The World Cruise of Veleda IV

Marina Hemingway, Havana, Cuba 

Here we are in Marina Hemingway just outside of Havana. The crossing of 102 nautical miles was covered in just under 20 hours, with only our exits from and into port being under power. The rest was a moderate to heavy broad reach all the way across with winds from about 8 to 10 knots up until midnight, then 20 to 35 knots until we entered port at 0930. There was a heavy quartering sea which gave our self steering system a hard time, so we hand steered the last 9 hours or so. The hand steering also helped settle Judy's stomach. A beautiful starry night with only a quarter moon which went down about 2200. No dolphins accompanied us this trip, but the display of phosphorescence was intriguing. Because there is the Gulf Stream going through the Florida Strait at between one to two and a half knots, we had to steer a COMPASS course of 180 to try to achieve 165 to hit our waypoint off Marina Hemingway. We could not use our GPS to steer by as it would not give us the proper correction. So we used our ship's magnetic compass to steer 180 (close enough with only 3 degrees of variation). We had to compensate a little when we got to within 5 miles of the waypoint.

As the afternoon and early evening were calmer, I made us a nice supper of fish, a grouper that some American friends from "One Last Time" gave us when we met up with them for the second time in the Dry Tortugas. We then took them a loaf of our home made bread that we had just baked that day. At sunset we put a reef in the main as a standard night sailing precaution. We do not want to have to stagger up on deck to put in a reef in a heavy sea at night, and so put in a precautionary single reef. We were glad we did, as we needed it after midnight, and we even reefed in the genoa to about 60% of its size. We had luff padding strips sewn into the luff of our genoa so it could be partially furled and still retain a good shape. Thus we have no reservations about partially furling our genoa to reef it in to whatever size we want. If we do have to get out of the cockpit at night, we are always hooked on with our safety harnesses to permanently installed jack lines made of heavy webbing going fore and aft on both sides of the boat.

Hand steering at night also allowed us to use the ancient technique of putting a star in alignment with a forward stay or shroud when on course, and steering by that star rather than having to focus on the compass all the time. We passed several ships and fishing boats during the night.

Coming in to Marina Hemingway was a straightforward entry, except one dare not go outside the marked channel as it cuts through the reef. A heavy crosswind or current has given boaters considerable concern. We had a cordial welcome when we finally reached the dock master on channel 72 while about three miles out. He gave us entry instructions and arranged for all the officials to come aboard, one set at a time. We were here in CUBA! Our first time sailing into the tropics! We are in the tropics as 23 30 N is the Tropic of Cancer parallel and our Marina slip is 23 05.4 N and 081 29.8W. The weather is beautiful, sunny, dry, hot and windy, and we are here!

We had to wait about a half hour for the first official, then it went smoothly and we were finished 90 minutes later. We had a chance to clean up the boat before they arrived and we had all our papers in order. The book, CUBA - A Cruising Guide, written by Nigel Calder was valuable in preparing us for the paperwork to be completed. We had our passports, boat's registration certificate, bill of sale, health cards, and a crew list prepared with names, passport numbers, birth dates, nationalities, and home mailing addresses, as well as a list of Veleda's specifications of length, draft, engine make and size, and so on. We had photocopies of these lists that we gave them as need be. We had six of each, but only gave two out. We had pens and carbon paper ready but did not need them as the officials had their own. All the officials were courteous and professional and reasonably fluent in English. We had to pay $10.00 for the entry stamp, and $15.00 each for our passport stamp and visa permit good for six months, for a total of only $40.00. It costs more than that for a first time entry into U.S. waters by a Canadian boat!

When we were about to slip from the customs dock, a couple of customs officers who had been on board earlier hailed us and asked for a ride down to our dock, as the layout of the marina would have meant a two mile walk for them to get to the main gate. They were friendly and helped with our lines. As we came down the long canal that held our berth, we passed three other boats we had met earlier in Florida, two Canadian and one British., and were visited by them before the day was out. A friendly American from the boat astern of us helped with the lines and proved to be a good source of local knowledge. Within the hour he told us of a good economical restaurant and arranged for a "private" taxi to take us there and pick us up an hour later for only $5.00 return.

The restaurant was a delightful open air bar and restaurant behind a couple of private houses. These types of "private" restaurants have only been permitted recently, and are far more economical than the state-run ones. We took a table under a small awning at the water's edge and realized how close it was to the marina; we could easily dinghy over to it. The menu! We had not done our homework with Spanish and knew little and did not even possess a phrase book! Of course being a small private restaurant, no one knew English. We could figure out several of the items and ordered. We lucked in and had a lovely lunch of garden salad and a veal steak with yucca (a plantain type starch, and very tasty), black beans and rice, and fried banana chips. That and two beers and a mineral water only came to $14.00!

Cuba is a great experience. We wish we had allowed more time here, but it was an afterthought that I requested before going to the Bahamas. Cuba will definitely be on our itinerary the next time we are cruising the Caribbean after we come back from Europe. Two important lessons have been learned. One - is to familiarize oneself with the language well before even embarking on a trip to a foreign-speaking land, and have a good phrase book. We started looking for a book only in Key West four days before we sailed into Hemingway Marina, and then only found a Berlitz Spanish Language instruction book. It has an abbreviated English to Spanish vocabulary list, but no Spanish to English dictionary. Two - is when cruising, don't plan your itinerary too far in advance. Every commitment to be in a certain place at a certain time limits your flexibility to go or stay when you feel like it which is the essence of the cruising life.

Our first trip into old Havana created a mixture of reactions. I love the architecture of the buildings and homes. The Spanish arches, Greek columns, filigree designs in concrete and wrought iron, the balconies, the central courtyards, are so much in evidence that Havana must have been one of the finest cities in the western hemisphere, architecturally at least. I put this in the past tense as many of the homes and buildings are in a crumbling state of disrepair. People are living in very derelict buildings that one would think are abandoned. Right beside such buildings could be a shell that is abandoned, or a section that is in good shape with a reasonably fresh paint job. Parts of the city look like bombed out areas. It is a tragedy to see this former glory crumbling into nothingness.

However, the streets are clean and the people friendly. The road coming in from Marina Hemingway goes past a section of lovely well kept homes and buildings many of which house embassies. It then goes past a couple of ancient forts and a variety of statued parks commemorating heroes of the war for independence against Spain, the Revolution against Batista, and even the men killed in the sinking of the Maine. The main streets are wide and broad avenues lace through the central areas, leading to or passing major buildings such as the former Presidential Palace, the former Capitol building very similar to the U.S. Capitol and a few feet taller, and major parks and forts. However, adjacent to these structures could be run-down or derelict buildings, taking away their grandeur. Across from the Capitol building, which is now a science and technology museum, is a broad avenue, faced by an ornate balconied building that is in bad need of maintenance, and looks like slum apartments, with washing hanging out, wires strung down the sides, teeming with people, and nothing bright or colourful. It seems a tragedy, but I guess it is a priority of the government to put more focus on housing, health care and education, as opposed to maintenance, and in hard times , maintenance suffers.

The cars around here would be an antique or classic car buff's delight. They have not had any North American cars here since the revolution, and many late 1940's and 50's Fords, Chevs, Pontiacs, Dodges, Plymouths and some Cadillacs are still operational. They may be scratched, dented, and belching black smoke, but they work. It is like being back in the 50's with the wrap around windshields, and big tail fins. I saw an old Dodge similar to one I had when I was at university. The first private taxi we took was a 1956 Chev Bel Air.

When we came back from our day touring Havana we rode in the open "rumble seat" of a 1928 Ford roadster. There are many old Fiats and the Russian version, the Lada Motorcycles are all over the place. I have never seen so many motorcycles with side cars in my life. Unfortunately many of them belch out horrible fumes. There are no pollution controls over here.

Another interesting source of public transit in addition to old buses are their "camels". These are tractor trailer cabs towing a long trailer, high at the front, a low mid section and high at the back (thus the name "camel") and built with seats and windows like a bus. They are usually a faded pink colour, and always crammed with people. On the highways we saw many an open truck crammed with workers, or children, and sometimes with people and bicycles stacked on. Many people stand on the edges of the street corners trying to hitch a ride. The local buses always seemed crammed full. Long lines of people waiting at bus stops were common. When we asked about using local buses to get into Havana, we were advised against it because of the frequent delays and overcrowding.

We did the museum thing and saw several forts dating back to 1522 when the gold being routed to Havana was shipped out in convoys to Spain. Moro Castle was impressive in its size. We thought Fort Jefferson in the Dry Tortugas was the biggest fort we have seen, but Moro Castle exceeded it. It has a commanding presence at the entrance to Havana Harbour. It was started in 1577. The massive walls, the arches, gun ports, ramparts, moats, and passageways made this ancient Spanish castle an intriguing visit. The last 100 years or so it has been a prison, then a naval academy, and now a museum. The Harbour Master's office is located here to direct shipping in and out of the harbour. We were invited in and had their operations shown to us in detail. We will call them on VHF when we depart and thank them again for their courtesy. The first building we went through when we arrived in Havana was their Palacio del Segundo Cabo, a rectangular columned and balconied baroque edifice with a lovely internal open courtyard, originally for the "second in command", the royal police, then the senate, the Supreme Court, and now the Cuban Book Institute. There were some colourful stained glass windows that reflected the colours on the interior walls with brilliant sunshine.

The former Presidential Palace is now the Museum of the Revolution. The grand entrance and stairway still bear the bullet holes made when young Cubans and university students attacked it in 1957 in an attempt to kill Batista. There are historical artifacts from the revolution, and a chronological account of people, events and battles, some of which was in English. Of course it was from the communist perspective. It started from the war for independence from Spain in the 1890's up to the Spanish American War which resulted in American imposed neo-colonialism. It traced the plight of the poor, culminating in Castro's efforts and revolution. It then traced some of the developments since the revolution, including the U.S. embargo and the Bay of Pigs invasion. In the park behind the palace they had tanks, planes, the Granma boat that brought Castro and a band of soldiers to Cuba, and some wreckage of a U-2 type spy plane shot down and a U.S. bomber shot down during the Bay of Pigs invasion. The pilot's body was recovered but was left in Cuba for 19 years before the U.S. would acknowledge that a U.S. serviceman was involved in that invasion. The U.S. then made a request for its return, which was then granted by the Cuban government.

Judy and I are interested in history, but we also enjoyed the palace as a piece of baroque architecture and beauty. Mirrored ballrooms patterned on the palace at Versailles were adorned with magnificent ceiling frescoes. At least the maintenance inside the building was good. It reminded me of my trip to Russia 20 years ago before the Iron Curtain came down. Their churches were well maintained with fresh paint and gilt trims, not as places of worship, but as museums. However, we could see that such magnificent structures were on the backs of an oppressed people. I will possibly put more of my personal reactions to this revolutionary society in future logs, as I have many feelings and reactions to what has happened here in Cuba. I do regret the U.S. embargo. It is hypocritical, and hurting the people, and is not succeeding in bringing down the Castro government. The Cuban people are enjoyable and we look forward to returning.

Next Log

Links:

Dry Tortugas 2000

Tortuga Books