore many buildings in Cuba and this photo perhaps shows it best with a \u201cbefore and after\u201d.\u00a0 Amazing work.\"OLYMPUSWithout this sort of attention to detail, lovely work like this would be lost.\"OLYMPUS \"OLYMPUSAnd, wonderful views wherever you turn.\"4-25-16aMonths ago, when we were planning our trip to Cuba, Brenda happened upon a blog post from an artist that had visited Havana a few years ago about a women who teaches bobbin lace here.\u00a0 Brenda\u2019s hope\/goal was to find this one woman in all of Havana when we got here and amazingly, she did.\u00a0\u00a0 I enjoyed the interaction between the \u201cladies\u201d.\u00a0 \"4-25-16aEven though there was a significant language barrier, they clearly shared the language of \u201cfiber\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0 Brenda has written about this and it\u2019s worth reading<\/a>.\u00a0 BTW, it\u00b4s the same post that talked about dinner.<\/p>\n

There is a lot of art in Cuba and yesterday we happened upon a lovely little workshop selling woodcut prints.\u00a0\"4-25-16aThe printing press, in the back of the shop was donated by Unicef, we learned.\u00a0 \"4-25-16aWe loved this little piece and will hang it aboard Pandora as a reminder of our visit. The crescent shapes represent Cuba and the \u201cpeople\u201d figures, well they represent the people of Cuba.\u00a0 Having it aboard Pandora will be a tangible reminder of our wonderful time here in Cuba and the friendly people we have met along the way.\"4-25-16cSo, today we will book a flight for Brenda to get home from Ft Lauderdale next week and then head into Havana to visit the forts that line the harbor.\u00a0 I look forward to reporting on what will surely be a wonderful day.<\/p>\n

I should note that if there are any glaring mistakes, this post was excruciating to get up due to the terrible internet here.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Did I mention that I can\u00b4t wait for better connectivity.\u00a0\u00a0 I can not even put a question mark at the end of that sentence.\u00a0 How frustrating….<\/p>\n

That\u00b4s all for now or I\u00b4ll throw the computer.\u00a0\u00a0 Argggg….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s Monday morning and I just spoke with Chris Parker on the SSB about the weather for making our way to FL later this week.\u00a0 Chris told me that we should be fine for a departure most any day this week,\u00a0 The \u201cflexible schedule\u201d he described didn\u2019t surprise me as the weather in Cuba has […]<\/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-5663","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5663","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=5663"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5663\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5677,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5663\/revisions\/5677"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5663"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5663"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5663"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}