Cayo Largo – Cienfuegos

Written on: May 4th

April 29th

Left Cayo Largo with a one hour delay, waiting on the GF, that I ended up rounding up myself so I could leave. The night before I had turned the boat (when it was wind still) so now I could leave the dock without any problems.

When outside the reef, after passing a sailboat high on the reef, go the sails up. The wind was NE, about 15 knots, for a while anyway. In the afternoon I got busy attempting to keep my sails in line with the changing circumstances: diminishing wind (changed the jib for the genoa, I am getting better at this, did it in about 45 minutes). Through the evening the wind kept changing (turning clockwise), boomed out the genoa for a while, gibed, and at 2 in the morning the wind was gone. What was left was a slow swell that made for the loudest noise possible. I had been in rough seas and it wasn’t all the noisy, but with no forces on the boat other than the sails, it was just rolling and rocking. Took all the sails down and tried to sleep through all the noise. Eventually I managed to fall asleep.

Woke up at 7 in the morning with the noise of the wind generator running, that meant there was wind! So, back to work, sails up, and got going again. This barely lasted till about 2 in the afternoon, when the wind was back to none. Was about 17 miles to Cienfuegos and decided it was not worth waiting for the wind to come back. Started the engine and motored in. By the time I got near the entrance of the Cienfuegos bay the wind came back, but from straight ahead, so no point in attempting so sail. Got at the dock about 17:30, with some friendly people waiting to help with the lines.

Once all lines were sorted out and cleared in the neighbors shouted. It was an Australian boat, but on board were also the French couple that I had met before in Cayo Largo. Was invited over for drinks and snacks. Later that night we went into town: there was a theater/bar celebrating its 3 year of existence. A string of different performances, started of well with Flamengo and other Cuban/Spanish folk music. Later in the music it was more of the Cuban tearjerkers (Andre Hazes alike) dramatic stuff. Made for a very pleasant night. Also got to see the central square in town: Parc José Marti. Beautiful colonial style buildings, some recently restored, others in the process of restoration. Very nice, more like the Cuba I had expected (lately I had either seen poor little fishing towns or tourist resorts).

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