Leaving Santiago de Cuba

Marea de Portillo, our intended next destination, is about 60nm west of Santiago de Cuba, a good ten hours to twelve hours under reasonable conditions.  Given that we had to collect our despatcho from the Guarda Frontera at Santiago shortly before departure, and we wanted to arrive at Marea de Portillo in daylight, we decided that an overnight passage made the most sense. So, we spent most of Thursday 7 February completing chores and preparing BV for her first passage in over a week.

View from the anchorage at Punta Gorda Marina

Nasty brown spots on the deck – pollution from one of
 the nearby factories.  Scrubbing, even with a variety
 of cleaners had next to no effect but time and plenty
 of green water across the deck eventually did the trick

The anchorage at Santiago de Cuba is very rural and pretty.  But, sadly, the one downside of staying there for any length of time is that one of the industrial chimneys to the north pumps out smoke that produces brown marks on GRP decks.  One of our morning tasks was a last attempt at getting some of the ‘magic pink toilet cleaner’, mentioned in our cruising guide.  Apparently this removes the brown spots easily but, unfortunately, there was none available for us to buy, so we bought beer and rum instead [Ed: NOT for use on the decks!!].  Some friends of ours said that they had used dilute muratic acid to good effect, so Nicky spent a couple of hours with a deck brush.  The results were very encouraging…….right up until the decks dried and the spots reappeared!  Happily, 6 weeks and several very blustery passages (ie when the decks had a good sluicing with gallons of salt water) later, the spots had all but gone.  It’s best not to be too boat proud if you want to visit Santiago de Cuba but it’s a city well worth the stop despite the brown spots and, given time and salty passage-making, the spots will fade! 

Do the Cubans ‘do’ fish quotas? Probably not if these fishing boats are anything to go by!

Whilst we completed our chores and Charlotte started on her holiday suntan, we watched the usual comings and goings of vessels in the bay.  This was further enlivened by a number of small fishing boats being towed in, each so laden down with their catch that they looked as if any wave would sink them.

Nomadica (red) at anchor

We also received a visit from Morgan and Cheryl and their one year old son, Gael.  They had recently arrived in Santiago on their yacht, Nomadica, had seen our OCC burgee flying and had come over to say hello.  Unfortunately, they dinghied across just as we were about to leave, but we ascertained that we were both heading the same way and had similar plans, so we agreed that we would try to meet up further west.

Leaving Marina Punta Gorda behind us

To obtain our Guarda Frontera despatch, permitting BV to sail from Santiago de Cuba to Cienfuegos, we needed first to pay the marina bill.  Given that we’d spent the 8 nights at anchor, this was a lot heftier than one might imagine but comprised 55CUC to check BV into Cuba, 150CUC for two visas, 15CUC for adding a person to the ship’s company and the anchorage fee of 0.3CUC per foot per day.  Nicky fronted up the cash, popped next door to pick up the despatcho and we were all set to leave.  We only needed to roll up the dinghy on deck and unglue the anchor from the silty, smelly mud and we could be off.

Yes, the locals of Santiago really do fish from lorry tyre inner-tubes.  The ‘boats’ are propelled using what look to be table-tennis bats and the favoured fishing grounds appear to be the middle of the main shipping channel, particularly when the tide is sluicing strongly

As we passed Isla Granma we waved, smiled and hello’d to the large fishing fleet strung across the main channel, each man on his own truck tyre inner-tube ‘boat’ and with no mother-ship to keep an eye on them.  It looks incredibly precarious, even in good weather.

El Morro at the entrance to Santiago de Cuba’s harbour

With the fishing fleet behind us, we passed El Morro and entered the open sea again. 

This was Charlotte’s first sight of the castle and, though it wasn’t ours, we felt it was a grand sight and a fitting end to our wonderful time in Santiago.

Sunset at sea off Cuba’s south coast

The overnight passage to Marea de Portillo was generally uneventful other than that Charlotte spent Reg’s first watch on deck with him.  The weather was light, rather too light really, so the passage was more of a motor than a sail.  But the sea was generally calm with a long 2m southeasterly swell that didn’t greatly affect BV but did leave us wondering what the south-facing entrance to Marea de Portilla would be like.  In the end, the dawn arrival at our destination was also uneventful.  The main entrance to the bay is wide and gently shelving.  The buoyage is clear, albeit the main red buoys had been bleached white by years on station, and the anchorage itself is well hidden from the swell by mangroves.  So it was into very still but rather silty waters that our anchor splashed at 0700 on Friday 8 February.  Our first remote anchorage in Cuba.

Marea del Portillo, Cuba