Cuba3

3/23/09 I had decided to join the Inukituk (Inuit for 'Wild On')   for what I had hoped would be a 20 hour sail to Cayo Largo, the resort island to the south east.  I had hoped to get the bike out to explore the island but the felt that the weather window was the priority.  I still had a long way to go before I leave Cuba.  By 1100 I had cleared out and was heading down the river back out to the Golfo de Batabano.  I need to make for Canal De Quintasol to the north east.  There is a chain of islands and shoals that separate the Golfo de Batabano and the eastern areas.  You must negotiate one of the few deep canals or cuts through this area to head to the east.   I was forced to motor so as to make the cut by dark.  The wind was around 15-20 and pretty much out of the NE.  The weather that morning was calling for gradually lightening winds, a brief period of maybe some SE before rebuilding the following morning back up to 15-20 again out of the NE.  We made the cut, after about 3 hours of motor sailing.  The wind, as forcaste never did lighten much, still blowing a good 15 kts.  As I approached the Quitesol Canal, which is pretty much a deeper channel that cuts through a line of shoaling mangrove islands.  The approach is a little nerve wracking and deceptive as it looks like you are going to run into a mangrove island, coming within 10 meters of the shore as you pass through.  By 1530 was on the other side into the eastern side of the bay.  We tacked to the North until dark, hoping the following tack would bring us to bear on the Canal del Rosalia and back into open water for the last leg to Cayo Largo.  We did a long tack to the North before turning on a course that we hoped would bring us to the Canal.  As darkness grew so did the wind and waves.  Periodically I would get sprayed with a wave coming over the bow.  It was definitely not pleasant.  All I could think of was that, as it was late in the season, I could look forward to more of the same the next 600 miles before I get to the Windward Passage.   The Natie M. was heeled over pretty far so I tethered myself in the darkness and went forward to reef in the main sail.  It was a struggle with the spray and waves coming out of the darkness and soaking me.  The waves gradually grew into the 8 foot range and the boat pitched and rocked.  I managed to stay behind the dodger and keep out of the spray but occasionally a big wave would come in and dump water in the cockpit.  The drains kept up and Natie M. plowed on into the night.  It was pretty miserable.  On the radio I heard from Inukituk that they were having no better a time.  A battery had broken loose and had spilled acid into the bilge.  My cabin started to look like it had been picked up and turned upside down a couple of times.  No matter how carefully I stowed stuff something else would come loose or come out of its locker.  I was tired but no choice but to press on. 3/24/09 By 2 am, could spot the 10 second light of the Canal approach.  It was a seemingly interminable time before I passed the light and once there the water finally started to calm down, but the wind kept steady  at 20 knots.  Now just a 4 mile motor sail to the anchorage we decided on, to rest up, and get the boat straightened out.  I passed a couple of other sail boats already at anchor turned to the windward side of the canal and motored towards the dark mangroves until I ran out of water at 4 feet.  The weather for the following day would not be much better.  I dropped into my berth having set the anchor and shut the boat down, sodden clothes and all, was asleep in seconds. Morning came much too early when at 0700 Lee called on the VHF to see what my status was.  Somewhat groggly I replied that I was, emphasis 'was', sleeping.  He reported that he was anxious to make it to the marina at Cayo Largo for a hot shower and rest.  This appealed to me too but I was skeptical about the current sea state.   I could see breakers on the coral reef we would need to navigate to get out of there.  The other thing was the weather forecaste was not anticipating better conditions for the next 3 or 4 days.  Being anchored in a mangrove bay with no town or facilities with the only company would be a colony of irritable monkeys at a nearby island preserve.  I told Lee that I would at the least check out the conditions and follow him out  Within the hour we were approaching the inlet out into the open water.  The further we pulled away from the shore of Cayo Rosalia and approached the line of reefs the waves grew to impressive heights.  I would say they were not as steep as the night before but were close to 12 feet in height.  Natie M. felt that it was going to launch into the air at the crest of the bigger ones.  I was beginning to question our decision to leave the sheltered waters of the canal, but we pressed on as coming about in these seas and surfing these monsters back through the cut in the reef was pretty intimidating.  Again the  temptation of cold beer and hot showers won out.. Once out in the open water, it quickly became apparent that if I wanted to make the twenty or so miles to the marina I would have to motor sail most of the way into wind and waves.  It took more than two hours to make it to a pass that brought me in behind the line of reefs paralleling the shore and hopefully calmer seas, but once there after 5 miles of slogging found conditions only marginally better.   I set up my seat in the cockpit and tried with little success to get some sleep.  I could see that Inukituk had chose to go out into deep water and tack there way east.  Since I was already in behind the reef that option was not available to me anymore, so motor it was, for the next 4 hours barely making 4 knots at times.  It was not like they said in the sailing brochure.   At 1600 I finally motored into the canal and the marina.  In a daze I motored around the two docks that had several motor and sailing vessels already tied up.  With the wind still blowing, though not as hard in this relatively shelter area, I tried to figure out which slip I should occupy, or for that matter, could successfully tie up at.   The wind was coming dead out of the east and at the minimum running 20 knots with gusts.  That question was soon moot, by the appearance of several Cuban officials at the end of the dock waving me over to a windward facing slip.  This was going to be interesting.  As it took two attempts before I was able to maneuver Natie M. so that I could slowly, with the help of the wind, bring the bow in.  I also had the help of several cruisers who spilled out of their boats and the bar to help the newcomer.  Man, it was good to be tied up again! As I have found true for the southern coast of Cuba the clearing in is a lot less formal and time consuming.  As I was really wanting that hot shower by then, I was relieved when the Harbor Master, after some cursory review of the boat and my documents, welcomed me warmly to the Marina Puntosol on Cayo Largo.  Pire, as I was to learn his name, was very happy to see an American at the marina, though I was to learn there was two other US flagged vessels.  He invited me to get together at the bar or his office to talk.  Ok I thought hoping the subject of my Cuban relatives would not come up again. But I later found out it was just to chat, mostly about politics in the states and Cuba and the possible end of the embargo or as the Cubans refer to it, the Blockade. A couple of hours later, Inukituk pulled into the slip next door.  It was good to see them again, in one piece, though I could see that they had as much an enjoyable cruise the past 30 hours that I did.  At the end of the docks, which were very nice floating docks, there were several single story buildings.  The marina was quite extensive, in Cuban terms, with a tiki style bar, restaurant, open air disco across the street and some souvenir shops.  I could see that some of the buildings were showing the effects of the 4 hurricanes that plagued the area last summer, two of which where pretty much direct hits.  Another thing I noticed was that I was definitely in a resort.  This was the sort of place that I had wanted to avoid on the island.  About the only thing to do at these places is spend money on souvenirs, party and drink heavily.  But they did have showers and the slip fees were reasonable and I wasn't going anywhere soon until the trades gave me a break. The boats already there were from all over the world.  There were crews from Italy, Germany, England, besides the Canada and US.  Every so often a bus from the resort hotels up island would disgorge a herd of tourists that would walk up and down the docks looking the at boats, and of course taking pictures of themselves in front of the more impressive ones.  Guess I didn't make the size impression, no holiday pictures of the Natie M.   At night the open air discos would reverberate over the whole marina.  Glad I brought the ear plugs with me.  It would be so bad if it was Cuban music, but there was a disconnect with Cuba listening to the Rolling Stones or for that matter disco. After a shower, which to my minor disappointment was not hot, I secured a very cold beer at the bar and began to make the rounds at the different tables and boats meeting the other cruisers.  Looks like we made the right call in coming over today as the weather was only going to get more inhospitable the next few days.  The usual conversation goes like this almost everywhere; "Hi, how ya doin?  I'm Mark of the Natie M.  Have you heard the weather forecast for tomorrow?"  If we had stayed at the anchorage of the the night before, we would have been comfortable, though it would be comfortable watching the mangroves grow.  Here, at least we could meet, drink, reprovision of sorts, and get a shower. As I said this was a resort area, not a very good representation of the real Cuba, which was what I wanted to experience on this cruise.  But in light of the weather, sunny with a consistent 15-25 knot wind straight out of the East, it was a great place to wait for the next window.  3/28/09 N21037.335' W81033.854' Well my stay here has been anything but boring.  Aside from the shore power that briefly spiked, switch polarity and promptly fried my battery charger, (my fault as I was warned) its been a great visit.  Later on the first day a 100 foot motor yacht, complete with 28 foot tender,  from the Cayman Islands pulled in and Lee, Bruce and I soon made the acquaintance of the crew and captain.  Another 75 foot custom ocean racer cruiser, with an Italian owner (another internet millionaire) came in and the result that there was a party on the deck with food, rum and dancing of one of these yachts almost every night.  The morning was pretty much café con leche and talk of the weather, which by the way, most of the time was pretty snotty.  Though sunny and pleasant, the wind did howl.  I enjoyed many a conversation into the evening, that is when we weren't at the disco dancing, with what turned out to be a mini United Nations.  We would take the motor lauch from the big yacht out to the nearby Playa Serena for some beach time.  I got some repairs done on the Natie M.  so I was at least a little productive and of course I read and wrote a lot.   I had a good time, but needed to get out of there soon, the place was a little too comfortable and the trades were only going to grow stronger as the we moved into April.  Lee had been trying to convince me that rather than battle the trades, I should join the 5 other boats including his parents ('Kirin') and go to the Caymans.  He said that he could get me work and it was a great place.  The crew of Natalito III, the big motor yacht, also said it was relatively easy to get work in the Caymans even if you were not a national.  This was tempting, but I was still determined to at least make an appearance in Trinidad by July.  I'm not sure good use of my Masters in Engineering would be bartending or washing dishes in the Caymans. I did manage a short bike ride to one of the hotels at the other end of the island.  It was an opportunity to get some really slow internet, but other than that I pretty much stayed close to the marina, being something nearly always to do, or someone to just pass the day  by.  It was very relaxing but I was still anxious to get out of there.  Drinking rum and beer all day, watch Spanish CNN was not getting me anywhere.  At least the beers were a dollar.  The itching of my feet and hands had only gotten worse, and finally one afternoon, practically in the middle of chatting with my friends, I had had enough, I excused myself and walked over to the medical clinic nearby.  I found the doctor and nurse watching tv in the air conditioned lobby and they ushered me into the examining room.  After a ½ hour of medical history and my relating my difficulty, and the incident of the meal I had of Kingfish and the resulting stomach upset, the doctor was pretty sure I had been "intoxicated".  At first I was thinking he was referring to the amount of alcohol I had consumed the past couple of days at port, but soon realized that I had the symptoms of Ciguaterra, an allergic reaction to toxins found in some fish that feed on fish that feed on coral, apparently including the kingfish in that category I so proudly caught the week or so before.  He gave me a prescription and after promising the nurse that I would return with the candy she requested, left with some urgency to the pharmacia.  The total bill?  Eight dollars (USD) and a bar of chocolate.  Imagine what the same service would have cost in the states, even if you did have insurance. I rejoined my friends who had moved on to doing a tour of the nearby sea turtle farm.  Unlike in the states where you can't touch anything, much less jump in the pool with them, here you could pick up the turtles, which didn't seem too distressed by this.  They had Green sea turtles of various ages swimming around several small pools.  They were beautiful and graceful as they swam round, coming over to our side thinking maybe it was lunchtime.  Finally, that evening, after several visits to yachts with more sophisticated weather forecasting access, it looked like the winds were finally going to abate the following evening.   I made plans to at least move out to the nearby Playa Serena anchorage to stage for departure.  Playa Serena has beautiful white sand beaches and a bar, and that's it.  Its place to haul the resort guests out to get some beach time.  The anchorage is quiet and sheltered though. 3/29/09 By 10 am I had cleared out of port and with the help of my neighbors, around 10 of them, was able back out against the still blowing wind, and out into the channel.  About a half hour later I dropped the hook off Playa Serena which has one of the most beautiful beaches I have ever seen, and got ready to be picked up for snorkeling.   I had been invited to go on a snorkeling expedition on the motor launch of the Natalito III in pursuit of some lobster and conch for dinner.  We motored over to the barrier reef and after trying a couple of different spots we came upon a reef that had a good many lobster.  I took my spear and soon had 4 large lobster aboard the launch.  With the several others along with the conch we had harvested at a spot previous we had in short order quite a feast.  The chef of Natalito III would prepare one of her excellent meals, (having sampled some her work previous) that evening.  I told them that I would take my dinghy over to join them.   Upon being dropped off at Natie M. I took a shower, cleaned and organized the boat, and took a nap.  The wind was starting to really calm down, but when we were out earlier could see that the seas were still a little high.  I awoke about 5 and after thinking about it for a minute, decided to make a try for to open water and see if it was manageable.   I wanted to take advantage of the impending window with the hopes of getting to the famous city Trinidad my next stated port of call.  Once I got underway, around 4:30, with enough light to spot any uncharted reef heads, I headed out and away from Cayo Largo, finally.  Upon getting past the reef the waves in the open ocean were not the most comfortable but compared to the passage before, a veritable mill pond.   I decided to press on and raising Pire (the harbor master) he said he would tell my friends farewell and I would not make dinner that night.  I thanked him for being a great host and wished him and his family good fortune.  I was hailed by Kirin and got to express my thanks for the great company directly.  I really do intend to sail to the Caymans some day, possibly soon.  We had all exchanged emails so I knew we would keep in touch.  Lee had taken some great pictures that I hope he will be able to forward.  With darkness, I was able to go on a close reach that was almost parallel to the coast.  This would hold true for most of the night and I was able to make some serious eastings by dawn.