November, 2004

Hi everybody,

Now that winter seems to be settling in up there in the cold north, we imagine everyone is deep in winter projects and planning winter holidays, perhaps somewhere a bit warmer. We know the perfect location.

A lot has happened since our last update in March, and our plans to enjoy the lazy hazy crazy days of summer were not to be.

By mid-April the flow of winter cruisers had dwindled down, and things became very quiet around the marina. We managed to get a few projects done on the boat, which had been put off during the winter, and we got word Danny’s brother Stephen, (who had left here earlier this month), planned on returning at the end of May. We assumed he drank the water, but we looked forward to his arrival.

Are you asking yourself “Drank the Water?”. Well, the story behind that is we have noticed when single men arrive at our island paradise, it doesn’t take long for them fall in love and want to marry their Cuban sweetie. So, we always warn them not to drink the water. Obviously, something is put in the water to make level-headed, sane men, want to turn their entire life upside down. Fair warning to all of you who land on these shores.

Cuba had a national week of recognizing the work of veterinarians, and wanted to do a video of the role of the veterinarians at the marina. They approached us to assist, and with the film crew in tow, showed up at the boat one morning to film the check-in process. Lobita was examined, and we were informed as to what products are not allowed to be imported into the country – eggs, chicken products, citrus fruits, etc. A few weeks later, we were told when the segment would be aired on national T.V. We got the other boaters together, and had a potluck cocktail party in the restaurant to watch the news. It was great fun, and we did manage to see ourselves on T.V. As a note, this is the second time we have been interviewed. In May, 2002, we were here when the Conch Republic out of Key West was here for an annual regatta (which has since been halted due to stricter U.S. regulations regarding travel to Cuba). At that time, a film crew did a short interview with us, which was also aired at that time.

Where else can you organize a party, bring drinks and food to an operable restaurant, use their dishes, glasses and wait staff, and leave without paying a dime, except of course for voluntary tipping?

During April, May and June Lobita’s dog food supply was dwindling, so we compensated by cooking for her. (When we arrived Christmas Day, the U.S. had announced the discovery of mad cow disease, and Cuba had a total ban on any beef products, including some of Lobita’s food supply.) About once a week we would cook up a big stew with ground turkey, liver, potatoes, carrots, squash, and onion and garlic for flavour. We were a little concerned when we got over to Florida, she may not be agreeable to returning to her regular diet on dry and canned dog food. As a note to anyone planning on heading this way, the ban is still in effect, and anything with “beef” on the label will be either sealed or confiscated.

Near the end of April, David Allester and Eileen Quinn showed up on their sailing vessel “Little Gidding”. David is a contributor for the magazine “Canadian Yachting” and Eileen is a singer/songwriter who records music based on their cruising life. We enjoyed spending time with them, and to our delight, David interviewed us. In October’s issue of “Canadian Yachting” he mentioned our life here in Cuba, and included a photo. We have yet to see the article, but expect to by the end of the month.

The days started warming up in May, and we were anxiously waiting for our trip to Florida to invest in an air conditioner. Our carpenters returned in May with some more news about our hard-top which we thought could not happen. It seems when they were here before, there was some concern about how they would manage such a big project with the strict security at the marina, so they told us it couldn’t be done. However, they had since been assured there would be no problems entering the docks to work, so – yeah!! – the project was back on, with the understanding we would bring the necessary materials back from Florida.

Stephen arrived at the end of May, just as the days were becoming almost unbearable. We rented a car for a few days, and did some travelling in the comfort of air conditioning. One day, Stephen, his Cuban sweetie, (Teresita, who just happens to be the sister of our very good friend, Luisa), joined us for a trip to Tarara, a marina located about 110 kilometres west of Varadero. We thought if we wanted a “summer vacation”, we might consider going there. However, as it turned out, we were not impressed with the marina or the docks, and decided we really are at the ideal place here at Marina Darsena.

Another day found us heading east to Baños de Alguea, a health spa which we had visited years before with Danny’s parents. At that time, they had several natural “pools” of different types of mud, each one designated to help a specific area of the body. For example, one type of mud was used for arthritic joints, another for bones which had been broken, another for skin disorders, etc. They also had a natural sulpher pool, with attendants present to monitor visitor’s blood pressure and to limit the time in the very hot water. Fifteen years ago, this was all free. Sadly, as it happens with all economies trying to increase tourism coffers, the spa was now so heavily priced, we forewent the treatments. However, the trip through the country was very enjoyable.

Once the car was returned to the rental agency, we were back on the bicycle for travelling. However, with only one bicycle, either Danny or Debbie would go into Varadero to visit Stephen and do e-mails. Occasionally, we would head in by taxi if a special event was happening, but we tried to limit those expensive trips.

Early in June, Stephen visited the boat several times to join us for supper and to watch the hockey play-offs with Danny. Lots of evenings filled with hootin’ and hollerin’, screamin’ and yellin’. It is a good thing the Cubans are very passionate about baseball – they understood all the racket.

One afternoon while Danny and Lobita were walking along the canal, Danny discovered a beautiful conch to bring home. He cleaned the meat out, under the watchful (or more curious) eye of one of the marina captains, and we now have a beautiful shell.

It was time for us to start watching for weather to cross over to Florida. Our visas were due to expire on June 25th, and we wanted to make sure we were on our way at the first opportunity close to that date. As it turned out June 21st looked like the ideal day. We got packed up, said our goodbyes, and at 1700 we finally slipped away from the dock.

As soon as we left the canal and headed north to Marathon, the daily afternoon thunderstorm started closing in, and within an hour we were experiencing rain squalls, lots of thunder and lightning, and heavy seas, forcing us to maintain a more westerly course than we would have liked. These conditions lasted about three hours, and when the weather cleared and the seas settled down, we were able to readjust our course and once again make way to Marathon.

The rest of the night was very uneventful as we took turns at the helm, and as day broke and the sun started to rise, so did the temperature. Man, was it hot!! By the time we reached Marathon, all three of us were melting. Because we planned on staying only a week or two to re-provision, we decided to stay on a dock to facilitate the loading of supplies onto the boat. We pulled alongside the main dock at Sombrero Marina, which also happens to be the dock at Dockside Bar and Grill. What a surprise! The dockmaster was Rick, who we had met several times in Varadero, as he travelled between Florida and Varadero on “Cea Ya” to visit his wife in Puerto Esperanza, west of Havana. Then there was Jeff, for those of you who remember Hub and Jeff who were in Varadero on “Fubar”, and Odie from “Cloud Walker”, also a frequent visitor a few years ago. Talk about a homecoming. The boating community is certainly a small one.

We checked in with Customs, and the following day made our way to Key West for our obligatory visit to Immigration. Customs had told us the day before, we must also stop at Customs in Key West – something new, but with Mr. Bush making travel to Cuba very difficult for U.S. citizens, not a worry for us. When we talked to Customs we were informed that before returning to Cuba, we must apply for two separate permits. One from the Coast Guard to leave U.S. waters and enter “enemy” waters (Cuba). This permit has been in place for some time, but in the past only U.S. flagged vessels were required to have it. The second was from the Office of Foreign Assets for an export permit. What? We were not planning on exporting our Canadian-flagged vessel from U.S. waters. Anyhow, when we contacted the Office of Foreign Assets, we were told if our only purpose of travelling to Cuba was for pleasure, we would not be issued a permit. We immediately began making plans to travel to the Bahamas before continuing on to Cuba, and we stopped telling people our plans. The directive from Mr. Bush stated that if the Coast Guard even “suspected” a vessel was going to Cuba by way of a third country, they could confiscate the boat, hand out heavy fines, and issue jail terms to all those aboard. Welcome to the land of the free.

On July 08th, the U.S. Coast Guard released another statement claiming they had no jurisdiction over foreign-flagged vessels regarding Mr. Bush’s directive. Danny made a trip to the Marathon Coast Guard station for confirmation, we recorded the time, date, and names of the officers he spoke to, and we refused to listen to anymore directives, updates, or new releases. As far as we knew, we were free to travel from the U.S. to anywhere we wanted.

We settled in, found that the dockage was cheaper by the month than by the week, so decided to relax, enjoy a month in Florida, and take our time re-provisioning. We met many new friends, and after spending some time with Jack and Kathy, realized we had met them before when they joined Cloud Walker on one visit to Varadero. Bill and Barbara came down from Fort Meyers for a visit, and life was good. Between the boat and Dockside Bar & Grill there is a laundry room with a little tiki hut beside it. The locals refer to this area as the “Lizzards’ Lounge”, and people would come and go throughout the day to gam. It was a great place to exchange ideas and opinions, and is affectionately known as “the table of too much knowledge”.

The first thing we did was buy an air conditioner. After investigating several options, we decided on a Fedders room model, sold by Home Depot. It stands quite high, but the beauty of it is there is no water discharge. The exhaust is vented out a window, and a small drain at the back of the unit is opened about once a week to remove about a cup of water. The downside – where to put it? After much thought, Danny decided to cut a hole in our table, set the unit on the floor, then lower the table over it. It worked perfectly! We were finally cool, and wondered how we managed the previous two summers without the benefits of comfortable sleeps and an escape from the heat. Lobita turned into a boat potato, spending all her time below, resting in the cool of the day.

In the meantime, Stephen had returned to Canada on June 26th, and the news from Danny’s mom was that Stephen had been ill. We got word on July 13th he passed away suddenly, and we spent the night making travel arrangements for Danny to fly back to Ontario. Stephen had named Danny executor of his estate, so it was necessary for him to leave immediately to help with funeral arrangements, and then start the task of dissolving the estate.

We spent the next day packing Danny’s bags, (he actually had to borrow a duffel bag from Rick, as we had stored our luggage in Fort Meyers when Danny returned from Canada last November), renting a car, paying another month of dockage, and getting Danny prepared to travel. On July 15th, we headed to Miami, Danny boarded a plane about 1300, and Debbie returned  to Marathon.

For the next four weeks, Danny did what he could to take care of Stephen’s affairs, while Debbie got a few jobs done on the boat, and slowly stated re-provisioning. On July 20th, she observed her first waterspout churning toward the harbour, and remembered her prediction from last November that this would be a very bad year for hurricanes because of the unusual weather patterns from November until well into May.

As Danny slogged through all the legalities in Ontario, Jack and Cathy, along with the expertise of Carl, taught Debbie how to “bully net”. This is a method of night-hunting for lobster, which includes a net secured to a long pole perpendicularly, a dinghy and a strong light. Cruising slowly on the flats of the Florida Bay, when a “bug” is spotted, the “bully netter” slowly places the net over the lobster, and as it shoots backwards up into the net, the pole is raised and the catch is dumped into the dinghy. Great fun!

As a note, if anyone is in Marathon this winter, the folks in the harbour gather on VHF channel 68 every morning at 0900 for the “Marathon Cruisers’ Net”. This is a gathering of people who welcome new cruisers, say good-bye to those leaving, share information on Marathon, services available, a “buy, sell, trade or just give-away” segment, and a trivia question. It is very informative, entertaining, and if you happen to tune in one morning, say “hello” from La Vida Dulce.

During this time, tropical depressions were coming and going, and Charley, a tropical storm, developed, showing promise of developing into a hurricane. By August 09th, we were closely monitoring Charley’s progress as he approached the western end of Cuba. On August 10th, Danny called to say he would fly home on the 12th. However, with the Monroe County, which governs Marathon, contemplating mandatory evacuation of all non-residents, it was decided he would return on the 11th, and hopefully would be able to get back to Marathon. The county issues “Re-Entry” permits for residents, so Debbie got one from the county office, drove up to Miami for Danny’s arrival, and there were no problems returning to the boat.

Charley passed west of Key West at midnight on August 12th. The only effects we felt were caused by a tornado which blew through the harbour about 2230 – what an irony! Waiting for a hurricane to pass well to the west and getting blown around by a tornado. However, it was short-lived, and all was quiet. Until……

Hurricane Frances. By the time our dockage was expired on August 22nd, the old nag was hanging around in the southeast Caribbean, creating problems and scaring those waiting to see if Florida could actually get hit by a second hurricane. We considered crossing back to Cuba at that time, but the Florida Straits were still boiling after the passing of Charley, so we had to sit tight (not literally, of course). We continued to monitor her progress, continued our re-provisioning, and Danny took the opportunity to install an electric fuel pump and electric tachometer. Another month’s dockage was paid, and our yearly budget was shot to you know what.

September 02nd we once again battened down the boat, got emergency supplies topped up, and decided to wait out this one with a little bit of new-age technology by buying a DVD player. We thought if we were going to be holed up in the boat for a period of time, we may as well have some entertainment. The first DVD we watched was a documentary loaned to us by Trish and Jay called “Why Dogs Laugh and Chimpanzees Cry”. We loved it.

On September 04th, as we started tracking the path of Hurricane Ivan, Frances blew by on the east coast of Florida, and once again the state was busy cleaning up from the forces of nature. Stuck between Miami and Key West was actually a blessing for us – both Charley and Frances brought us some wind and rain, but we were basically well off. The outer bands from Frances did create a lot of rain and heavy surf in the harbour, but we were safe.

On September 09th, as Ivan gathered strength and moved toward Florida, projections showed him coming right through Marathon. Early in the morning, we decided to move up to Miami. Got the boat ready to go, then heard all the bridges were “locked down” on the intracoastal waterway. Going outside was not an option because the heavy seas from the east would be too dangerous, and pretty fruitless – you don’t make headway when you are pounding directly into stuff like that. So, we decided to head to Fort Meyers, making an overnight run. At 1400, just ready to leave, did a final check on Ivan’s projected path – computer models showed him passing just west of Marathon and directly hitting Fort Meyers. Where the hell does one go, when even the experts cannot predict where he will end up? By 1700 that afternoon, new predictions showed Ivan further west in the Gulf of Mexico- time to breathe a little easier.

Our bully-netting buddy, Carl, manages a motel, and the owners had already left on the “voluntary” evacuation notice from the county. He checked with his owners, and then invited us to join him there if we needed to abandon the boat. Debbie knew she and Lobita had a refuge, but she also knew Danny would not leave the boat. But, having a safe place to run to helped ease the frayed nerves.

September 11th, we packed up stuff for Lobita and Debbie, in case they had to run and hide, and we constantly monitored Ivan’s progress – he was a biggie!  Carl gave us the key to his truck so we could move when the time came, and we waited. Finally, by the following morning, it became clear we would once again be saved from a close call, and the tension at the marina dissipated as everyone realized Ivan was someone else’s problem. However,  we do feel extremely sorry for the hundreds of thousands of people who have suffered through this terrible time in Florida, and in the states further north.

It was time to get out of Dodge. With tropical storm Jeanne threatening to grow in power, we decided to get back across to Varadero, where we knew we could get into protected areas quickly, and dockage rates are less than half of what we were paying in Florida. Once again, we waited for a window, and on September 20th, we left all our new friends in Marathon and headed back to be with our old friends in Varadero.

Most sailors would say our trip was horrible. As motorsailors, it was one of our best. No wind, flat seas, no traffic. We had a sail up for the early part of the night, but we weren’t getting much of an advantage because of the lack of wind, so we motored through the calm and peaceful night. Our only problem was we were so loaded down, not only with our own supplies, but with “stuff” for other boaters at the marina, our speed was greatly reduced. We vowed we would never stock up again for other boaters (and we apologize to Bill and Barb for doing the same thing to them early in 2002).

It is good to be “home”. The weather is starting to cool off, the marina is preparing for winter visitors, and we are preparing for the construction of our hard-top. Our friend, Luisa, had the opportunity to visit Italy for a month in September – her first time outside the country and it was very exciting for her. Danny flies back to Canada once more near the end of November, and plans to be gone for two weeks. The article in “Canadian Yachting” has generated many e-mails from people curious about cruising in Cuba – yes, come visit! We bought two bicycles from a fellow cruiser, (who has a motorcycle and no use for pedalling), and are now able to travel into town together without paying taxi fares. There is an old bomb shelter behind the shower building, built into the side of a hill. On the roof of the shelter, are four cement “beds” that have been overgrown for years with weeds. One afternoon, Danny jokingly suggested we clean the beds up and plant a garden. People at the club who know Debbie’s love of gardening, can well imagine she bit onto that suggestion like a dog with a bone. After a bit of hard work, using a screwdriver as a shovel, we got the weeds cleaned out, and the roots of a horrendous plant called “marabu” removed. The marabu plant is totally useless – all it does is grow stems filled with very prickly thorns. Our fingers were sore for many days.

We now have radishes, lettuce, oregano, basil, garlic, carrots, chives and green peppers growing. We make a daily trip up to water the plants, hauling the water in buckets from the shower building. Back when we were “dirt dwellers”, Debbie loved to garden using her “Original Garden Claw”. Now we have two dinner forks, a dessert and a bread and butter knife as “tools of the trade”. Instead of going to Canadian Tire for peat moss and fertilizer, we cross the highway to a horse pasture and bring back poop. Things are going really well.

We have vowed to send in more regular updates, to prevent the long, long stories. We hope you enjoy this one.

As December approaches, we wish you all a very merry holdiay season, and hope you have a safe and warm winter. Take care.

Danny, Debbie y Lobita sailing on La Vida Dulce