Cuba

We are in Cuba!! What a destination, it really is different. Its as if time has stood still since 1960! The women wear hotpants, there are lots of old cars, the buildings are run down. There is every kind of transport, cars, horse and cart, bikes, trikes.
Rob chated to a chap who was driving a 1958 Chev. The old cars have been revamped to take Diesel motors, so cheaper to run. There are lots of modern cars too, not expensive ones though.
The shops have very limited stocks and some shelves are empty.
The communist way is very evident. I have to show my passport to access the internet in our hotel. There are no internet cafe's.
We left the boat in Varedero and are staying in a hotel in Havanna. The next week will be very interesting, there is a huge parade on Sat, 1 May which should be educational and fun.
There is no Wifi so I cannot load any photos!

Day 89 Ragged Island

22,09,82N 75,43.27W  We are anchored off this tiny flat island 

called Ragged Island. There is nothing here but a few 

houses and a salt harvesting plant. Very few yachts come 

here, its just a rest for us before we make our last sail for

 Varadero, Cuba! 48 hours away. Our trip here was amazing, 

the sea was so flat all the way. Rob lowered the rubber duck 

and went to visit Yacht Searenity for a few hours. Its still flat 

today so we are very happy.

Day 88 Great Inagua

20,57.39N 73,40.86W We arrived here yesterday, 

Great Inagua island. There is a lake in the middle of the 

Island with a huge Flamingo colony, we have seen 

them flying by the yacht. The island is small with 

1600 inhabitants most of whom work at the salt plant. 

We can see the devastation of a hurricane that hit the 

island a few years ago, fishing boats beached,steel 

structures bent. We are anchored in 5m of glorious 

blue water and can see the bottom clearly. The sea is 

so flat its wonderful. Today we leave for Little Ragged 

island, a 24 hour trip. These islands are at the edge of 

the Bahama Islands, so we are getting a taste of whats 

to come later, after Cuba. Rob caught a Tuna yesterday, 

great for dinner tonight.

Day 85 At Sea

19,41.56N  69,46.61 W We are off the coast of the 

Dominican Republic and the sea is flat. Wonderful 

for us but Searenity cant sail and is also on motor 

to their disgust. We are going as slow as we can 

at 1200 RPM and they are going as fast as they 

can at 22000 RPM, both maintaining 7 knots. 

Our motors are 3 times the size of theirs. 

We are headed for Great Inagua Island.

Day 84 San Juan

There were sad farewells yesterday as we parted with 

our crew, Mashelle and Krasni in San Juan, Puerto Rico. 

We then walked into the old city. The people here are 

so friendly, from the first chap who took our garbage 

when he saw us looking for dust bins, to the shop assistants, 

to the taxi driver who shook our hands and wished us a 

safe trip! Its is wonderful old city, with the old fort (1540) 

dominating the entrance to the San Juan Bay. The marina 

is full of private fishing boats with huge outboard motors. 

Its a big sport fishing area. There were 3 cruise ships here 

yesterday and 4 arrived today. Its a major cruise ship port. 

We leave for Cuba today, should take about 7 days. 

The weather forecast is very favorable. Lines are out, 

lets see if we can catch fish!

American Virgin Islands

How do you know your in the USA Virgin Isl? The size of the cars!! This is a Taxi in St. Thomas. This used to be a Danish island and many of the signs are still Danish.







We also found this sign up for a road circle.

Hair cuts

What does one do when your away from your hairstylist for so long? Mashelle says Krasni does a great job of hair trimming. A quick swim and all the hair bits are washed off.

Porto Rico

Today we are in Porto Rico, Mashelle and Krasni will be leaving us in San Juan to fly to the USA. It will be sad to see them go but we have learnt alot from them and its time to go it alone.
We are off to Cuba and hope to be there by the 27th. It will be a new experience doing night shift just the 2 of us.
Hope to load some more photos if the wifi is strong enough.

White Beach, Turtle

With no access roads this little beach is a wonderful spot. The sea was so clear we could see the sand 3m bellow the boat. We had a great snorkeling session here near the rocks. I swam next to a Turtle, so cool. We also found a huge eel peeping out from under a rock. Rather scary!
Its an amazing world down there, there are so many different fish to watch.

Great Harbour BVI

This is what alot of the small villages look like, sandy road with and few stores. The colours are blues and pink or purple.

Marina Cays

This small island called Marina Cays in the British Virgin Islands was a huge party. From 6pm to 8pm they have a pirate show, A one man show of sing along and fun. Rob got to blow the Conch shell and came 4th in the competition on who could blow the longest.

Jost van Dyke

Krasni and Mashelle enjoying a drink at Foxy's bar in Great Harbour, Jost van Dyke island. This is a very famous spot for New Years eve parties. Many. The ceiling is lined with hundreds of T- shirts of past parties. 18,26.0N 64,45.0W

Whales

On the way here we had a amazing experience! We had small whales, 6 m long, swim under the boat and next to us! It was so scary, they came from behind swimming FAST and swam with us. We were so worried they would come up under the boat. They were black with white fins, and had a small dorsal fin. One turned over and it had a white belly. A very thrilling site. Still dont know what they were??

Dolphins

These two large Dolphins swam with us for a while, always great to see them.

Day 77 Virgin Gorda

18,29.91N 64,21.55W We are now in the Virgin Islands, on the British side. Virgin Gorda means the fat virgin, so named because from sea, the island takes on the shape of a fat lady lying on her back! Its small, only 10 miles long but popular with the charter and cruising yachts. We are in North Sound bay, at Bitter End resort. Had scones and tea to celebrate our arrival on British soil. Yes the scones were baked on board. Will explore tomorrow.

Day 73 St Martin

We spent 3 good days on St Martin Island. Its split down the middle, half Dutch and half French. They get lots of ship tourists here, there were 3 ships there one day and the next the Royal Caribbeans largest ship (6000 passengers) arrived. We had dinner with a SA chap who has lived there for 15yrs. Always good to chat to locals. In these bigger ports there is always a 'Cruisers net' This interaction between the yachts happens on the VHF radio at 7h30. Its interesting, they start with security issues, then anouncements, then stuff to swop or give away and general. Rob asked where to get our SA gas bottles filled and someone told us straight away. Rob bought a 5 mile wifi antenae, so we can connect to free wifi from the boat. 18,03.9N 63,05.7W

Trimaran

This is a huge Trimaran. It looks normal from the front but the sides join onto the boat and form a huge deck at the back. There is a large pool on the aft deck.

Big boats

This is what the big ones look like. The line of 'toys' behind the boat is what makes the difference. This one had 3 jet skis and 2 wet bikes, 2 tender boats and a number of blow up lilo toys. They are beautiful. We have met many South Africans who crew on these boats.

St Barthelemy

This is St Barts island with the marina entrance. A very pretty place

Fresh bread

Fresh bread delivery to our boat in Guadeloupe at 7am. This lady did very well from all the yachts.

Easter bunny

This huge Easter Bunny was on a huge boat in the marine here in St Barthelemy. Its a French island and there are lots of huge boats and yachts here, very exclusive. We saw Vent of Est here, she was on the Cape Grace marina with us.

Day 69 Antigua

17,04.5N  61,54.7W We are anchored outside Jolly harbour, Antigua. 

We are in wonderful blue water as its only 3m deep. The thing that 

makes cruising in the Caribbean so great is that every island has 

wonderful natural bays that offer the yachts calm protected waters. 

Everyone is complaining that its a bad season with much fewer 

yachts than normal. Good for us as we get easy anchorage 

in popular spots.
Over the last few days we have seen whales, a huge 1.2m 

turtle and large dolphins. Nice to see some marine life again. 

Today we had fresh croissants and bread delivered to the boat 

at 7am (in Deshaies bay, Guadeloupe). She took our order last 

night and did a roaring trade. The French islands are great. 

We clear in and out on a computer, no waiting for ages at 

immigration offices and filling out forms.
Its rained every morning which has been great at cleaning 

the salt off the boat. Also great for the islands as some are very dry.