Cuba 2012 - Vita to Varadero

Cuba 2012: Vita to Varadero

On March 15 Chris Parker gave us a weather forecast for three days of mild winds and calm seas with conditions expected to deteriorate on day four. We decided to leave later in the day and make a straight run to Varadero. We advised the marina office of our intentions and arranged for the officials to check us out.

We had laundry to pick up before we left …

… and goodbye’s to say to our laundry family.

Christian was quite proud of his pet rooster.

Suzie had been temporarily relegated to the rooftop as a means of birth control.

With our obligations met we were free to move on.

These stamps, applied to our Permiso Especial de Navegacion, gave us permission to travel in Cuban waters.

Mascaret II and Sail Away accompanied us out of the harbour, bound for Varadero as well. The wind was from the east around 23 knots with wind driven well-spaced waves between 6 and 8 feet plus a two foot chop on top. We put up the main sail and unrolled part of the jib, set a north westerly course and were soon sailing between 6 and 7.5 knots.

This fishing boat was so well hidden in the waves that we did not see it until we had passed it.

We put a reef in the main and rolled up some of the head sail in order to keep our boat speed under 7 knots so the other two boats could keep pace with us. We were able to maintain our same course most of the night except to dodge traffic in the busy Old Bahama Channel. When we realized that we were travelling between the two shipping lanes we took the first opportunity to get well out of the way.

We were hailed by the coast guard as we passed Cayo Confites in the morning and again in the afternoon as we approached the lighthouse at Cayo Paradon Grande. In both instances we were asked for our boat name, destination, the number of people on board and nationality. At Paradon Grande we were asked if we wanted to anchor for the night and replied that we would not be stopping.

On our second morning at sea we reached Cayo Lancanilla where we stopped to rest for a few hours. The stop would also give us a morning arrival at Varadero.

We did not need the bait fish that the fishermen had to trade but gave them some much appreciated fishing line.

The wind maintained a consistent direction from the east around 20 knots for most of the trip. We only needed to run the engine periodically during the night to charge the batteries and to power through a squall that hit just before midnight after we left Lancanilla Cay. We could see the storm approaching on radar. It looked like a Pac Man character chomping its way towards us. When it hit we had heavy rain and wind gusts to 35 knots. The good news was that the wind also blew the waves flat making our ride smoother.

By the time we saw the reflection of the lights from Varadero in the sky both wind and waves had settled down.

It was good to see a large contingent of cruisers at the docks in Marina Darsena. We were also happy to see that the dock refurbishment program had made good progress since last year’s visit. The ladies section of the shower building was even open!

Exuma Park to Little Farmers

Exuma Park to Little Farmers – January 27 to February 3, 2013

Some of the preferred mooring balls in Exuma Park.

Our stay at Warderick Wells was prolonged by the list of projects that Henry, the head ranger kept finding for Tom.

One of the volunteer assignments that he worked on was to put together a donated sailing dinghy that had been in storage on the work beach.

The hutias have been hard at work denuding the trees on Warderick Wells Cay. How long will it be before they have eliminated their food source and their numbers start to decrease?

We thought that hurricane Sandy might have relocated the signboard that we placed at the top of Boo Boo Hill in 2009. It was updated in 2010 but not 2011 and we would like to see it brought up to date. We did find our board in the pile but decided that it is too small to add more dates to it. Now the hunt is on for the perfect piece of driftwood.

Mascaret’s artwork weathered the storm. The paint is still very legible. Mascaret was one of our travelling companions to Cuba last year.

Hurricane Sandy did render the Park’s fuel dock unusable but it is still a good dinghy staging area for snorkelling. We donned wet suits and joined Cilelo for some amazing underwater sightseeing. The ledges along the eastern side of the island are inhabited by an amazing variety of sea life. There were samples of almost every species of fish and coral in my guidebook. Thankfully, those missing were the sharks and the barracudas! I was really wishing I had a good underwater camera.

The date of the Five F Festival was approaching and Tom hoped to catch a ride on one of the C-class racing sloops out of Black Point again. We were in a self-imposed rush and made only a very brief stop at Big Majors Spot where we met up with Moya Mreeya, another boat from LSYC, our former yacht club.

 Isn’t there a saying about being happier than pigs in s---? In this case that four letter word would be "sand".

Tom expected that some repairs would need to be done to the Black Point boats before race day and wanted to be available to help out. He was disappointed when he found out that neither Smashie nor Seahorse would be participating in the races this year.

Seahorse (far right) is having lead added to the keel …

… and Smashie is undergoing major repairs.

Both boats need repairs to their masts. Neither would be ready to launch anytime soon.

Life in Black Point seems to be unchanged with noisy happy hours at Scorpio’s and BBQ buffets at Lorraine’s Café. Agnes is still keeping busy plaiting strips for the bags and baskets that are sold in the straw markets in the big resort aeas of Nassau and Lucaya.

Lorraine’s Café is one of a few buildings that have had recent makeovers.

 Before.

After

Just before Chris Parker’s 6:30AM weather broadcast on the day of the start of the 5F Festival we started to hear very loud music. It seemed to be coming from somewhere in the anchorage but we couldn’t imagine that any of the cruisers would be up partying before sunrise. Tom scanned the area with binoculars looking for the source of this Bahamian alarm clock and spotted a mail boat coming over the horizon with party music on full blast. At first we thought it was the Captain C transporting boats to the races but it was going in the wrong direction. Instead of coming right in to Black Point it hung a left and went out Dotham Cut.

One would think that with a six inch wing span this fellow would not need to hitch a ride.

We left Black Point headed for Little Farmers Cay behind the catamaran Field Trip.

We soon realized that we were catching up and the race was on.

Tom passed on some sail trim racing tips to mark expecting that they would soon leave us miles behind. We still seemed to be catching up. A 37 foot, 1985 Prout Snowgoose should not be faster than a 44 foot, 2012 Antares! Then Mark realized that he still had his anchor hanging in the water to wash the sand off and pulled it the rest of the way up. Again we expected them to leave us behind. We pumped out the holding tank to get rid of some extra weight and stopped giving advice to the competition.

Lo and behold we were still gaining on them…

… and actually passed them. What were the chances?

With a cold front bringing winds in excess of 20 knots from NNE, anchoring near the regatta site off the air strip on Farmers Cay was out of the question. The races would have to be observed from shore instead of the comfort of our own boat.

As we watched the sloops being unloaded from the Captain C at the Farmers Cay yacht Club dock, Tom said he would not race this year.

Then we got in the dinghy and headed for the regatta beach to check out the activities. On the way over we spotted Dave who always seems to bring Dream Girl without crew. When we went over to say hello Tom’s greeting was returned with “I need you man.”

In less than five minutes he was out of the dingy, aboard the sloop and preparing it for the start line.

The heavy winds and waves made for a boisterous race. Nine of ten C-class sloops made it to the start line, one sank rounding the first mark and one pulled out due to rigging problems. Seven boats crossed the finish line. Dream Girl was in 6^th place. The second race was cancelled due to weather.

Tom’s comment over coffee the next morning was “I don’t think I’ll race today”. By the time we were ready to hop in the dinghy and go ashore he had a bag packed with his wet suit, a pair of gloves and a change of clothes. Three back to back races, Dream Girl placed a consistent last every time. Dream Girl was also the only boat with a crew of three non-Bahamians except for the skipper. The winning boats had all Bahamian, experienced, five man crews. The good news – they had fun, with no collisions (you need to be close to at least one other boat for that to happen), they did not sink and they did not sustain any boat damage to make them withdraw from the race.

 

Captain and crew.

Our last night in Little Farmers was Super Bowl and like all good cruisers we supported the local economy by attending the party put on by Roosevelt Nixon. We were seated at a table with a Florida registered trawler called The Laurel. When the captain of The Laurel learned that we were on  a Canadian catamaran named Polar Pacer his response was "Isn't that Gerry Gayk's boat?". We had not heard that line since 2009 and were truly convinced that Polar Pacer had finally become 

"our" boat. Turns out that Marcel is a founding member of Lakeshore yacht Club and used to sail with Gerry on Polar Pacer many years ago.