Sailing to Cienfuegos Cuba

Casilda, the seaport for Trinidad with cruise ship.  The channel here is no problem it’s the final mile to the yacht marina that is the issue

Guarda Frontera station at Casilda

We made a 0645hrs start from Cayo Tabaco on Wednesday 20 February to try to get into the anchorage just outside Marina Marlin Trinidad.  The anchorage is only 6nm or so from Cayo Tabaco but the final mile of the route to the narrow entrance to the bay in which the marina and the only pleasure yacht anchorage is located, is over shallow mudflats with no dredged channel. To get across the flats with our 2 metre draft we needed follow the main channel into Casilda, the seaport for Trinidad. Then, just past the cruise ship dock we had to leave the channel, turning south and work our way across the essentially unmarked flats.  It was spring tides so, by making an approach shortly before high tide we were giving ourselves the best possible chance of making it into the anchorage.  However, if we went too firmly aground, we might be in the very embarrassing position of being ‘neaped’ ie of being stuck until the next high spring tide to get off!  We were going to give it a good go but getting stuck was not in the plan.

Our cruising guide details the circuitous route across the shallows but it had been written in several years before and, despite our best efforts, we dicovered that the bay had silted up further since the book’s publication.  Still 200 metres short of the entrance into the anchorage outside the marina (which is said to be about a metre deeper than the mudflats outside) we were touching the muddy bottom.  We didn’t fancy plouging BV’s keel all that way to get into the anchorage because there was far too much of a risk of getting stuck.  Instead we aborted our approach and decided to visit Trinidad by taxi from Cienfuegos.

Fishing boat compound at Casilda

Despite the decision to turn around, we still needed to be careful as we felt our way out.  Happily, with the ‘snail trail’ on the chart plotter to follow we were able to focus on the echosounder a little less and look out and enjoy our surroundings a little more.

And breathe easy!  Back in the main channel and making tracks towards Cienfuegos

Once we were back in the main channel, we increased the revs for the easy motor back towards the reef and the Canal de las Mulatas through it, leading to the open sea outside.

The final few miles of our passage to Cienfuegos entrance with (top) the lighthouse at the harbour entrance

We had considered anchoring on the mudflats off Casilda and taking the dinghy ashore from there.  However, the Cuban authorities are very particular where pleasure yachts may anchor in the vicinity of a port and we thought that it would be extremely frustrating to anchor, launch the dinghy and go ashore only to be told that we were not permitted to remain there at anchor.  We were also a little concerned that the area was open to the southeast and that the wind was forecast to be quite brisk from that direction.  Had we been able to stay, it might have been a very exposed anchorage.  As it turned out, that latter concern was well-founded. As we sailed west towards Cienfuegos the southeasterly wind increased significantly and we ended up having a very boisterous sail, which was great fun.  Our arrival off the entrance to Cienfuegos coincided with that of 2 freighters. We heard the port pilots talking to the first and then saw a pilot vessel arrive, after which the ship headed in through the narrow entrance channel.  We called the crew of the second freighter to check that they too would be awaiting a pilot to guide them into the harbour.  Having had that confirmed, we lowered all our sails and called the Cienfuegos pilots to obtain permission to enter and motored towards the narrow entrance.

Top: boisterous seas at the entrance to Cienfuegos.  Bottom: large, obvious leading marks to help ships through the entrance

The entrance to Cienfuegos is surprisingly narrow with large shallow areas to either side and so needs reasonably careful pilotage.  Things weren’t made any easier by the lively sea kicked up by the 20kt wind, exacerbated by the ebb tide flowing out against that wind.  But despite the conditions [Ed: and it should be noted that one of the entrance headlands is named Punta del Diablo – Devil’s Point!] we didn’t need to make use of the huge leading marks, prominently placed to assist ships entering the port.

The northern half of the entrance channel to Bahia de Cienfuegos.  Centre: Castillo Jagua.  Top right and bottom left: the local ferry operating between numerous settlements on either bank and, presumably, the city

About a mile up the entrance channel from the sea, and around a bit of a corner, the water was flat, despite the wind still whistling quite strongly.  We took the opportunity to enjoy the scenery……whilst dodging the small ferries darting backwards and forwards across the channel.

Punta Gorda

The entrance channel opens onto a large bay.  The city of Cienfuegos is located halfway along the northeastern shore of the bay, about 5nm north of the entrance channel.  However, the marina and yacht anchorage are a little south of the city, towards the southern end of Punta Gorda, in what used to be one of the wealthy suburbs of Cienfuegos.  Though times have clearly moved on, many of the buildings on the Punta Gorda waterfront still date from the 1920s and 1930s when wealthy sugar merchants ploughed their profits into building ostentatious mansions here.

The busy anchorage off Marina Marlin Cienfuegos.  Child of Lir is the grey yacht to the left of our port shrouds and Nomadica is the red yacht seen through BV’s starboard shrouds.  The Club Nautico de Cienfuegos (white) and the Palacia Azul hotel (blue) are towards the right of the picture

When we arrived, the anchorage off the marina was busy and included in the throng were Nomadica, El Gato, Carlotta’s Promise and Child of Lir. Quite a reunion.

Club Nautico de Cienfuegos (centre) and the Palacia Azul hotel(left, blue)

We anchored close inshore of them, just in front of the Club Nautico, and then went ashore to complete the arrivals formalities.

The blue building houses the office of the Marina Marlin staff as well as those of the Guarda Frontera and the Customs officers.  We left our dinghy on the smal beach just to the right of the offices

Dark and Stormies for sundowners

Before we had arrived in Cuba Nicky had tried to book a space in the marina, so that we could leave BV and travel up to Havana for a few days.  However, the response had come back that the marina does not take reservations so, as soon as we were had cleared in with the Guarda Frontera, we asked at the marina office about taking a berth.  It turned out that a space would come available the following morning, which was a day or 2 earlier than we ideally wanted but we decided to seize the opportunity whilst it was available.

With all the arrival paperwork complete, we spent an hour or so at the marina’s bar catching up with Cheryl, Morgan and Gael before we all realised that the sun had set and we’d not been back to the boats to set anchor lights (in direct contravention of the marina regulations Nicky had just signed, oops!).  So we hightailed it back before we were spotted and spent the evening plotting and scheming our shore-based sightseeing for the next few days.

Cienfuegos, Cuba