Cuba ….. Hemingway Marina
15 January 2011
And guess what ? Today , two days later, a 37 – 40 ‘ yacht tied up next
to us. A Kiwi man with a Swissy wife from Whangarei on a boat called Barnstorm.
They too had been out there in the rough weather but ended up choosing not to
come through the Hemingway Marina entrance and went further west to another
easier looking harbour entrance. They were put under guard and were sent on back
here as soon as the weather settled a bit. There are only a handful of harbours
foreign pleasure boats can come into in Cuba!
We tied up for officialdom – 1st an old white man, a doctor who declared
us fit and our boat uncontaminated. Then MAF equivalents, a fifty plus paunchy
negro man and a skinny similarly aged negro woman. They did not look for much, filled
in forms then surreptitiously asked us for a tip. I think instead of a thorough
inspection but I am not sure about that. We were a bit taken aback because I
had read that there is no tipping in Cuba. However as it was all very convivial
and we were just so glad to be tied up Andreas tipped them ( overtipped them
because he got five thank yous out of them !) – all of course out of sight of
the harbour managers who were waiting to be next to come in.
Two very young good looking male harbour masters then boarded, while,
from a small office adjacent and on shore, a fat bulldog looking immigration
lady ( she looked like she had been exported directly from Russia for the job )
was firing questions down on us. The young men spoke good English and we dealt
with the business of how long we were staying, any guns on board and “we hold
your flares until you leave” etc as well as what were our next plans. Then one
left with our flares in a plastic bag and a very young, attractive,
immaculately presented – painted fingernails in uniform and not a hair out of
place, negro woman took her turn with us . Customs officer. She spoke very good
English and after another round of form filling and signing, sealed up our
GPS,s and our satellite phone but left them with us. We were not allowed to use
them while in Cuba. A Spanish looking man and a cocker spaniel arrived next to
sniff out all the cocaine on board and because he was disappointed not to
quickly find it asked for a tip – asked of course when we were down in the bottom
of the boat so the other officials would not see. Finally we were issued with a
docking site and once there were assisted by a small rabble of men and a woman
or two… all it turned out hoping to get some boat cleaning , laundry or
whatever work off us.
Finally we got settled in, “our helpers” dispersed and we went off to
sleep. It was lunchtime.
Across the Gulf
and the main sail up… but as the day wore on the wind dropped and we motor
sailed, past a turtle and one lonely pelican, to our overnight stop on a free
mooring ball on the coral reef 20 miles east of Key West.We had spent an
evening while at Marathon in a working bee splicing ropes for mooring buoys
around Florida’s protected sea reserves so were quite entitled to moor here.
Overnight there was absolutely no wind and next morning we motored away then put
up the parasailor spinnaker and made 2 – 3 knots in 4 – 5 knot wind. It was OK
to go slow because we wanted to come into Cuba at daylight not the middle of the
night. The day was beautiful with warm sun and flat sea but my stomach was still
ooky from the sailing the day before. The wind picked up to 10 – 12 knots by
midday then 15- 17 knots in the evening. We decided to take the parasailor down
before dark and start motor sailing with just the foresail. We knew that by
midnight we should expect it to rise to +20 knots but we had to go slowly so
as not to beat the sun to Hemingway Marina in Cuba.
Cuba – over 60 miles off the American coast – the US Coast Guard appeared at our
stern. They had sneaked up in the darkness then turned on floodlights checking
us and the sky above out. They flanked us for about 5 minutes then called us on
the VHF. Boat name? where are we going ? where had we come from? how many people
on board? nationalities? what was our reason to be sailing here.. over and over
they asked and I got really mad with them and said our boat is CALUSA NZ1665 ..
a NEW ZEALAND boat stressing the NEW ZEALAND word at every opportunity .
I said in CUBA.
then shut off their lights and vanished into the darkness as quickly as they
came. No I do not think they were after us, they are after people running drugs
from South America. Their spotlights were scanning the skies for a plane that
might be air dropping drugs to us. It was very startling the whole episode
and I was about useless with seasickness so Andreas was pretty much on his own
on watch after that.
knots at times. It was hell on board but the boat was fine. I was too sick to
even take photos of the 3 – 4 meter seas around us when light came. Then came
the real worry of the trip – finding the marina and getting in safely.
very wrong ) About 10 miles off the coast I called up the Cuban Coastguard and
the Hemingway Marina on the VHF and the man who answered alerted us to the fact
that maybe we were not on course too. So then there was this terrible problem of
him with his very accented English trying to convey to me, very seasick in a
raging noisy sea on a VHF with very bad transmission, the correct co ordinates.
our new target about 10 miles east of where we had been heading. Several VHF
calls later checking and rechecking we sighted the entrance to the marina. A
narrow entrance between two breakwaters of broken concrete blocks.
of a wave and we whooshed into the calmer waters of the marina.
Onwards to Cuba … but snagged
We have finally loosed Calusa from the grip of USA. It took some doing
even the USA customs did not want to clear us out because they discovered that
a little piece of paper was missing from the original marine sales, transfer of
ownership and registering of flag documentation had not been filed at the time
the documents were done late 2009. We had paid a small company specialising in
this type of documentation back in 2009 to do all our documents. I know the
lady got her nose out of joint when I said I would do the registering of Calusa
under the New Zealand flag myself ( thereby saving us close to $US 400 ) and
obviously she did not follow through everything else to the end and she nastily
did not tell us that there would be another document to file.
It was a form for USA statistics concerning export sales – the boat being categorised as an
export from USA. A simple enough form to fill in on line,
if you were and American and had an American tax number, but, as we
were to find out, impossible to do if you were a foreigner so we have had to
pay someone else another $150 odd to do that now.
We had had to travel 40 miles to Key West to “clear” out and had rented
a car to do that so were very angry when the customs officer came up with this
little surprise. I was going to have to work out how to do it, where to go ,
etc (they don,t help you in any way at US customs to do this) it clearly was
going to take a day or two to do and we had only a couple of days left before
our personal three month USA visas expired and Calusa’s cruising license ,
a license which allowed the boat to be in Florida without paying sales tax, expired.
However the customs man did a very reasonable thing. He signed us out
and gave me the clearing document but asked that I ring him and verbally give
him the number that completing the missing form online would generate. At the
time he and I did not know that I would not be able to do that myself because
we did not have an American tax number.
In the end we left USA without
ringing the customs officer on the day our visas expired and that we were dated
as clearing but I emailed the company doing the document and asked them to ring
him and give him the number when it came through and to email me a copy. I only
hope that this has happened.
We slipped out of the marina at Marathon late in the afternoon, fuelled
up, filled the water tanks and anchored off overnight then left early in the
morning on the last day we could legally be in America.
It all felt a little bit deliciously naughty because really we had had
enough of Americans, their delays and their money fleecing ways.
Marathon – It’s Time to say Goodbye
The boat has now been outfitted with a radar,
AIS, a new Garmin chart plotter and a VHF with a DSC capability
Mostly small things are being tidied up now like
getting an expert in to retension the shrouds – one was quite slack- cleaning
and regreasing the winches, sorting out why the boom locks not locking
properly, props to reclean, because there are many many barnacles living in
this harbor, the propellor shaft bearings to check and annodes to replace when
Andreas finally does don his wet suit and go under the boat!
The last major job is building an aluminium frame
and fixing 4 x 225 watt solar panels to the boat, having them connected, and
then GO…. when the weather permits.
10 January 2011
super busy with last minute ( weeks) work.. We are
moving off in the direction of Cuba in early in the morning (we both think Cuba is the most
interesting of places to visit at the moment socially and scenically and it will not be
overrun with American tourists of course, as the rest of the Bahamas and
Carribbeans are right now. ) Shortly – in less
than an hour – we are leaving our mooring and going to anchor off shore for a
quick start in the morning.
I will write more at length when we get near
internet again — whenever that will be I am not sure – but we have a
satellite phone – number 870776419512 – very expensive for you to ring us though
but if there is panic your end well ring it …we should be at the other end of
it loud and clear – even in Cuba !
Marathon.. Xmas now
The weather is rotating predictably now, Florida / Caribbean winter style. Every 7 to 10
days a cold front comes by. Strong wind for about 36 hours,a little rain, then
the wind drops and it turns cold for about 3 days – really quite cold I have to
put my winter woollies on.
27 December 2010
We did spend the best part of Xmas day out sailing.
As we left the Marina and motored down Sisters creek to the Ocean
side I heard a very squeaky noise and was trying to work out what it was. Eventually
I looked up to the top of the mast thinking it was the weather vane up there or
something like that squeaking but then a little black bird stuck his head over
the side of the top of the mast . He was very agitated, squeaking and
squawking. He obviously did not know what to do. He knew his roost was on the
move. He travelled a good kilometre with us squeaking and squawking and finally
abandoned ship as we went out the mouth of the river into the ocean. I hope he
has been able to find his way home. I do not know why he took so long to go.
We went sailing between the
lobster pot floats. One would not normally choose to do this because it really
is no fun trying to avoid them and sail to get the maximum speed one can out of
the wind, but we are practising and in fact this was our first day out alone,
so a BIG step, and nothing went wrong but things continue to go wrong with one
of our Yanmar engines.
To begin with we found that 2 of the 4 coupling bolts ( coupling
the mains part of the engine to the propeller shaft ) had broken
off and were in the bilge and the other two were so worn they were about to do the
same. They were replaced, but there were still problems.
The transmission was leaking oil. Andreas removed it and we took
it to the authorised Yanmar mechanic in Marathon to have the seal replaced.
Then we found that the engine mounts, which should have been
2 X 200 one side and 2 x 150 the other, were all wrong.
Instead we found 2 x 100 one side and 1 x 200 and 1 x 150 on the
other side) This will have caused the coupling bolts to break and the transmission to leak oil. Then the mechanic found that the bolt holes into the part the coupling fixes to were damaged . He could not supply a replacement part so in the meantime we have to live with two
stretched bolt holes.
Andreas has fitted
everything back together again but now it is looking like the engine will need
realignment, again!
Around and around we go and somewhere in this loop of things we should
have also gone for a swim to check and see that the propeller shaft is straight
- not moving from side to side on the outside… in case that is contributing
to the vibration problems too.
But the harbour is not the place you would want to swim, as I have told you
before, and when we out in the sea yesterday Andreas backed down on going over
board to check it because it was too choppy.
So fun, fun, fun, thanks to irresponsible, unprofessional previous maintenance.
I tell you do not buy an ex- charter boat off The Moorings.
Do not lease your boat to The Moorings to be chartered.
The other engine is fine so far but occasionally won’t start
off the key so Andreas has to go in and start it with a screw driver.
Marathon ….. sailing sailing sailing
We are sailing, we are sailing ……
Well not exactly yet, we are in trials &
training mode.
For example we had a great day out sailing
yesterday testing the new spinnaker / parasailor for the first time. It was a
work of art to behold and made 3-4 knots in the very light 3-4 knots apparent
wind.
On Saturday we were sailing beam on in 20 – 25 knot
apparent winds and doing 7-8 knots under normal sails in big rough and rocky
seas – unfortunately I got seasick, first time ever.
On Friday we went out in normal seas in 15 knot
winds and the boat averaged 7 – 8 knots then beam on.
So all in all Andreas is pretty happy with how it
sails and I am now learning all the practical know how now…I can man the
helm, negotiate it through the mooring field in the marina and out the river to
the sea. I can pull up the mainsail with the help of a special attachment on a
heavy Milwakee drill, I can reef the sails and sheet the sails. And we can
anchor the boat; me at the helm and Andreas on the anchor controls and we lift
the anchor as a team too. The anchor is a new NZ made Rocna 25 kgs.
By early January this 1st mate should be pretty
competent in things to do with sailing this boat.
Dolphins joined us today, big ones and we saw a
turtle swimming in the sea grass which was floating in drifts on top of the
sea.
We particularly enjoy the Pelicans. They are incredible
to watch, flying in unison inches above the waves and anticipating even the
upwards air pressure movements of the waves. They fish and dive in tandem
often, perfectly matched. They dive and dive and dive and one of the downstream
effects of this diving long term is they often go blind. We had a squadron of
about 12 fly at mast height over us over the marina recently and one of them
had to swerve to dodge the top of a neighbouring mast. He must have not seen it
till the last minute. Another strange thing is despite being fined tuned to be
able to work so closely together they cannot judge the depth of the sea bed
very well. Another common injury is split and broken bills.
We are sailing on Xmas day – it will be fine, quite
calm and flat – parasailing I think !
Marathon – good American blokes
8 December 2010
Looks like we are here for another month, at least!
We still have things to do on the boat and still have to get to know the boat
better before sailing which means quite a few day trips in and out of the harbour.
Marathon is Ok if you don’t want to go shopping.
The restaurants are cheap enough when we
want to go out to eat – although we do mostly eat on the boat, often with one
or two other people. Catamarans tend to be “social centres” in marinas because
there is space on them. There is space in the cockpit for about 6 people to eat
around the outside table and inside 6 people easily fit around the table. One
of the people who often eats with us is a young man called Jamieson who has
been fitting the electronics and is an ex- Leopard charter captain (our
catamaran is a Leopard ). He is just over thirty, lives on his own yacht in the
marina and will help us a lot in learning to sail and manage this boat. He will
come with us on our day trips.
One of our other “regulars” for dinner is a half
indian (red indian) half European who is shortly to sail for The Phillipines
where his Phillipino wife is currently. Another man who drops by a bit has his
own catamaran and is shortly to sail home to Hawaii. He is 65 yrs old.
The harbour is fill of men alone so if I don’t
watch out I will be feeding lonely men every night , young and old. The oldest
one here is Captain Jack who is 78 yrs old. He is fit but does not go out
sailing in his yacht any more.
Then there is another young man in his early
thirties. A very nice young man, who has decided to take himself out into the
world in a yacht called “Perspective” with his golden labrador called Leroy for
company. He plans to go to Brazil where Zack told me there are 4 girls to every
man!
The man beside us is called Barnacle Bill. He lives
permanently on the marina in his houseboat with his wife. She goes off to work
on shore at something every day and he jumps into his diving suit most days to
go scraping barnacles off the bottom of boats. He is in his 70’s ! He is quite
miffed with us that we do not want him to clean the bottom of our boat yet.
Andreas plans to do that himself when we are in cleaner waters. We do not expect
to find many barnacles because we painted the bottom with anti fouling before
we left Rock Harbor only 6 weeks ago. There really should not be any on the
boat if the antifouling paint is doing its job!
Here in Marathon marina there are more dogs than
children on the boats. People seem to have forgotten that dogs are very good swimmers. Many of these dogs sport life jackets.
The marina is starting to fill up a bit with
holidaymakers from Canada and northern USA. When we arrived it was mostly the
permanents in here. It is quite a contrast to where we were last year, Ft
Lauderdale, surrounded by the super launches, cats and yachts.
There are yachts of all shapes and ages here. The owners are not allowed to leave
their boats unattended so most are in reasonable condition.
Marathon … integrity lost
17 November 2010
We are discovering that generally Americans in this
area (Florida) lack integrity. They do business in a way quite different from NZ and
Switzerland. They feed on you and then they recommend their friends so that they
can feed on you too. An kind of extreme form of business networking!
We found this when we were buying the boat and we are finding it now. When it comes to
business and money they cannot be trusted. There are some nice people who charge
fairly but then they recommend this person or that person to do this for us or that
for us and usually we find out later we have been truly ripped off. We should
have not trusted the recommendation. We should have shopped around more. I
think maybe there is a kind of kick back payment system operating which means the
referrer gets something for referring..
For example we found a couple of small holes in the
rubber dinghies inner cushion. Easy enough to fix really with PVC but the man fitting the electronics
on the boat said oh take it to so and so he does a good job and quickly. . So
Andreas took up the suggestion. US$100 later the dinghies inner cushion was
fixed . Next time we do it !
But the big stores are OK and cheap. It’s the small
companies and the individuals that are the problem.
20 November 2010
We are sitting around on the boat waiting on people
or orders half the time. Most things have to be ordered when you go shopping.
That is a sign of the times here. The shops are cutting back on their stock
holding as much as possible. They often ask you to prepay and they often expect
you to pay the freight to order a basic item in like light bulbs. Probably they
have ordered one or two others to put on their shelves at the same time, but you
wouldn’t know that.
And we are stuck here until mid December waiting on
a radar … hard to believe having to wait for something like a radar in the
great USA ! Nothing fancy just a Garmin radar.
The time is filled with fixing.
One of the engines had two broken coupling bolts
between it and the propellor shaft and the other two bolts were almost worn
right through too. We went looking because the engine became very rattly on our
journey down from Rock Harbour. ( remember the other engine stopped on the way
down due to incorrect hosing used in the diesel lines from previous cheapsgate
repair work. Andreas has since replaced all the diesel hoses in both motors.)
The starter motors in both engines failed, then one
of the motors still wouldn’t start and Andreas found a bad connection somewhere
in the middle of the engine. He said there were wires going everywhere doing
nothing. Behind the electronics board was the same, a real mess of wires many
doing nothing.
This boat was offered for sale as regularly maintained and ready to go ! It was privately owned but had been leased to The Moorings to use as a charter boat. The revelations of Calusa since we have finally got to use her means I would never allow my boat to be chartered by such a company.
The fridge is also not working reliably even though
it was supposedly “fixed “as a condition of buying.
Most of the filters, water and oil, throughout the
boat needed cleaning and some were not even fitted correctly.
Next problems are the toilets needing replacement
of bits and pieces … YUK !!!
Look on this link. We are starting to hit back at
the man who ripped us off in Rock Harbor.
This thread is located at:
http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/f9/a-cautionary-tale-50716-new-post.html
It is interesting to see how other people have
responded.
Marathon ..waiting, waiting, waiting
It’s pretty hard work living on a marina. To go to shore you have to jump in the dinghy. In a marina you use the shore facilities
like in a camping ground; the laundry, the showers and whenever possible the
toilets. So you have to plan everything a bit better. We are now getting the
groceries and whatever Andreas needs to fix things on the bicycles. We have
little backpacks and I have a front basket on the handlebars, but when you are
buying in your drinking water, your beer and your wine the loads get pretty
awful.
We paid for a locker on shore which means we can
hold things there so they don’t all have
to go backwards and forwards across the water to the boat.
We are here at Marathon for at least another month
waiting on the radar. It’s hard to imagine having to wait a month for something
in USA isn’t it.? There was very big annual boat show in Annapolis about 3
weeks ago and another big one at Ft Lauderdale a week later.
I suspect they must have sold lots of radars there. Bad timing on our part.
Never mind Andreas just keeps on fixing things on the boat and will eventually take it out
for sailing practise as soon as the fixing is done … if fixing ever gets done!
Because we are waiting on tradesmen and goods to arrive so much of the time Andreas
and I are often literally twiddling our fingers . Such a change of lifestyle for us !
You come to realise after so much inactivity that a busy life is not such a bad thing.
We are on the “pathway” to the shore and if Andreas doesn’t watch out
he is going to become like the little man in the cuckoo clock, popping out every time a dingy goes by to see who it is this time !
I can always find an endless amount of cleaning and polishing to do.
When the boat is finally “moving” I guess if we start twiddling our fingers, we’ll just sail on.
We could end up home by June not just at Curacao !
I am a bit tired of the “hot” and the weather being almost changeless, fine day, fine day, fine day.
I am very tired of being bitten constantly by mosquitos and the little tiny flying bugs called
noseeums. We can’t cool off with a swim in this harbour. We shower and do the
laundry on land and take the computer over to the marina centre to do a long
session. I guess when we actually start sailing / cruising things will improve.
To begin with the bugs will not fly out to sea to bite me.
