Florida and Cuba

We arrived back in Fort Lauderdale in early April and it was almost as if we hadn’t left for our month’s visit to Australia.  We began work almost immediately, putting the boat back together for sailing.  Our new fitting for the pulpit was ready and the new code zero sail arrived a week later.  We had to revarnish our woodwork which took us the best part of 5 days to complete.  For this we moved off the dock and onto a mooring buoy so that the fenders would not rub the new varnish.  We were right next to the Las Olas bridge and we watched it open and close every half hour to let boats through. It became our defacto clock as we worked on the deck.

The night before we left we had a wonderful dinner with our extended family who had been so wonderfully helpful and kind during our extended stay in Fort Lauderdale.

Our last dinghy trip from Jim’s house resulted in a bit of a hiccup.  When we tried to lift our little anchor, we found it dug in too deeply to lift.  Fortunately it was near low tide and I took a quick swim down and managed to lift it on the first attempt.

We departed around midday on Monday, 16^th April, bound for Havana, Cuba. We had light winds so it was a good opportunity to try out the new sail.  All went smoothly until the late afternoon when our halyard snapped, dropping the sail into the water.  Fortunately we still had daylight and the sail is made out of very light-weight material so we were able to retrieve it without too much trouble.

At midnight during our second night, the autopilot suddenly failed. It showed our little boat moving backwards on the screen! It took us a while to work out that we had not in fact turned around on a heading back to Florida.  Fortunately a reboot sorted out the problem.

We arrived at Marina Hemmingway, just 20nm. west of Havana, at the little town of Santa Fe. We received a wonderful reception. Seven officials, all dressed in white tops and army green trousers were lined up along the dock to meet us. Accompanying them were two sniffer dogs. The five ladies came aboard to perform the paperwork and then  two sniffer dogs and their handlers came aboard and did a search.  Everyone was very friendly and welcoming, they were efficient and our clearance was complete within the hour.

We were directed to tie up along a long  canal where there were another twenty odd boats.

Marina Hemmingway

Taxi tour of Havana

Cuban art

 There was water and electricity alongside and a very nice Chinese restaurant at the marina where we ate on the first night. There were also many signs of decay though. Just next to our boat were two large flat areas of cracked concrete which had been tennis courts in days gone by.  Water pressure for showers was only to be had in the mornings.  We discovered that water is brought in daily by tanker so if you didn’t get in early, you had no water with which to shower. Only one toilet in the ladies change room had a seat, the men had none.

Everywhere in Havana one sees 1950’s cars.  They are used as taxis. You can either get one as a private taxi or hail one which does a fixed route and picks up passengers along the way. Some are in original condition, others have been lovingly restored with new diesel engines in them.  Most have been passed down from grandfather to father to son. They charge 25CUC (equivalent to US$25 to take you into town.  Bearing in mind that the average salary is CUC$10.00/month  it is a good way to make a living in Cuba.

Taxis in Havana

 One of our drivers turned out to be a gynaecologist who is now driving a taxi and working the land to earn a living.  A few years ago the government granted farm land to those who wanted to work the land and he took this up and is growing lemon trees in his spare time.  He says he did this as around 8 years ago there was extreme malnutrition in Cuba and he felt that having land was the best way to prevent his family from starving. He says that the 30% of land owned privately produces 70% of the produce.

Havana is a treat.  There is hustle and bustle, people everywhere, all with big smiles on their faces, laughter, music and dancing everywhere. There are many street bands playing Cuban music and jazz and many of the restaurants and coffee shops have live bands and dancers who encourage the clientele to get up and dance too.

A lovely aspect of Cuba is the safety.  There is virtually no graffiti, no pedophiles and punishment for any crime is very harsh, especially if it is against a tourist or if drugs are involved. It is safe to walk about alone at night. The people are all very helpful and although they are all very poor, nobody hustled us for money.

An interesting thing that Cuba has done is to have two forms of currency. There are pesos for the locals and Cuban Convertible pesos for foreigners, which are worth 24 times more than local pesos.  It is illegal for foreigners to use the local currency so they pay MUCH more for everything.  That ensures that the locals can still buy things although not very much on CUC10/month.  There is virtually no produce to buy from shops. The government gives the people food stamps so that they can survive. Everyone is thin in Cuba, but having said that, nobody looks malnourished and all are dressed well in clothes that are not faded or shabby.

Havana must have been the jewel of the Caribbean in the 1800’s.  There are beautiful old Spanish style mansions which were the homes of the wealthy sugar barons. They are now being used as museums, government offices and libraries. 

1800 Spanish baron's home

Education and health has been a priority of the present government and literacy is 100% and they have a very good hospital.  Out of the hospital though, one cannot buy pharmaceuticals in Cuba, only herbal medicine.

While in Cuba, to fix the snapped halyard of our code zero sail, we dropped a line down the mast with a fishing sinker attached.  As luck would have it, this line became tangled with something inside the mast and we could not retrieve the sinker.  On leaving the port, to our consternation we discovered that this line was acting as a pendulum and the sinker was hitting the inside of the mast with a loud clang with the least movement of the boat. We knew we had to do something about it as there would be no rest for either of us if it stayed there.  Luckily while in Florida, we had bought a fish trace (steel wire with a hook on the end) to pass the wire for our aerial to the new Iridium system down the targo arch. We used this and managed to snag the line and retrieve the sinker. All is quiet again!