Santiago de Cuba 2003

A week of music and drinking and
celebrating the smooth finish of the Caribbean roundtrip with the Harley and prepare the boat for the expected rough crossover to Aruba. Cafe la Isabellita got the place to be with authentic Cuban music of the Cuarteto Impression.

Arroz, frigoles con manteca is a common meal for the Cubans. Which is a mixture of boiled rice and brown beans floating in a yellowish vegetable oil poured over it straight from the bottle. It's horrifying and sad, and causing lots of diseases and medical care is free and every street has his own doctor. Meat and seafood are rare and expensive. The sea is full with oversized groupers but the Cubans are not allowed to go fishing because their authorities are worried they would escape by boat from this Cuban paradise. Lobsters are caught by gouvernement concrete vessels in de Jardines de la Reina from where escape is very difficult, and these delicious lobsters are only for export. It can't stop these Cubans from dancing salsa and dreaming their never ending american dream of wealth and materialism. They are lively people , they love to communicate, they talk loud and clear and mostly with a smile, they love to play with each other, talking, dancing and most of all making music with the most simple instruments and their unbelieveable feeling for rythm. They adapt to their political system for survival, they are certainly no communists from the heart. The majority has one or two side jobs, logically illegal, all day afraid for police controls, but just trying to make a few tricky bucs from their nearly two million visiting tourists per year.
They do not stop dancing salsa. Life is a carnival.

SAILING trip from SANTIAGO DE CUBA to ARUBA

My friends from Trinidad (see pictures below) flew over to Santiago de Cuba, a great crew and each of them ready to shoot that boat over to Aruba. We powered Monsoon in calm waters to Ille Vache Haiti and than sailed upwind really upwind into a gradually strenghtening easterly tradewind. Thanks to our indestructable rigging and our never tired autopilot we reached Aruba, meanwhile winds were up to a hauling 30 knots, arriving 2 hours before the planned ETA on a crossing of over 400 nautical miles. Healing 10 degrees making a waterline length of over 60 ft this Monsoon goes like a train, ask me.

A two hours stop over in a quiet desolated Ille Vache Haiiti (above). After a while poor and small local boats came alongside and guess what, they all asked permission to come on board, just to make friends. We had a nice meal and left them, prepared for the big leg, the 400 mile crossing to Aruba.

We were so tired and happy to get to Aruba, like all sailors are happy being back
in their local pub, with lots of unbelieveable stories. Thanks guys.