22 December 2012 Marathon, Florida
The wind was still howling – I turned on the wind instruments and we had 25 knots gusting up to 35 knots, so we had to abandon our plan of going out for a sail. Mike and Rona decide that they would go back to Vero Beach, but first kindly took us to the supermarket (again!) so that we could buy some more food and drinks to top up our stores.
When they had left Glenys tidied up and restored the boat back to normal while I nipped ashore to get a better internet connection to update our web site. I spent the rest of the afternoon writing Christmas emails to family and friends. There’s over eighty emails to send, but it’s a lot easier than the old way of writing out Christmas cards by hand.
23 December 2012 Marathon, Florida
There’s only two more sleeps to Christmas. I woke up thinking about going to Cuba and the things that we’ve got to sort out before we get there. There’s going to be a whole load of paperwork to get through when we arrive, so I read through the pilot books and made sure that I have all my documentation to hand over if required.
The Cuban government still have a terrible record of civil rights abuse and censorship, so it’s difficult to get internet access and what the locals receive is heavily controlled. Glenys and I spent most of the day reading up on Cuba, planning and saving information to our laptop.
I recharged the fridge. This time I purged the system by topping it up and then letting out all refrigerant a couple of times. Hopefully this will get rid of any air and moisture from out of the system. It’s not very environmentally friendly because Freon affects the Ozone Layer, but I’ve not got many options now and the amount of Freon in our fridge is tiny – I reckon it's about 15 grams per fridge, so I don’t think that I’ll be causing the next Ice Age by myself.
24 December 2012 Marathon, Florida
It was a lovely sunny day, so we went for a stroll to the shops and bought some last minute provisions and the essential bottle of Port for Christmas. We called in at the marina lounge and my camera has finally arrived. It’s been a month since I sent it off for repair and I've been worried that we couldn't leave Florida before I got it back – how could I possibly survive without my underwater camera?
While we were in the supermarket, I searched in vain for mince pies. These are an essential part of Christmas in the UK, and it just wouldn't be the same without them. Back on the boat, Glenys magically produced a jar of mince-meat that she’d bought in Trinidad a year ago and baked a batch of the wonderful, extremely fattening pastries - I just HAD to eat a couple before they went cold.
I spent the afternoon reading while Glenys browsed the internet finding out more about Cuba. Then after dinner, we watched “Love Actually” to get us in the mood for Christmas. Glenys is feeling a little bit sad because we’re not going to see our sons for Christmas – it’s the first time that we've been apart.
25 December 2012 Marathon, Florida
Christmas Day dawned with blue skies and sun. Glenys made us a nice breakfast of scrambled eggs with smoked salmon and we quietly opened the few presents that we’d bought each other. All a bit sad really - Christmas is supposed to be about family and fun…
At lunchtime, we went ashore to a pot luck gathering of cruisers, which was okay, but there are a lot of long-term Marathon “veterans”, who are on a different wavelength to us. The conversations go something like this:
I wander up and say, “Hi, you been here long?”
“No, only a month”
“Nice, where are you heading?”
“Oh, we’re going to stay here for the winter”
“And then where are you heading?”
“Back up to South Carolina. How about you?”
“Cuba in the next few days, then Mexico, Jamaica and down to Panama by June.”
“That’s great”. Silence as he sips his beer and then starts to edge away.
Fortunately, Ron and Judy from “Pioneer” turned up and we talked some more about cruising in Cuba. We didn't eat too much at the pot luck – they’re always somewhat “bitty”, so we’d decided earlier that we’d treat the pot luck like going to the pub before having a proper Christmas dinner (another great British tradition).
Four beers later, back on the boat, Glenys managed to rustle up a very nice “Roast Pork Calypso” with all the trimmings, which went down nicely with a bottle of Chianti. After that we collapsed in our arm chairs and watched two movies, while sipping port and eating mince pies – fabulous.
26 December 2012 Marathon, Florida
The weather forecast is looking good for a crossing to Cuba tomorrow night – there’s a weak cold front coming through tonight and then we should have north-east winds of 10-15 knots. The course to Varadero is more or less south from here and the biggest danger is having a strong wind against the easterly setting Gulf Stream which can run up to 3 knots, so the light winds look perfect.
We took our propane gas bottle to be filled and Glenys swapped the wet suit that I bought her for Christmas for one that fitted better (I’ll leave you to guess whether I had bought one too large or too small…)
With our local chores done, we took the bus into Key West to clear out, which was very tedious. We left the boat at half past eight and arrived back at half past four – a long day with a lot of waiting around and four boring hours on the damn bus...
The customs in Key West have a reputation of being paranoid about boats going to Cuba. There are numerous anecdotes of the authorities being very difficult and subjecting yachts to searches, etc. When they asked where we were going, I told them that we were going to Mexico, which is true, but I neglected to tell them that we would be staying in Cuba for two months on the way. I find it difficult to understand why the American authorities are so paranoid about Cuba, particularly when the café in the airport has a whole wall dedicated to Cuba with pictures of Havana and the old planes that used to fly there before the embargo…
Back on Alba, we did some last minute preparations. I sorted out a few administrative and financial things on the internet while Glenys had a big cooking session to clear out her fridge. We’re not allowed to take uncooked meat, fruit or eggs into Cuba, so she either threw stuff away or cooked it this evening. Our dinner was an interesting melange of flavours.
27 December 2012 Marathon to Varadero, Cuba (Day 1)
First thing in the morning, we went ashore where Glenys did her final load of laundry and I sorted out a few last minute administration things. We rang our UK bank and told them that we would be using our credit and debit cards in Cuba, Mexico and Jamaica in the hope that they won’t block the cards when they are used over an extended period. While in the cruiser’s lounge, we met Pia & Goran from “Catrine” who are also crossing to Varadero tonight.
By noon, we’d taken the VHF antenna down (again) so that we can fit underneath the electrical cables strung across the harbour entrance, stowed the outboard and dinghy on deck and were refuelling at a dock on the way out of the harbour.
We anchored outside to have lunch and to allow me to go up the damn mast to put the VHF antenna back in place. I rang the Border Protection Agency for the final time to tell them that we were leaving for Mexico and we upped anchor at half past one. There was very little wind, so we had to motor south.
We encountered the Gulf Stream after a couple of hours and our speed over the ground dropped by two knots because we had to steer into the strong three knot current to maintain our rhomb line to Varadero. By ten o’clock in the evening, the wind had picked up enough so that we could sail.
28 December 2012 Marathon to Varadero, Cuba (Day 2)
We had a lovely sail all night with a full moon. It was very exciting to be making landfall at dawn in Cuba – it gave us a nice feeling when a fisherman standing on the sea wall at the entrance who shouted “Welcome to Cuba”. The approach was very straight forward through a dredged canal and into Varadero marina where some people were waiting to take our mooring lines.
We weren’t allowed to get off the boat until we had fully cleared in, which took a couple of hours. The first person to arrive was the doctor, who asked us if we were well, took our blood pressure and filled in a form. Once we were declared healthy, the other officials were allowed to come on board. Two ladies from the Ministry of Agriculture and Customs came next, filled in another three sets of forms and gave the boat a cursory search, looking for people and guns (I think). The immigration officer arrived and (worryingly) wandered off with our precious passports. Then the Guarda Nacional appeared and filled in even more forms, followed by a lady from the Veterinary Department, who came on board and inspected Glenys’s fridges and fresh food. We were left in a daze with a handful of paperwork, but it was fairly painless and the people were very friendly and courteous.
Debbie from “La Vida Dulce”, who has lived here in the marina for twelve years, introduced herself to us and very kindly took us under her wing. She’s Canadian, speaks Spanish and gave us a lot of information about the marina and the surrounding area, before taking us and “Catrine” into the small town of Santa Marta to show us around.
Walking through the town was a huge culture shock – we’ve been very spoiled and sheltered during our six months in the USA. There are market stalls selling a few vegetables, a butcher selling hacked up chunks of pork covered with flies, horse drawn carts made from old car axles, shops with their poor stocks hidden behind iron bars and classic cars from the 50s and 60s that are in various states of repair. It was almost too much to take in – I think that I’m going to love it here. However, the language is going to be a huge barrier and I’m annoyed that we haven’t taken the effort to learn Spanish while we were in the states.
One of the first places that we visited was the small bank. I’m glad that Debbie was with us because we would have struggled to find it. Glenys and Debbie went into the bank leaving Goren, Pia and me outside. Unfortunately, just before they got to the teller, a van pulled up outside and armed guards took some bags of money into the bank. All of the bank employees immediately stopped serving customers and set about counting the money. We were hanging about for an hour – welcome to the Cuban mentality.
We had lunch in a small state-run restaurant, which was very basic (pork or chicken with rice) and poor quality, but only cost $20 for a meal for five people, eight beers and a bottle of rum. We went back to the boat to have a nap.
There are only two other yachts visiting the marina – “Catrine” and, amazingly, another Hallberg Rassy 41 called “Windfall” with Per and Lena who we met a year ago in the British Virgin Islands. We all had sun-downers on a picnic bench on the dock next to “La Vida Dulce” to chew the cud.
29 December 2012 Varadero, Cuba
We had a lie-in to catch up on lost sleep, then over breakfast, we decided that we would go into Havana tomorrow and stay for a couple of nights. While we are staying in a marina, we intend to travel around Cuba by bus to see some of the countryside and cities.
Glenys walked along the dock to ask Debbie from “La Vida Dulce” to help us book some accommodation in Habana for two nights - we’ve heard that they “really” celebrate New Year’s Eve there. We’ve booked into a Casa Particular, which is a kind of bed and breakfast place. The government allow certain licensed private individuals to rent out rooms in their homes. We’re told that the quality varies immensely – some are like mini hotels and some are very basic rooms in a house or apartment. We’ve booked one that has had good reviews in the Lonely Planet guide book, so hopefully it will nice.
Having booked the accommodation, we then had to book the seats on the bus to Habana. It’s a two mile walk into Varadero, which is one of the more popular tourist areas - the town is really a five mile strip of land with nice beaches and lots of hotels.
Despite our poor Spanish, Glenys managed to get two seats booked on a bus which goes at eight o’clock in the morning. We then had lunch from a takeaway “Taco” place, before wombling back to the marina, where Debbie kindly arranged a taxi for us for tomorrow. We booked it for seven o’clock even though we don’t need to leave until half past because there’s a high chance that the taxi won’t turn up and we’ll have to order another one…
It’s very hot here - we’re definitely below the Tropic of Cancer and in the “tropics” now.
30 December 2012 Varadero, Cuba
It all started off well. The taxi actually turned up and we successfully caught the correct bus which left on time. It was a long, three hour journey, but we were very comfortable on the air-conditioned coach.
We jumped off the bus near the university and walked to our Casa Particular – this is where it all started to spiral downhill. The proprietor of the Casa opened the door and said that some of his other guests had decided to stay another week and therefore he had no space for us. However, he said that he had arranged for us to stay at a friend’s Casa, which he said was a lovely colonial house.
We hung around for twenty minutes until his mate arrived. He couldn’t speak any English and so we just followed him to his house about ½ mile away. In sign language, our new proprietor indicated that we should sit on the rundown porch, while he organised the room. Fifteen minutes later, he took us down a side passage and into what was obviously the part of the house where he normally lived – I guess he was going to go and stay at some friend’s house while we were there.
It was horrible. The room was very basic with a kitchen next door that had obviously been quickly tidied up. The guy wanted $25 per night, so I told him to stuff it and we walked out. We then had a dilemma; we were in the middle of nowhere, in a residential district and couldn’t speak much Spanish – where the hell were we going to stay? In addition, we’d stupidly not brought our passports, so I suspected that we’d have trouble trying to book into a hotel in a country where every movement of people is strictly regulated.
Glenys had a list of addresses of Casa Particulars in Habana, but no telephone numbers, so we picked one that was at the top of her preferred list, who we knew could speak English. We then walked for another half an hour to find it – all the time heading further and further away from the old city, which is really what we’d come to see.
The proprietor Armando was very helpful. No, he didn’t have any space, but he spent ten minutes on the telephone ringing around and eventually found someone that had a room free – his friend Amelia would come and pick us up. Thank God!
While we were waiting, we had a look around the ground floor of his Casa which was beautiful – marble floors and four nice rooms. Frustratingly, it was just what we wanted. The proprietor confirmed that we would have problems because we didn’t have our passports and visa with us. Apparently, they have to take the details of every guest and their passport numbers down to immigration office every day.
When Amelia arrived, she reluctantly agreed to take us for two nights with just our driving licenses as identification. I could have kissed her, because our only other option was to catch a bus back to the marina some three hours away. Before we left, Armando invited us back to his Casa for dinner on New Year’s Eve which we gladly accepted.
We climbed into Amelia’s run-down Lada and she tore through the streets taking us even further away from the old part of the city. The car was a wreck - the suspension was gone completely and she had immense trouble turning the steering wheel – it was obviously well seized up. Amelia could speak English but not very well, so it was very disturbing to listen to her babbling away, being distracted from the difficult job of driving this heap of junk.
When we finally arrived at the Casa, it was okay, so we took the room - we had no other choice because it was about two o’clock by now and we had no idea where the hell we were. After dumping our bags, we went out and had lunch in a small local pizza place before having a wander around the area. Having no other aim, we headed north-west towards the sea and amazingly managed to find it. We were obviously wandering through a residential area for local Cubans, who were going about their business and giving us the odd strange look, but we didn’t feel in any danger.
We had dinner at the Casa which was okay – shrimp with rice and beans, but a bit expensive for $10 each. After dinner, I invited some other residents to share a bottle of rum with us. They had an interesting story. The guy was from the Bahamas and had brought his nine year old, disabled niece over to Cuba to get some operations done on her legs. The lady was a Cuban nurse looking after the little girl. Apparently, it is a very common thing for Bahamians to come to Cuba where the medical treatment is low cost and very good. The little girl had an operation three weeks ago and could now stand up where before she was confirmed to sitting in her wheel chair – impressive.
We collapsed into bed at about half past nine.
31 December 2012 Varadero, Cuba
I had a terribly restless night and woke up at seven o’clock convinced that our run of bad luck was going to continue today and things could rapidly get worse. We had no passports and we could run out of money at the rate that we were spending it – without passports the banks won’t change any money. We decided to cut our losses and go back to Varadero. The only thing that I regretted was not going to Armando’s for dinner on New Year’s Eve, but that in itself could turn into a disaster – how were we going to get there and even worse how were we going to get back after midnight?
We had to do a bit of hustling to get Amelia to take us to the bus station, but it all worked out well with a bus leaving twenty minutes after we got there. Amelia helped us get tickets – we all hugged each other when we parted company which was very nice. The bus journey was uneventful and we arrived back at the marina in the early afternoon.
In the evening, we went for a meal in the Italian restaurant in the marina with Pia & Goran from “Catrine”. We met Debbie as we came out of the restaurant and everyone ended up on our boat, drinking until we saw the New Year in - a nice evening.
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