Time for an adventure! It's been a good while since we chose to cruise to a country with as many unknowns as Cuba provides. The most daunting of which is the total inability to get cash using our US or Australian cards. The 50 year old Embargo is still firmly intact and Australian bank, still in bed with Yank Banks, steadfastly refuse to deal with Cuba, so we have to take cash.
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| Georgetown via Comer Channel to Puerto De Vita Cuba. Return trip via the Ragged Islands. |
This comes with a set of problems of its own. How much to take? Security. Do we need to have enough to cover unexpected emergencies like boat repairs or hospitalization. These questions are daunting enough to cause us to pause and reflect. We have travel insurance. We have boat insurance. ( Are they valid in Cuba?? )We are healthy and have visited more complicated places. I think we've gone soft since we've been languishing in the great US of A! We have probably also taken on board some of the widespread phobias of the average American, non travelers. So it's time to break out.
The word was out that The Rolling Stones are doing a free concert in Havana on the 25th of March just over a week away. Enough of an excuse! Let's go. Well we have neither of us ever been to a live concert so what better time and place to start!
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| Just like the brochures. |
This morning at Oh dark hundred we pulled the anchor and followed our inbound track of the same date in 2014 when we first arrived in the Bahamas, heading south out of Georgetown through the cut. It was a spectacular morning, soft gauzy light gradually giving way to staggering azure blue as far as the eye could see.
Our passage today via Comer Channel to the cays south and west of Long Island is about 64nm. The Comer Channel is only navigable by boats with our draft (7'2" or 2.2m) during a rising tide and in this case with at least 300mm (1') of tide. We had a minimum of 2.4m of water for about 4 of the 7 miles in the Channel. Sailing across the white sand bottom in the crystal clear water was a surreal experience. Taipans shadow was sharply defined on the bottom. Impossibly close.
After exiting the channel we turned south west towards the Water Cay for tonight's overnight stop.
