Cayo Del Rosario Cuba

Leaving Cayo Largo

We left Cayo Largo at 0715hrs on Thursday 7 March in the hope that by leaving early we would be able to stop in at Cabezo de la Estopa for a late morning snorkelling session.  Cabezo de la Estopa is an isolated reef on the edge of the drop-off which apparently has crystal-clear water and teems with sealife. Unfortunately, the reef offers very little protection from the swell and both our charts and our guide book say that it is only viable in settled conditions. So, with 20 knots of wind blowing, a 1m swell and fairly overcast skies, we took a look but concluded that the books were right.  Perhaps one for next time.

Our nearest neighbour in Cayo del Rosario

Instead we continued on to the anchorage off Cayo del Rosario.  There is a narrow but well-marked entrance through a break in the reef which we found easy to negotiate even beam on to the 20knot wind.  Cayo del Rosario is a long thin island and we had hoped to tuck in close to it with the aim of getting some protection from the wind and reducing the fetch for wind-blown waves.  However, when we tried to creep in towards the shore we found the depths just a bit too shallow for us.  We’d lose some depth as the tide went out and if the wind got stronger, as it was forecast to overnight, there might be some waves.  We could bottoming out just a little too close to the seabed for comfort. To be on the safe side we moved away and anchored about ½ mile off the beach in 2.7metres, close to a French yacht [Ed: ‘close’ in terms of this anchorage; we could barely see the other yacht!] who had probably done a similar analysis.

We weren’t quite sure what to expect here.  The guide book talks about Park Rangers from the station on nearby Cayo Cantiles coming out to visiting yachts to trade lobsters but we didn’t see any.  Perhaps they were low on fuel for their runabout or maybe it was a bit windy for such an excursion.  Whatever the reason, it was shame as it would have been nice to meet them.

Anchored in the lee of Cayo Rosario. It may be a long way off and provide no protection from the wind but the island and its off-lying reef provide excellent protection from the prevailing swell

We’d missed out on snorkelling at Cabezo de la Estopa and the nearest reef to where we were anchored was over a mile away, so we inflated the dinghy and went to see what was on offer.  By mid-afternoon the wind had dropped right off so the dinghy ride was reasonably civilised with only small waves and little of a size to get us wet.

Lots of Elkhorn coral

The snorkelling was surprisingly good, if very shallow.  From the surface it hadn’t really looked to be worth bothering with but since we had motored so far in the dinghy we felt that we should give it a try.  And we’re very pleased that we did.  As soon as we dropped in we could see big schools of fish, particularly plentiful around the coral heads.  And all the colours were good and bright because of the very shallow depth of water.  The pictures, unfortunately, don’t really do the site justice.

Top left and right: Large barracudas. Bottom left: Hogfish (male): they change colour to match their surroundings.  Bottom right: Stoplight parrotfish (female)

Top left: Blue tang and Princess parrotfish (female).  Bottom: Doctorfish

Foreground: Giant brain coral

In the final throes of our foray around the reef, I spotted a huge lobster and, better still, managed to catch it.

“Large Larry” – a bit big for our pans

With lobster now on the menu we cooked up the beef that we had in the fridge to use another day and then tried to find a pan large enough to cook a 1.65kg spiny lobster [Ed: no heavy claws remember, so this was a monster!].  ‘Large Larry’ was a great lobster and could easily have fed 4, which meant that we had piggy portions for dinner and enough left over for lobster sandwiches the next day.

Evening light over Cayo Rosario. Top right: 2 local fishing boats joined us in the anchorage

Cayo Del Rosario is a good stopping off point and worked well really for us to break up the passage towards Isla de la Juventud.  In the morning we planned to head on to Cayo Matias, about 25nm away and just to the east of Isla de la Juventud, which is reported to have very good coral and excellent snorkelling.  Another early start beckoned to permit another afternoon in the water.

Another stunning sunset

Cayo Del Rosario, Cuba