Hi Everyone, hope you are all well?

At this moment (1451 local time, 2051 BST) we are sailing with the chute flying at approximately 3.7 knots. We are about 100 nm off the west tip of Cuba. We have covered 152 nm since leaving Grand Cayman. We have about 250 nm to go to Hemingway Marina which is a few miles west of Havana. Our ETA is Friday (5th May) hopefully in the morning.

 

It is lovely and quiet and very hot. Not much wind which is why the 3.7 knots of boat speed. But we have been motoring most of the day at about 8 knots and having the sails up welcome is relief from the engine noise. The forecast is for light winds and so it is likely we will oscillate between slow sailing and motoring for the next couple of days.

We left George Town at about 1600 local time yesterday (2nd May) afternoon after quite a fuss trying to get fuel. We had planned to depart on Monday (1st) but the wind and the swell was such that there was no way we could get Lilli Mae onto the dock safely. It was tough enough taking the dinghy in to do the shopping! Yesterday at 1500 we motored in to George Town Port to get fuelled up.

Once we had fuel we radioed in to George Town Port Security to advise of our departure headed off. The people we have met have been very nice particularly those working at the port customs and immigration. In fact there was some excitement when Marva discovered the Linton name was associated with the boat. Marva introduced us to Veronica (right below) whose first husband was Rupert Linton from Jamaica. Rupert Whatsapp’d us this morning and explained that all of his family are from Linton Park, Trelawny which is where our Linton line originates! So more family links to follow-up in Cayman!

As a result of our delayed departure we hired a car and toured the island on Monday. We discovered the local "White Tip” beer at Macabuca on Botswain’s beach. We liked it so much we bought 2 cases for the boat! We were able to drive pretty much around the island in a few hours with stops for beer, coffee and cake!

That’s it for the moment. However we should advise the duel between the ocean and Lilli Mae crew (fishing competition) has started again. Our shopping included some ginger, wasabi and soy for the tuna we plan to catch! Last night we (Rick) made a first catch but not quite what we were looking for.

So I think the fish count is still zero.

Anyway that’s enough for now.

Next update will be from Cuba.

Take care everyone!

Crew aboard Lilli Mae.