Sailing to Los Morro Cuba

After an 0715hrs start on Friday 8 March, the plan had been to head west along the cays and stop at Cayo Matias. However, Chris Parker’s 0830hrs weather forecast on the SSB radio changed all of that.  It looked like we were about to have a week of brisk easterly trade winds, which was OK for our heading west and stopping off at our last few planned locations in Cuba.  But, just as we planned to be leaving Cuba and heading northeast into the Bahamas, Chris was forecasting another weather front moving down over the area bringing strong north and northeasterly winds.  That would most likely make getting up to Nassau in time for meeting our friends, Strevs and Nici, very hard indeed.

Great sailing conditions

It was time for a rethink of our timeline.  With a hard deadline to meet and potentially some difficult headwinds to deal with, we decided that the most sensible course of action was to push on the 200 miles to Cabo San Antonio, the western tip of Cuba, and stop in at Los Morros.  That would take us about 35hrs and from there we could, if necessary, check out of Cuba and start the northeasterly passage towards Nassau.  It would mean missing out on seeing some bits of Cuba that we wanted to see, and missing some excellent diving and/or snorkelling, but it would stop us from getting trapped by the weather front and thus potentially not getting to Nassau in time.

Clearly, we’d keep reviewing the plan but, for now, our day sail and snorkelling at Cayo Matias had morphed into an overnight passage to Los Morros.  We poled out the genoa and set about making the best use of the easterly trade wind.

Lasagne and bread production

The change of plan also prompted a rethink of our food plans.  Cooking whilst beating up between Cuba and Florida could be hard work and so Nicky spent the afternoon making up a large lasagne (which turned out to be 2 because she’d made so much béchamel sauce and cooked too much pasta) and I worked on making the bolognaise and some bread.  The lasagne was a big success, but my bread didn’t rise properly.  The flour that we had bought in Great Inagua, despite having pictures of bread on the packet, was not strong flour with lots of gluten.  I split the limp dough and used some of my last bag of strong flour to give it some substance.  That created a much better result.

Caleta de Carapachibey

Passing Caleta de Carapachibey on the southern tip of Isla de la Juventud at low water we made much slower progress than we had expected because of a 2½ knot easterly current.  There was no mention of it in our pilot book, so we are not sure if there is always an easterly current there (a counter-current to the westerly Equatorial Current further offshore) or if it was tidal.

The miles ticked down slowly with the big events of the day being a gybe….

…. and lunch. The last of ‘Large Larry’ and the last of the lettuce from Cienfuegos made very good lobster sandwiches.

Cabo de San Antonio lighthouse

Saturday was an equally uneventful passage day and by mid-afternoon we were passing Cabo de San Antonio on the western tip of Cuba.  We tried calling the Guarda Frontera to tell them of our intentions to route to Los Morros but got no reply on the VHF radio so continued up the inshore traffic route and worked our way around to the start of the shallow entrance channel.

Motoring the final mile or so into Los Morros

Los Morros is a bit of an of an oddball outpost on the most westerly tip of Cuba, convenient as a final check-out or a first check-in location but with absolutely nothing in the close vicinity. The ‘marina’ [Ed: quay would be more like it] is tucked into the southwestern corner of the Golfo de Guanahacabibes.  The gulf is deep, about 30nm at the deepest section, and even at the point where we crossed the drop-off from 800m-deep water to the shallows (6m deep), the land from which we were getting our lee was 10nm away.  Motoring into the wind and the steep seas was wet and slow.  Neither the fairway channel marker nor the pair of red and green lateral piles 3nm north of the marina was visible so we navigated by GPS.  Despite making a number of radio calls we had no response from the marina but when we reached the point where the piles should have been the harbourmaster called us and asked our intentions.  He seemed a little surprised that we should wish to come in to clear out and move straight on but said that he would call the relevant authorities and would meet us on the quay.

On the marina quay at Los Morros

When we arrived at the quay the wind was still blowing strongly from the southeast and there was still no significant shelter from the land.  Happily, the Customs officer and the security guard arrived on the quay to help us with our lines – getting Nicky ashore to tie lines quickly enough could have been a bit of a challenge.  Despite the wind, the welcome was very warm and the harbourmaster was keen to tell us all about the facilities:  water, electricity and fuel are all available on the quay and there is a small snack bar and shop next to his office.

With BV secured (the harbourmaster really wanted us to move in from the end of the quay for better protection but we explained again that we did not plan to stay long) we headed up to the Guarda Frontera office to clear out.  Again, the duty officer was very helpful and friendly, though we struggled with our lack of Spanish and his lack of English; thank goodness the harbourmaster spoke good English!  The Customs officer asked if we had any CUC remaining and it became clear that we had to spend the little we had left before leaving the country.  So, whilst the Guarda Frontera officer awaited the arrival of the Immigration officer, the harbourmaster took us to the snack bar and ‘ship chandlery’ (wine, beer, soft drinks and some cans of sardines for sale) where we spent our last 10CUC on a bottle of wine and 2 soft drinks and signed his paperwork.

Drinks drunk (not the wine) we returned to BV to fit the Hydrovane rudder for the next stage of the journey. As we were doing so, the Guard Frontera officer arrived with our passports and the certificate proving that we had cleared from Cuba which might be required at a subsequent port of call. Fifteen minutes later, at 1815, we slipped our lines and headed back to sea with just enough daylight to make our way out of the long shallow entrance channel before sunset.  We were both sad to be leaving Cuba – we’d had a wonderful time in the country and we still have so much to see, including something of the area around Los Morros and the northwest coast.  But, for a first visit, we had seen so many different places, including iconic Havana and Trinidad, and had so many wonderful experiences that we can be satisfied that we left Cuba on a high.  Next stop (probably) Key West and then onwards along the Florida Keys to Nassau.

Los Morros, Cuba