Montego Bay (Jamaica) to Cienfuegos (Cuba)

 

Dear Friends,

We left Jamaica after a typical cold front had passed the region...The 250 miles to Cienfuegos in Cuba was ahead of us, and all seemed going nicely, were it not for a sequence of silly mistakes by the captain (trying to get from reef 3 to reef 2, whilst not really navigating close to the wind, and still having the fishing line in the water, and starting the motors in order to help steer into to wind, and then noticing that the fishing line got stuck in the port engine propeller, and ... and... and...). This is not the first and won’t be the last time... It is always amazing to see how in a few seconds one can get from a bad situation into a worst situation... And I thought to be experienced enough.. Ok, enough about this... Dora’s comments were spot on: Just stay focused and solve the issue at hand one by one (and not all at once together.. )..

After the initial stress (and me in mildly bumpy sea trying to cut away the fishing line, holding on with one hand on the safety line and the other the fishing knife... took a while, but managed...) on our way again.. Winds increased somewhat, and died out as well, so it was playing with the sails but all in all we did decent mileage... Hardly any traffic around so it was a calm night, and half way through the second day, the wind died again so had to motor sail for a while.. then winds picked up and at this rate we were going to arrive at the entrance of the channel in Cienfuegos way too early (around 3 in the morning), and it is always better to arrive in a new location by daylight.. so, had to figure out how to safely slow down the boat speed... Furled the genoa to just a small triangle, and had the main back to the third reef, plus the boom pushed into to windward side.. this kept the boat speed at around 4 knots and would put us at around 9 in the morning in Cienfuegos...This tactic worked well.. According to information we hailed the GuardaFrontera on VHF channel 16 but to no avail... No worries, we continued to move to our destination... Then a call on the VHF by a boat asking for a tow to the marina, as they had motor problems.... Ofcourse helped them out (Karma) and slowly we entered the huge Bay of Cienfuegos... We tied up the Onda Boa at the píer of the Marina and waited for the things to come. All very friendly people, and we had nothing short of 9 different people on board (a doctor, the custom guy, the imigration guy, the port authority guy, the drug sniffing dog guy, the transportation guy and so on.. various papers, documents and stamps), but all very friendly and as Dora had kept the Onda Boa in tip top shape, they all were kind of surprised to find everything so neat and clean... To stay tied upo n the píer of the marina was going to cost US$ 24 per day, and on anchor only Us$ 8, so we left and anchored out, calm waters, light breeze. Another dream realized... being cleared in in Cuba... what a great feeling.. As we needed both to check some e-mails and internet related issues, tried our luck at a hotel nearby...They had run out of prepaid internet cards so, nothing possible... On our way back we met with Sr Condido who told us he could arrange for a taxi ride to La Havana etc, so that was great. Tired but satisfied went back to Onda Boa. New adventures awaiting in Cuba.

… Hasta la Victoria, Siempre   (Che Guevara)..

Pieter

… And we are back…

Dear friends,

Too much time has passed since my last post, and I wont bore you all with reasons, but just to name a few: little or no internet access in Cuba, a madening voyage of intotal  over 900 nm to get from Cuba to the BVI’s beating against the Tradewinds, which included the total loss of our Genoa sail… and yes, also severe engine issues (picture this: dirty diesel tank, bad quality diesel and so clogged up primary fuel filters, and all this in a fresh breeze of 28 knot winds of the coast of the Dominican Republic).

Anyhow, we will get to the details… In the next coming posts, I will try to play catch up without omitting the essence of the places we have been and the adventures and events that took place.

As a final conclusion: Sailing back from Cuba (Cienfuegos) to the BVI’s, yes it is do-able (have to have smooth engines and prepared to motor sail most of the time), however we won’t be doing that again. Just too much stress and discomfort.

 

Stay tuned for more detailed updates and loads of pics (and some movies)…

Have fun

Pieter

More Jamaican impressions: Ocho Rios and Discovery Bay

 

Dear Friends,

First of all, a magnificent 2014, in good health and peace of mind!

We stayed in Ocho Rios also mainly because of a charter that we (thought) was booked…. And so we spend time, effort and money to get this Sunset Charter well organized, as usual.  Dora had prepared a fantastic menu (including lobster, fish and what have you..). We got the green light from the Cruise Ship Terminal Manager, to use a small dock for boarding etc. So all was great. Then a day before the charter the client cancelled the charter for an, in our opinion, very lame reason… Anyway, not to worry, these kind of people do exist and roam this planet…

We were (are) getting rather irritated by the whole Jamaican “scene”.. let me explain: Looking past the initial spontaneous greetings by the locals… (Respect Mon, welcome to Jamaican mon…) we get the distinct feeling that they regard us as potential source of  US$: Hey mon, where are you from?.. Ah Brazil… great… soccer team… yeah mon, Pele… So, do you need a taxi? You want to buy some ganja? You want a tour around the city? You have to see my shop. I show you the farmers market, my uncle has a fruit stand. Let me sell you typical Jamaican neckless. Give me some money mon, no, no 5Us$ is nothing mon, cant buy a beer for that mon, give 10Us$…. Anyway, you guys get the idea… And as well educated people.. we just dont brush them off and even throw in the:… Need more time mon… need more time…, they dont realy get the hint and keep on pushing…

So, we did see the local farmers market in Ocho Rios. Exotic place, the market in Salvador (Brazil), Sao Joaquim, looks like a walk in the park compared to this… a rather mix and no match maze of fruit and vegies stands, clothes, and yes even a small garbage dump in the middle of this… Great experience but even for us a little too funky.

On new years day, we wanted to stroll along the small beach at Ocho Rios, and interestingly enough, it doesnt have free access, in fact one has to pay to be on the beach… (that by itself already doesnt feel good…) so, trying to get past the gate we found a very sturdy uniformed lady in our path…: in what hotel do you stay? Huh, you stay on boat? She looked puzzled, as the last cruise ship just had left…On what boat?.. Just wait here, I have to talk to the manager (??).. Another sturdy, serious looking man talked to us through the wired fence…On what boat are you? What do you want? Where is the boat from?  By that time our patience level is pushed to the limit… In the end we just push ourselves through and leave the guy wondering…

So, we decided that we had more than enough of this place. But before we headed for Montego Bay, we wanted to check the so much acclaimed Dunn Waterfalls…(http://www.dunnsriverfallsja.com/) so we sailed to this location and anchored right in front of it… Tourist hot spot again… We beached the dingy and soon it was made clear to us, by a rather irritated looking official, that we had to pay Us$ 20 per person, to be able to climb up the falls… We thought that to be rather high priced (allthough it is a park, and ok a fee was to be expected, but twenty bucks… hmm no…) and as Dora put it.. Money doesnt grow like grass, we decided to just stay on the beach for a while and check out the surroundings…. Ha, no ofcourse not… if you stay on the beach… also Us$ 20 per person was going to be charged…. (and all of this is conveyed to you in very stern, almost aggressive like language…). by then we had enough… Just before a nervous looking park guy wanted to get his money, managed to squeese this picture in, and we were on our way…

We first tried to anchor in St Ann’s bay, there wasnt realy any protection from wind and swell, so we sailed on to Discovery Bay, and despite the Bauxiet loading terminal, a very nice location to anchor.. protected from the NE winds and swell, nice clean water so that was great.

Now, on our way to Montego Bay, we pretend to stay a couple of days here, gear up and prepare for our two day voyage to Cienfuegos in Cuba.

Yeah Mon, Respect Mon…

Pieter