Cayos Azuaga Cuba

We had a very busy half hour or so rebuilding the fuel system and saloon table but at 1700hrs on the dot headed north. The Guarda Frontera officer had suggested that we should go to Niquero but we didn’t have enough daylight to get all the way there and, to be honest, we really didn’t fancy going through all the faff of finding the Guarda Frontera office there and sorting out all the paperwork.  Instead we used the last of the light to work our way into an anchorage at Cayos Azuaga, a curve of mangrove cays about 3nm from Niquero.  We were prepared for a very shallow anchorage but it was deeper than the chart suggested and provided us sufficient shelter from the southeasterly wind behind the mangrove covered cay with its reef extension.  The motor up to Cayos Azuaga took an hour and the engine behaved perfectly so at least we knew that fuel line was sorted out and clear.

Pick Your Own fresh coconut water 

The generator fuel system, however, still needed work but that was a chore for another day.  It was past sundowners time, we’d had a very busy day and we needed to stop, relax and eat.  Charlotte tried out coconut water from one of the coconuts she and Nicky had picked on their walk back from the museum and we all partook of rum cocktails to enhance the Caribbean ‘sun-is-well-downers’ atmosphere.

Cayos Azuaga in the morning light

Over drinks and dinner we discussed our options and hatched a plan to visit Niquero the next day.  Nicky and Charlotte would go ashore to top up our stock of fresh food and I would stay on board to try to sort out the blockage in the generator’s fuel system.

Dawn anchored in Cayos Azuaga

Cayos Azuaga, Cuba