The time eventually came for our fleet to split up, as Sarah Grace headed off towards Mexico and we prepared ourselves for the Warner’s arrival in Cuba by heading off to explore a few more cayos and aiming to arrive in Isla de la Juventud in good time to meet them on 27 March.
The only place to berth was in the ferry port of Nueva Gerona the small capital town of Isla de la Juventud, when we arrived on 25 March, this is up a very dirty and smelly river. The dock itself was a very savage concrete affair with bits of steel and large lorry tyres hanging over the side – not what one is use to in the Solent! The river was a pretty busy place as the fast ferries from the mainland appeared 2 or 3 times a day belching diesel from the back and blasting 80’s pop at full volume from the front. Anyway we soon met up with the 2 other boats also tied up alongside White Star & Rose bowl (The first American boat we had seen in Cuba) drinks were had, dinner and then more drinks we even ended up at Gerona night club. As Gerona is small town, we had pretty much met everyone who could speak any English by the time Nick & Margot arrived a couple of days later.
It was a lovely birthday present for me to be reunited with the transatlantic team even if it was a little early in the morning, they arrived at 7.30am. However, there appeared to be a burst of inapplicable Cuban security that morning which prevented them entering the port for about an hour! The birthday was suitably acknowledged with Jem ‘dressed over-all’ and the very generous new arrivals promising to take us out to dinner.
After a good breakfast, we went on a tour of N Gerona foraging for food, other than Nick hooking up with the Cuban Boxing star of the 70’s who though Nick might make a good sparring partner, we achieved little so retired to the local pizza restaurant for lunch. Nick’s lunch order of 2 pizzas for himself confused the restaurant staff totally but by the evening he had got the hang of things and ordered items individually – the down side being that the barman was at his sole command for the majority of the night making Mojitos in rapid succession. We had a great dinner that night with double figure Mojitos reached and our first Cuban cigars. All this caused a slightly bleary sail the next day to Cayo Campus (21º33´.5North 82º20´.5 West Google Earth reference) but at least once the anchor was dropped we could relax for the next few days with nothing on the agenda.
Cayo Campus is a pretty ideal spot; we anchored in a clear turquoise lagoon surrounded by a coral reef looking at a small white sand beach & palm trees. The island has a botanical research place and there is a small hut with a couple of guys, who spend 20 days here at a time. We went for a wander round the island & then watched the feeding of the local monkeys, which have been pretty much wiped out on the mainland.
Whilst here two weeks before we traded 4 bars of soap & a bottle of horrid Venezuelan Rum for a huge Sea Bream but no friendly fisherman appeared whilst we were at anchor this time.
We then sailed onto Caletta Puerto Francis at the bottom of the Isla De Juventud, for a few more relaxing days, and anchored off the beach in the clearest water yet, you could virtually see as much from the deck of the boat as in the water with your snorkel on! It is said that it was here that Stevenson got his inspiration for Treasure Island – we are sure we have heard that claim for somewhere else before! However, it was absolutely beautiful and quite deserted….except for when, we went for a walk along the beach and discovered 40 British students on a “Goggers” field trip, camping about a mile up the beach, suffering mosquito hell.
We had warned Nick & Margot about the difficulties of getting food in Cuba but when they were faced with yet another tinned tuna bake for their last night supper we had to try something else. Fortunately some locals swam past our boat offering us some fish and which we declined but commissioned them to catch us some lobster. A few hours later and having parted with £2.50 (& 2 bars of soap) we had 5 lobster heading for the pot – we had a great last night with N & M and sadly dropped them off at Gerona the following afternoon for their return to Havana and then home.
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