Bequia Easter Regatta 2008 - Caribbean Compass

APRIL 2008 CARIBBEAN COMPASS PAGE 18
DESTINATIONS
Southwest Cuba
Part Two:
Fascinating… and Far!
Having purchased some fresh produce at Nueva
Gerona, and after further inspections by the Guardia
Frontera, our despacho was reissued with authority for
our return from Isla de la Juventud to Cayo Largo.
Before heading back east, however, we detoured to
visit the dive sites to the west. Here we hit the jackpot.
Caleta Playa Francesa is a beautiful, well-protected
west-facing bay with water clear as gin, a white sand
beach and not another soul in sight. The daily visiting
dive boat pottered around in the distance, dropping
the punters off to explore the wall. Some local fishermen
sold us a bucketful of lobsters for a ridiculously
small sum. We stayed for a week, until the strong
tradewind flow subsided and we began our long journey
back east. It is worth bearing in mind that at this
point we were 1,300 miles west of our starting point in
Antigua and very conscious of the fact that our return
was going to be uphill all the way.
Juventud to Cayo Largo
For the first two days we were lucky and sailed for
much of the time as we worked our way around the
north of Juventud, but from then onwards we motored
to windward through an endless chain of islands. For
the most part, the outer cays are like Cayo Largo, that
is, long thin strips of sand, covered in dense scrub and
lying with their eastern ends about 15 degrees north of
an east-west line. Thus, the south sides of these cays
offer little protection from the tradewinds and, as the
outer reefs are low with large gaps, potential anchorages
can be too windy and choppy for comfort. The
obvious alternatives are the northern shores and the
by Christopher Price
inter-island channels, but the former are almost
always too shallow and the latter suffer from the mosquito
problem.
Detailed study of the Cuban charts suggests that the
vast shallow area to the west of Cienfuegos, which
includes Cayo Largo and Isla de la Juventud, will offer
hundreds of superb anchoring opportunities. Our
experience proved otherwise. We found three beautiful
anchorages and numerous others that were good in
light winds. We also found a number that looked good
on paper, and are described with enthusiasm by Nigel
Calder’s Cuba: A Cruising Guide, but which now
involve unmarked reef and channel passages that we
consider to be downright dangerous.
In spite of our reservations, we enjoyed our return
passage to Cayo Largo where we were again inspected
and stamped by various officials, and visited by a different
sniffer dog. This one disgraced itself by peeing
with excitement in the galley. Jeanette screamed at the
top of her voice, “Get that bloody animal off my boat!”
and despite its handler’s complete lack of English, the
message was clear and the offending article was
removed immediately. The men from the Ministry of
the Interior were full of abject apologies and the rest of
the paperwork was completed in double-quick time.
More stamps, more glue and we were clear to proceed
to Cienfuegos, in the middle of the south coast and
another port of entry.
During the course of the final inspection before we
left Cayo Largo, it occurred to me that the Cubans…
—Continued on next page
The long return trip from Cuba’s south coast to
Antigua was broken by a refreshing stop in Jamaica