Isla de la Juventad - Cuba
AJAYA'S CRUISE
Phil & Nikki Hoskins
Sun 3 Mar 2013 17:05
In position 21:55.968N, 082:58.994W
We were waved away from the Guardia dock on arrival in La
Coloma and were requested to drop anchor 100 metres out and wait. Georges
the local Guardia was rowed out to us by a young local lad in a
beat up fibreglass dinghy. He declined our invitation to come onboard (we
hadn't seen a doctor yet - a necessity for all craft entering Cuban
waters) and proceeded to write down our details on a neatly
handwritten template form. Even Government officials in Cuba do not always have
access to printed forms or even the use of an outboard motor come to
that! He was delighted that we were able to provide copies of our
boat documents which probably cut short his workload tenfold. He was a
friendly chap but unfortunately being the only representative of Cuba
officialdom in La Coloma charged with documenting the arrival of 'alien'
craft we were unable to officially clear into the country. It was strange to see
boat crews being rowed everywhere. Quiet too! We left the
next morning (Friday) as we were rather in the way of the busy fishing
fleet. We also wanted to push onwards to Isla de la Juventad (Isle of
Youth) to officially 'enter' the country.
The forecast despite the approaching frontal system
was incredibly optimistic with predicted winds of 10 - 15 knots from the
northeast backing into the north - just perfect for a good sail! The
reality was rather different. Half-way through the 44 mile run south-eastwards
we were bouncing off waves at 7 knots with 25 knot winds at between 60 and 90
degrees port side. (Ah ! those computer model forecasts). Torrential rain
poured onto the deck soaking everything around us whilst below buckets and
towels covered the known leak areas. But at least the cement dust and bird guano
from Isla Mujeres has finally been washed away and our decks are pristine
white. One unsavoury aspect of the trip was an issue with the starboard holding
tank which for some reason whilst we were flushing it through decided to leak
into the aft compartment which then drains into the bilge area in the aft cabin.
It's hard to put into words just how ghastly the stench was so we won't try.
Skip is still avoiding opening up the rear compartment to investigate for quite
understandable reasons.
The Gulf of Batabano is extremely shallow and for most of the
trip we were in waters not much deeper than 20 feet and at times just 12 feet
under the keel. As the wind strength increased into the upper 20's we were very
relieved to make the anchorage named Ensenada de los Barcos, (translated as
Inlet of the boats) a huge mangrove lined bay at the northwest tip of the
island. Here we were safe from the prevailing wind direction and where we
could sit out the worst of the second reinforcing front before
moving southwards along the west coast of the island.
Today the sun is shining but with a chilly northwest wind. The
front is due to clear through today so tomorrow we can get on our
way again. As we have not seen another boat (or human) since arriving it would
appear that this bay is somewhat inappropriately
named!
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