Sailing with the Treleavens

Our first 24 hours in Cuba, Ian feels like he has died and gone to heaven with wonderful music, mojitos and friendly Spanish speaking people. As for me, it is an enlightening experience, full of wonderful wide eyed images.

Our sail to the eastern tip of Cuba from the Turks was fast and furious. Once in the lee of the island on the south side we sailed 100nms west to Santiago de Cuba. Half way along we are confronted by the might of the USA Military in the form of a patrol boat armed with machine guns and canon pointing directly at us. We are passing Guantanamo Bay, the United States Naval Base, and we wished to take a closer look but we are immediately informed by VHF radio that we are close to USA Territory (thoughts go to Rudd and Obama currently meeting; aren’t we on the same side?) and to identify ourselves. It actually took the operator six times to obtain all the information.

The ocean boundary is 3nms offshore and extends along the shore for over 8nms. The patrol boat was flanked between us and the shore for over an hour. It was a bit nerve racking watching the 20 year gunner with his finger on the tricker hoping he wouldn’t slip on a big wave by mistake. Undeterred we sail on to a very different port of entry… Santiago de Cuba. We are greeted by the historical Castillo de San Pedro Del Morro fort on the steep headland built by the Spanish in 1633 and a history lesson begins.

Our Cruising Guide has not been revised for ten years and we where expecting a filthy harbour, rickety wharf, officials wanting gifts and if you are lucky some other cruisers for company. This was not the case. From the moment we entered the fiord looking harbour, it opens up and with that wow factor! The water is clean, a stunning back drop of mountains, locals at the beach, palm trees everywhere and the marina is full with ten cruising yachts. What you do also notice is the lack of paint and maintenance everywhere like time has stood still for 50+ years although the beauty of the place and the delightful friendly people make up for it.

Once we passed the pleasant officials (lost count of the number) including a Doctor to make sure we have no diseases and a sniffer dog, we join a spontaneous 50th birthday party ashore for a pig on the spit and a whole new set of friends. Irish Nick on “Val” is single handing his way around the world and wants us to join him early the next morning to visit the farmers market in the centre of the city ten kilometres away. The main square, Parque Cespedes is just as we expected; Spanish architecture with some crumbling and some being restored, old colourful classic 1950’s American cars and an old woman smoking a cigar.

The first problem to cope with is the confusing double currency. Convertible pesos for tourists and for locals, national pesos but to buy at the local markets we need both. The farmers market is rustic and very very cheap. Farmers have only just recently been able to sell on the open market and although limited, it’s seasonal and very fresh. Meat is pork, pork and pork which is going to test my creative skills but at least we will end up with healthy hearts.

Coffee is at the Casa Grand Hotel overlooking the square in 20’s style with open veranda and art décor lights. Salsa music fills the air everywhere you go. Old men on benches strum guitars. Africans sing and dance to their own tune. Small café/bar theatres have day time free shows where locals do there own thing. One such place is Casa de la Trova where we spend many hours listening and having lunch in the Spanish open air style courtyard. This is the home of Cuban music and many famous bands have emerged from here including The Buenos Vista Social Club whose 70+ year old performers have toured the world. We had not realised it but Cuba is home to mojitos and we enjoy many. Their idea of rum and coke is a bottle of each for $5.

This is great, we need to freshen up back at the yacht and be back in town for the evening session. Our ride back is in a sky blue 1948 Buick; so much fun as the petrol engine roars into life. I can barely see out the window as I sink into old sky blue leather. Romantic salsa music fills the car… I’m in the movie ‘Grease’… the colourful, cute driver who loves his car will be back to pick us up.

Colourful ladies of the night, passionate salsa dancing, hustlers teaching the girls how it is done and long mojitos as the bands do their thing on stage; this night should never end. At 2pm there are not a lot of cars around, so we take our life in our own hands and get a 1970’s Russian Lada which is a beat up heap, coasting down hills to save fuel and on arrival looses its exhaust pipe.

Our next two days are spent at the marina just loving the weather and mucking about.
We have no choice but to be moored here as rules state we are not allowed to anchor out and we cannot use the dinghy to explore. But we do however have power, water and Havana Club rum at only US$4.00 a bottle.

Now it is time to see the back streets and what they don’t want the tourist to see!! Hiring a driver for the morning we check out the cigar factory. As luck would have it’s the MonteCristo Cigar factory, rated number two in the world behind another Cuban brand, Cohiba. The factory has 250 employees all producing 100% hand made cigars (totalmente a mano) and they turn out 20,000 a day. Unfortunately they would not let us take any photographs of these hard working locals that earn about US$15 a month.

The back streets show the other side. Dirt roads dug up trying to repair water pipes that have not been touched since before the revolution in 1959, bland Soviet Union built tenements which are free to all Cubans and people reverting to horse and cart due to lack of fuel. What does come as a surprise is that most people are well dressed. It’s just the in fore structure around that is in bad disrepair and what will happen if this continues much longer.

The only advertising you see are large billboards with images of the founding revolutionaries including Fidel and Che promoting the 50th anniversary of the success on 1 January 1959. Cuba has been a communist country ever since and the signs of this failed dream are everywhere. Fidel Castro overthrew a corrupt capitalist government that had been sponsored by the USA since 1899. Before these times it had been controlled by Spain, since Columbus arrived in 1492 until the Spanish land owners rebelled against control by Spain in 1868. Another rebellion was led by Marti in 1895 which resulted in the US involvement.

On a happier note the Santiago de Cuba musical festival has just started and this will make our stay very special.

A week of maintenance and cleaning has now prepared us for our next big adventure, Cuba.

From the north side of Provo we gently sailed out of Grace Bay through Sellars Cut in the reef. On route around the western end of Provo through Malcolm Roads, the luxurious resort Amanyara takes our attention, so we just anchor off and go ashore for a look. Balinese style, thatched roof villas and very beautiful, but as our two cocktails came to $US50 it was a quick visit. The bay is exposed to the north but as its flat calm we decide to stay the night; the water is transparent and it is an ideal times for Ian to clean off the bottom and propeller. This year we painted the prop with Prop speed but it seems to have had the opposite effect to its claims and is absolutely covered in barnacles, really slowing us down. The antifouling Micron 66 has also attracted a few patches of barnacles; unusual considering the sea water hasn’t been as warm as normal.

Now on the south side of Provo at Sapodilla Bay we spend our days changing oil and evenings being very social with all the cruising yachts passing through. Nothing like a mix of Americans, English and Aussies all discussing politics; arguing about which country has caused all the current financial problems.

Finding a fuel leak to the generator, we move to a half finished marina called the Annex in Cooper Jack Bight. It is great shelter in the strong winds and has the advantage of no fees. Southside Marina is the next bay to the east, and as we are too deep to go in there they are very helpful in getting this fixed.

Simon and Charlyn manage this very small, friendly and social marina. Nothing like a BBQ covered in local fresh lobster, in fact enough to feed over 20 of us. Simon also runs a cruisers net daily on VHF radio on channel 18 to keep all cruisers up to date with weather and happenings.

Wind; they like to tell us this is unusual, but we are only to happy not to be going north to the Bahamas. The north wind is persistent and can hold cruisers for up to two weeks in a bay.

Our last day here in the Turks and Caicos and what could be better than a day at Da Conch Shack and Bar. I have finally given in to eating conch, conch fritters and cracked conch straight from the sea….. delicious. The last of the original beach bars and run by Jamaicans, lots of fun people. We will now miss those big white smiles when the word “cricket” comes up.

Tomorrow we sail for Cuba, 245nms south to Santiago de Cuba on the south side. The weather looks perfect with 15 gto 20 knots from just aft of the port beam and following seas.

Geoff and Pip Lavis are joining us for three weeks and we are looking forward very much to sharing this totally difference experience with them. Communication with getting emails away may be difficult so we will do our best and keep you up to date or take you back to the 1960s.

With only a day to spare to rendezvous with Mick and Di Quaife in Grand Turk, we are given permission to leave Luperon in the Dominican Republic. What a lot of bureaucratic nonsense; one would have to think twice about going in there again. Our sail overnight under full moon is fast and comfortable. We arrive at 5am in darkness as the moon disappears behind a cloud, the autopilot goes down and no lighthouse working. Edging ever so slowly towards the beach we anchor, sleep and wait till daybreak.

Big Sand Cay, the southern most of the Turk group of islands, is uninhabited with white cliffs, a blown over lighthouse and stunning clear water to greet us when we wake. From sea depths of over 4000m to this small island in the middle of nowhere, it’s no wonder it has claimed so many mariners. Pulling in beside us is the Lagoon ‘Why Not’ which we passed during the night. Onboard is Terry Bufton who manages to fix the hydraulics…what a stroke of luck. Terry is an aero nautical engineer who helps deliver yachts in his retirement.

We have actually deviated off our planned route of sailing west to Cuba and the West Caribbean Countries of Mexico, Belize and Guatemala to visit the Turks and Caicos Islands. They are neither the Bahamas nor the Caribbean but very similar to all the Bahamian Islands (only 40nm away) with low lying sand cays and large areas of shallow reefs. Previously a British Crown Colony, it appears it is about to come back under British rule due to government corruption. Corruption has been on going for years but the final straw is the disappearance of the five million pounds received from the British for damage caused by the hurricanes Ike and Hanna September last year. On Grand Turk, corrugated iron lies everywhere and houses remain roofless. The custom office was still in darkness as not all electricity has been restored.

Grand Turk claims to be the landing spot for Columbus on his voyage of discovery in 1492 (but this is also claimed by two other Bahamian Islands just west of here). John Glenn also set foot back on earth here after his famous space flight in 1962. It is a British possession due to the number of British pirates who based themselves here whilst operating under Elizabeth 1’s cover to plunder more Spanish galleons. Although the main population is on Provo, the capital is on Grand Turk where only a few hundred live. The whole group now relies on tourism, as it’s so dry nothing is being produced.

Mick and Di join us and it’s great to have company to sail these islands with stunning seas. Always a highlight in crossings is reeling in a Dorado and they seem to be getting bigger and bigger the further we go. We seem to always hook them as we approach land as the shelf rises up from the depths. Apparently the currents push fish into this area making it an ideal feeding ground for the bigger fish. More often than not it is either just after sun rise or just before sunset.

Cockburn Harbour on South Caicos is the safest anchorage in the T&C but the main reason for stopping is the lobster factory. Over the next two days, we are to cross the Caicos Bank in very shallow water. Its mostly sand but there are some bommies (coral heads). At its widest point this area is 60nm but well charted with various routes to take depending on your draft. We take the Pearl Hwy that allows a draft to 7 feet but since we draw 6.6, it’s pretty scary and could never be negotiated at night.

The clarity and colour as far as the eye can see is amazing; aquamarine sea, blue skies, some white clouds tinged with the seas reflection. This is the perfect sail and the only thing we have to do is watch for bommies. You can see them in the distance as long as the sun is behind you. Then you just steer around them, even if they only turn out to be the shadow of a cloud. We decide to anchor midway and enjoy the simple fact that in the middle of the ocean with no sign of land, you can enjoy this not to be missed experience.

Eight lobster tails on the BBQ (sorry, staple diet here), Moet Champagne, a compulsory swim in the morning and we move on; there is nothing else here. The lobster is the best we have tasted in the Caribbean. It’s small, very sweet and tender. Providential (Provo), the glamour Resort Island is next but suddenly on route all our electrics go down. Under engine we get into a marina and as fate would have it no electrician can come for a week but Terry is here and once again comes to our rescue. A simple fuse is all it takes. We are learning fast!

The north coast of Provo is where all the glamour is and can only be entered in good weather, as you have to pass through a reef. The weather looks good so we sail around into Grace Bay and anchor off Turtle Cove Marina. These marinas are entered via cut out coral channels and can only be passed at high tide. Returning after a dinner ashore we are approached by a dolphin that puts his nose up on the dinghy as if to say “hello”. Instantly I recognize him as JoJo the famous wild dolphin I had been reading about. All he wants to do is swim with you but you can’t touch him as he is known to bite. It is a very large bay he lives in and he is getting old so it’s special if he comes to visit.

Lounging around a resort sounds like a nice change, so we are off to Nikki Beach Bar and Resort for brunch to farewell Mick and Di. The pool and beach are scattered with white squatted cushions and cabanas, turquoise towels to match the sea, a sunken bar, palm trees and a new marina to complete the setting with 200ft private yachts.

We will now prepare for our passage next week to the south side of Cuba.