Cuba Passage

We set sail around 1pm out of Key West, Fl with our destination as Marina Hemingway in Havana, Cuba. The sky was bright and sunny as we watched the keys fade away as a distant memory. Our adrenaline was pumping as we saw the last sight of land slip away and we were surrounded only by the the deep blue sea. It’s a really cool feeling that we were finally doing it, we were officially offshore with only nature and the sky as our scenery. As we were sailing along, we saw large fish off to the side of the boat jumping out of the water frantically. Flying above them were a huge flock of birds trying to catch dinner. Just as we we’re watching the beauty of the scene unfold, we saw a large fin cruising through the sea of fish...a shark also looking for dinner! 

After enjoying a beautiful sunset it quickly became dark, I mean dark like you have never seen before. With the only trace of light coming from the sliver of the moon and the stars, your eyes worked at adjusting. The wind was light for most of the day so we started to get a breeze at night coming over our stern. We tried to sail wing on wing (sails in the opposite direction) but the seas were picking up and the wind was not enough to fully fill the sails. Each time we hit a swell, the sails would flutter. We tried various points of sail however downwind is the only way we got some momentum at about 2knots. With more then halfway left to go, we needed to make up some time in order to get to Cuba during daylight. We fired up the motor and continued south to our destination. We started our watch cycle and each tried to get in some sleep. Bella enjoyed relaxing down below with the person off watch while the other person stayed close by the helm.

In the middle of the night the AIS alarm went off which indicated there was a ship within 10miles. The devise tells you their speed, direction and GPS coordinates so you can start watching for the lights. We quickly realized that it doesn’t take long for a large ocean freighter traveling  14knots to get close to you. In fact, there were several times that we got so close that we had to deviate our course! We called one ship on the radio to let them know that we would pass them on the stern. They don’t move for anyone, it’s up to smaller crafts to get the heck out of the way which we did! Overall, we saw about 15 ocean freighters and a few cruise ships in the night which made for a very interesting watch when you were at the helm alone. The times when there were no other boats in sight, you could turn the auto pilot on and sit on deck and watch the gorgeous night sky littered with bright stars. It definitely gave you a really good opportunity to reflect on life and get a feeling that you are really so small in this on this massive planet! 

Once we were about halfway, the charts indicated that we were approaching deep water, about 5000 feet! That is when the chart went black because we were in between charts on open ocean. That was kind of a weird feeling as you were steering into darkness with all to go by was the bearing on the compass! 

As we got closer to Cuba and the sun came up came up we knew we were still had about 30miles to go. The sky started to go darker and clouds rolled in very quickly so we battened down the hatches and prepared for rain. And rain did it ever! It seemed like the sky opened up and we were both on deck soaked by the time it was through. We finally were able to see land up ahead! It was Cuba!!!! Once we moved closer the seas actually picked up as the water went from close to 6000feet in depth to about 200hundred as the sea was hitting the steep shelf. The boat rocked back and forth with the rolling waves which made it extremely difficult to move around below. We prepared all our paperwork and called in to the Cuba coast guard that we are approaching and would be there at about 2pm. No response which we heard was fairly standard for Cuba.

As we approached the channel, we saw the markings which looked more like wooden sticks coming up from the water. We stayed between the green and red as close to the middle as possible and saw the coast guard waving us in from land. This was a fairly stressful process as we knew from other cruisers that on ether side of these markers where very shallow and dangerous shouls and as well as our leeward shore...we started to talk about contingency plans in case the engine failed. It didn’t and we made it into safe waters within the marina at around 2pm the following day with a Total passage time of 25hours. The Cubans signalled us to park along the dock where we waited for customs to come aboard. They were nice enough to let Bella out for a pee while waiting. A doctor, nurse and 2 customs agents then came aboard to take our temperature and go through the paperwork. After about an hour, we were cleared into Cuba to be met in our dock slip by 2 gentlemen from the mintry of agriculture. They asked us questions about the fresh produce on board and Bella’s dog food. We then went to visit the dock master to get a run down on the marina.

Once we settled in, we opened a bottle of champagne in celebration of our first ocean passage on our boat! We really did it!!! We were safe in a new country and we’re now ready to explore all that Cuba had to offer! Stayed tuned for an update on our visit to Havana!