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| Customs Officer with her Dog |
We slow right down
as it is Sunday afternoon when we arrive back, so motor in through the reef
again and drop anchor. We move SHAMAL into the marina the following morning and
check in. This time it took a little
longer as there were three boats leaving for Mexico, so we waited, and waited.
The customs officer arrives with her dog for the clearance inspection on the
boats leaving for Mexico - fish net
stockings, mini skirt and wedge heel shoes, quite the pretty picture – see
photo. Then she comes to us, dog and
all, to clear us in. Once our clear in procedures were complete our final job
was to walk across the road to the bank to change money to pay our check in
fee. That was like walking into
someone’s living room in a by-gone error.
There was a two seater couch and two arm chairs covered in a floral
green brocade. The curtains are mid blue and white stripped with yellow and
turquoise sea shells on them. Only one
teller was working and he had a guy with him who had lots of piles of coins and
lots of small notes that all needed counting.
This was going to be another wait.
No one was in any hurry. The
girls behind the desk – all three of them – were chatting away not worrying
about the queue of people that were now lining up along the back wall. When it actually came to our turn, I was told
very politely to sit down again as only one person could be with the teller at
a time. Never mind, we were all finished
by mid-afternoon, and then return SHAMAL
back out to the anchorage.
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| Cayo Largo |
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| Cayo Largo |
The first couple of days are beautiful and we set off in the
tender to explore areas we did not see before.
We spend one day cleaning the hulls with our Power-dive. The water temperature is gorgeous at around
29 deg.C. Ashore Alec is able to get a
stack of internet cards (which only cost
75 cents for half an hour) and we can sit under the coconut trees and send and
receive emails. Well his computer works, mine - NO. We stroll over to the supply come souvenir
shop to see what new supplies have been delivered in the six weeks we have been
away. Not much, just an endless supply
of adult diapers!! Wow someone must have
ticked the wrong box on the supply form. Then we start thinking about getting
ready to leave and the S.E. winds start to blow at 15-20kts – that is right in
the direction we will be heading meaning winds on the nose!! So we sit and wait. It becomes a time of relaxing, swimming and
just enjoying the area. No point getting
impatient and heading out into those rough seas. In the evenings I put my line
out. There is something out there that
for three evenings in a row takes my hook and a length of line with it. No hard tugs or line running out, just a bite
and it is gone. I do catch a nice fat
mutton snapper which is enough for two good meals.
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| Lighthouse Cayo Guano del Este |
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| View from Lighthouse |
Finally after a week we are able to check out and be on our
way. We have had thunderstorms about,
but they have been missing us thank goodness. The winds are not perfect and we
have an easterly swell of half a metre, but it is time to move on. Before we
reach our first anchorage I have six strikes on the fishing rod. Mainly barracuda which we release, but I lost
a tuna and something else – not too sure what it was. It is only a 34nm sail to Cayo Guano del Este
where we anchor under a lighthouse which looks more like a red and white
striped rocket ship. We have time to
take the tender ashore and explore the Cayo that afternoon. The winds are light and we decide to spend
the following day here and visit the lighthouse. The lighthouse is manned and we climb the 234
steps to the top to take in the view. It is manned due to the fact that it
still has to be wound up at least once a night like other lighthouses around
the Cuban coast. It is a crystal clear day and we can see for miles. Also the waters around the Cayo are some of the
clearest we have seen and you can see the reef line so clearly around the whole
Cayo. Later we snorkel the reefs.
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| Spanish Fort Cienfuegos Channel |
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| Cienfuegos from our anchorage |
The following day we set sail back up to the mainland and
the city of Cienfuegos, one of Cuba’s larger cities which is situated on the southern
coast. For this leg we skirt along the
edge of the “no-go” zone which takes you into the Bay of Pigs. Approaching the
coastline one can make out the unfinished structure of a nuclear power plant
which we believe was started during the period when the Russians were present in Cuba. The entrance
into the bay here is through a channel with cliffs hiding the bay behind. No
wonder it was a popular hide out for pirates of old, it is really hidden until
you enter inside. The Spanish built a fortress inside the entrance in 1745
which commands a perfect view over the channel.
Below the fortress are rundown but quaint homes now occupied mainly by
fishermen. There is also a Russian style hotel built on the opposite shore
which commands a great views over the channel and bay. As we are coming through the channel we met a
cruise ship departing. We cross the bay
and drop anchor in front of Marina Jagua, then take the tender ashore to check
in. Once again everyone is polite and
helpful, and this time very quick with procedures. The marina is also home to a reasonable size
charter fleet of mainly catamaran yachts.
It is situated on Punta Gorda, the area where the pre-revolution wealthy
built their stately homes, many of which have been restored with the help of
UNESCO money, as the city is now another World Heritage Site. It was founded in 1819 by Don Louis D’Clouet,
a Frenchman from Louisiana who brought with him about 40 families to establish
the city. Hence there is a wonder
flamboyant flavour with some of the older buildings. We walk the 10 minutes into the centre of the
town which is being restored. The main
traffic street is wide, then you turn and entre the walking boulevard which
leads to a beautiful park with its very own Arch of Triumph at one end.
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| Local Taxi |
This square is surrounded by some beautifully
restored old buildings. The people are
delightful. We are not hassled. Sometimes someone will stop and ask where you
come from, or if you would like a ride in their ‘bicitaxi’ – that is a bicycle
rickshaw. We opted to walk most of the
time as we felt we needed the exercise, even if the temperatures were 30 deg. c
plus.
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| Cienfuegos |
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| Palacio de Valle |
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| Palacio de Valle |
We visit the Hotel Jagua, just a couple of minutes’ walk from the marina,
so Alec can do the Wi-Fi. In the grounds
of the Hotel is the Palacio de Valle, a magnificent building which was
originally the home of one of Cuba’s wealthiest sugar merchants, built in
1913. The guy was extremely eclectic
when it came to taste as he has had Gothic, Venetian, Arab-Spanish and an array
of other architecture thrown in. But it
all works and he ended up with a lovely home.
Today it is a restaurant and part of the Hotel.
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| Local Fishermen |
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| Entering the Mangroves |
We spend two days in Cienfuegos before checking out and
heading south east along the coast to Casilda.
Here the coastal hillsides are covered in trees right down to the rocky
shoreline. The high Trinidad mountain range stands out behind. The entrance into Casilda takes us back in
behind the reefs again. We are now at
the very north western tip of the Gulf of Ana Maria. We motor sail back up the channel which takes
us to Casilda, a fishing port that sits just outside the town of Trinidad –
Cuba’s third settlement in 1514. We
motor into the basin where the Cayo Blanco marina is situated. Oh help we must have entered “Bug Heaven”. In here we are totally surrounded by
mangroves. Well we will see once evening
approaches !!!! Again we need to check
in here. Our official arrives by boat
from across the bay some half hour later.
Once the formalities are complete we walk across the peninsula to the
Arcon Hotel to check the Wi-Fi. Then
it’s back to SHAMAL in the swamp, and yes come sunset the bugs arrive. We close up, put all the mosquito screens up
on the hatches, and turn on the fans.
The temperature is now around 34 deg.C. but we survive. Unfortunately if we want to swim we need to
go back to the hotel and swim off its white sandy beach and this evening, I
can’t be bothered.
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| Cobblestone Streets of Trinidad |
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| Plaza Mayor and Church, Trinidad |
The following morning we return to the hotel to see about a
tour into Trinidad, but it is Sunday and no one turns up to the tour desk. We also discover this hotel is an
all-inclusive one. You pay a price
beforehand which covers sleeping, food and beverage, plus trips. Never mind, we take a taxi into town. We do
our own walking tour with guide book in hand. It is the quaintest place with
cobbled stone streets. Because of its
isolation time has really stood still here, but again it has been declared a
World Heritage Site and money has been put into restoring the wonderful old
buildings. We visited one of the
mansions which was built in the 1820’s – which is now a museum - with its grand Italian marble floor entrance
hall, a beautiful courtyard and a tower with a rather rickety staircase leading
to the top with fabulous views over the town and down to Casilda and Peninsula
Ancon, where the marina is situated.
Again another lovely clear day with great visibility.
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| View over Trinidad |
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| Trinidad |
The town may have been founded in 1514, but it was not
really until about 1850 when hundreds of French refugees arrived from Haiti as
they were fleeing a slave rebellion, set up small sugar mills in the Valle de
los Ingenios, which lies 12km to the north east of Trinidad, and were soon
producing a third of Cuba’s sugar on the
fertile plain.
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| Trinidad |
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| Trinidad |
Later that afternoon we head back to the Hotel to down load
a weather forecast, and have a swim.
Then it’s back to face the bugs again!!
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| Leaving Casilda, Trinidad behind |
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| More Yummy Meals |
The following morning after clearing out, we leave the
mangrove enclosed lagoon, and head out.
We spend the next nine days moving southeast through the Golfo Ana Maria
which takes us through the Archipielago de los Jardines de la Reina ( the
Garden of the Queen ) and into the Golfo Guacanaysbo. In the northern section we move inside and
outside the reef anchoring in the shelter of different Cayos. We move from the northern section into the
Golfo Guacanaysbo inside the reef navigating our way through well marked
channels among the reefs. At Cayo Brenton a fishing boat comes past just on
dusk and sells us 6 large crayfish for $15, a bottle of Rum and a hat – good
trade. The following morning we get up
to find hundreds of baby red crabs crawling all over the back steps and the
cockpit. I get out a brush and herd them
all back into the sea. Maybe they were
attracted by our solar light which we place in the rod holders at night. That day we have a lovely run down the
outside of the reef line doing 6kts. I
catch 4 barracuda and something we could not identify. All went back. It is lovely to see so much sea bird life
again.
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| Prawn Boats |
We spend another night in the shelter of Cayo Cuervo – home
to the prawn fishing fleet. The mother
ship sits outside the reef while the six big prawn boats all come inside. We are here with another catamaran. Again that evening we are visited by the
fishermen who ask “what would you like?”
We put in an order for prawns and crayfish. The following morning when the prawn boats
return with their night catch, the fishermen turn up with 7 fresh crayfish and
2kg of prawns. Cost a bottle of
ex-Tunisia give-a-way whisky 2-3 euros, a bottle of rum, and $5.
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| Shallow Waters |
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| Our friendly crocodile |
Another stop is Cayo Anclitas. We have now entered the National Park
area. No fishing or taking of anything
in this area. There are a couple of big
dive boats also anchored, and later three catamarans arrive traveling in the
opposite direction from us. Again we
take the tender off for to explore of the area.
We check the anchor is dug in with our glass bottom bucket and find just
before it is a rock with two crayfish sitting under it. Poor Alec – NO – remember we are in a
National Park. Later we return to SHAMAL to find not one, but two huge
barracuda have moved in under the boat.
And there they stay till we move on again. The couple off one of the catamarans – “SANDY
TOES” - comes over to say hello. They tell us about an anchorage only eight
miles away where we will see the “friendly” crocodiles. Help we have been
swimming lots and did not realise we were in croc waters. Well one can’t miss an opportunity like that,
can one. So the following morning we
motor around to Pasa Piedra Grande. We
anchor in the channel between two Cayos.
The holding is not that wonderful and there are lots of coral bommies
about, but with care we put out lots of chain on a grassy spot and check the
holding before going off to find our crocs.
After about half an hour of motoring in between the mangroves we are
nearly ready to give up, when in front of us a medium size one swims out of the
mangroves to say hello. I get my
photos. Now “SANDY TOES” told us they
had entered the channel from the inside, scraping the grass bottom as they came
through. They draw a the same as us, so
the following morning we took the tender out to check the depths across the
bank. It seemed OK so we decided to give
it a go in SHAMAL. Alec was not happy
with the idea of scraping the bottom so when the depth sounder showed 00 depth
under the keels and we were kicking up sand from the bottom, he decided enough
is enough. We turned around and followed
our track back the way we had come and into deeper waters. We motored back into the channel and picked
up a dive boat mooring buoy we had passed, and had lunch. We then sailed back on the outside of the
reef and spend another night at the northern end of Cayo Anclitas. Then we were on our way again, on the inside
route. We passed from the Golfo Ana
Maria into the Gulfo Guacanaysbo and anchored in the shelter behind Cayo
Grenada.
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| We are in shallow waters |
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| 1 of many barracuda |
We are now only 55nm from Cabo Cruz, the Cape at the
southernmost point of Cuba. It is from there
we will turn east to sail to Santiago de Cuba.
We are now having winds on the nose from the SE and once we round the
cape they will again be dead on the nose which also makes for unpleasant seas
as we move into the summer months. Alec starts to think that maybe this is not
the right direction to be heading. That
is reinforced the following morning when we up anchor and move on out from the
shelter of the Cayo right into those pounding seas with winds at 20kts plus. So back we return to the shelter of the
Cayo. Big re-think. Maybe Mexico, Belize then Guatemala would be
the better choice. A new cruising area
and we could end this season leaving SHAMAL in the safety of a marina up the
Rio Dulce and into a lake, inland from the sea some 26nm. That is in Guatemala.
It is one of the Caribbean’s most
popular summer areas to leave boats. We are sad that we have not seen Santiago
de Cuba, but we will return next season!!!!
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| All good barbers have no hair!!!! |
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| Passing through Squalls |
The next morning we up anchor and motor sail out through the
reef and set sail NE bound back to Cienfuegos. It is our closest port where we
can check out of Cuba and we need to keep our paper work in order. We will do an overnight sail this time
directly there. It is grey and overcast with rain squalls about. We reef down and have a wonderful sail. At one point we are surfing down waves doing
between 9-12kts. By evening we decided
to put the third reef in and are still doing 9kts at times. The following
morning we are anchored back in Cienfuegos after a 167nm run. The wind has now totally died, the sun is out
and it is hot, hot, hot – temperature 38deg. c. We spend the next three days
here waiting for a good weather window back to the Cayman Islands. We visit the old town again, this time taking
a “bicitaxi”. Our first driver takes us
up the back streets to his barber so Alec can have a haircut. For our return trip we learn our driver is a
young chemical engineer. So what are you
doing carrying tourists on a bicycle? He
tells us as a chemical engineer he would earn $24 per month. His bicycle cost him $600, and he can earn
between $300 -$600 per month carrying tourists.
He does have to pay the Government $150 per month.
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| Our Bicitaxi |
Having now experienced the “excesses” of
capitalism with a democracy such as America, to the” insufficiency” of
communism such as Cuba, we see that neither are close to a perfect system. Reforms have been made and now there are
private businesses such as Homestays and
Farmers Markets. With piecemeal capitalism now introduced into Cuba it will be
interesting to see the effect on the
country. Cubans would like to see a controlled move to capitalism more like the
European style. If the sanctions are lifted from Cuba, these people will be
able to improve their way of life and become contributing members of the region’s
economy like many of their neighbours.
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| A round rainbow!! |
Saturday 20th May, and it is time to once again
say good-bye Cuba. The customs officer
arrives out at SHAMAL at 0550 – minus dog – and hands us the paper work. We had made arrangements the night before
with him. It is all completed in
5mins. We have upped anchor and are on
our way out across the bay of Cienfuegos by 0630. Once through the channel and out of the lee
of the land, the winds pick up and we are on our way. We are running on a beam reach at about 6kts
with winds between 17-20kts. Seas build
to about 3mts for a time, then during the night the winds drop. They pick up the following morning giving us
a broad reach, but seas also build with the swells up to 4 plus mts. at
times. We have picked up a mooring buoy
back in George town Harbour, Grand Cayman the following day. As it is now
Sunday, we are told it would be best to check in the next morning to avoid
overtime charges. This we do.
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Bone Fishing, Cayo Largo
|
So now we are gleaning as much information from the internet
on our next destinations as we do not have any cruising guides for Central
America. Mexico will be our next port of
call.
Well we leave you all with plan C or D in place. That is part of the joys of cruising – we can
change our plans as often as the winds change.
This is The Admiral and Commander signing out
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| Cienfuegos Channel |
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