Cayo Zaza de Fuera Cuba

Routing back along the north side of Cayo Breton

We left our anchorage off Cayos Cinco Balas at 0800 on Monday 18 February and motored back along the north side of Cayo Breton.

Passing the entrance to the Punta Breton channel again

Once clear of the shallows we hoisted sail and beam reached north for a couple of hours until the wind failed and we had to switch on the engine.  However, by midday we were quite glad to be under engine as we threaded our way through the reefs to the southeast and east of Cayo Zaza de Fuera, eventually feeling our way into the anchorage on the west side of the cay from the north and dropping anchor at 1400hrs.

Once we were secure Nicky and I set about sorting out the fuel gauge whilst Charlotte sunbathed on deck.

Our Tank Tender gauge, which is mounted at the chart table, measures how many inches of contents there are in our fuel, water and holding tanks.  To do this there are thin plastic tubes connected from the back of the gauge to each tank, some of which run through quite a convoluted route under the floor to the tank in question.  When I had been working on the main fuel tank, I’d needed to disconnect the Tank Tender tube to that tank.  After cleaning the generator one-way valve and having put everything back together, Nicky had noticed that there was no contents reading for the main tank, hence the need to trace the fault.  With the saloon table removed (hopefully for the last time) and the floorboards up it was clear that the Tank Tender tube to the main tank had been pinched and that there was a small split in it.  The only sensible option was to run a complete new tube but we routed it slightly differently to make sure that this one didn’t get pinched.  Success!  We had a fuel contents reading again.  So, we re-laid the floorboards and refitted the table and generally made BV’s saloon look as it should after which hot work it was time for a swim.

Our cruising guide talked of lobsters around the cay so Nicky and I swam off in search.  However, all we found was acres and acres of seagrass, no rocks or coral and so we found no lobsters.  Nicky stayed in the water to start to give BV a much needed scrub, whilst Charlotte and I inflated the dinghy and went off to explore the mangroves in best David Bellamy style.

Carlotta’s Promise and El Gatoat anchor at Cayo Zaza de Fuera

Whilst we had been swimming, the 2 catamarans that we had met at Cayo Cuervo, Carlotta’s Promise (Annie and Eric) & El Gato (Charlotte, Paulo, Ralph and Dennis), arrived in the anchorage. We were invited on board El Gatofor drinks and then, as the evening progressed, to stay for dinner, a selection of excellent homemade pizzas rustled up by Annie and Ralph.  We talked late, in particular discussing the difficulties they, as Americans, have in obtaining permission to visit and cruise in Cuba, and their (and our) impressions of the country.  As Americans, they had to get permission from their government to visit Cuba, granted under one of 12 specific reasons for visiting (in their case ‘aid to the Cuban people’).  And their permission was valid for just 14 days though, to be fair, they could have applied for longer, it’s just that they were told that it was easier to obtain a 14-day permit than a longer one.  So their cruise of the south coast was very much a whistle-stop tour with little time for the luxury of longer exploration off the beaten track that we had experienced.  Despite the limitations of their permit, they were having a fabulous time and were very keen to return (US political system permitting).  They’d met a good number of Cubans and given away most of their stock of off-the-shelf reading glasses (mostly to fishermen), pencils and pens (to children) and sundry other ad hocitems.  We’d rather wondered about what ‘gizits’ we should carry on board when we visited countries such as Cuba and think that the reading glasses idea is a fabulous one; we’ll definitely stock up on a selection for next cruising season.

And so, after a lovely evening we headed back to BV with a plan to head towards Trinidad the next day.  Carlotta’s Promise and El Gato, having less time to spare than us, were planning to route straight to Cienfuegos.  We wondered if we would see them there but the speed at which they were having to move made it seem likely that they would be gone before we arrived.

Cayo Zaza de Fuera, Cuba