Cuba, Cienfuegos – We made it!

We got up and lifted anchor with the sunrise. We had 54 nautical miles to cover to reach Cienfuegos from Cayo Machos de Fuera and wanted to be anchored well before dark. This is where traveling around Cuba’s coastline from East to West really pays off. We had the brisk Easterly trade winds in our favour and a following sea.

We sailed down the lee side of the Medanos de la Vela, a great sandbank, until it met with the mainland coastline near Casilda and the great historic city of Trinidad. From here we followed the coastline to Cienfuegos with the beautiful Sierra del Escambray Mountains on our starboard (right) side. Despite a ‘fickle’ period when the winds shifted from trade winds to predominately land breeze, the sailing was fast and we reached the light house at the harbours entrance by 3:45pm.

The harbour here is huge. Called the Bahia de Cienfuegos it is the drainage of multiple rivers and contains lots of ‘baylets’ and islands. From the light house at the entrance it is another 7nm of twists and turns to get to the Marina’ anchorage. It is one of only 3 pocket bays on Cuba’s south coast and is completely protected in the event of cold front passing. As such it is one of the most popular stops for cruise boats and one of the few places you will definitely run into other boaters.

It is not hard to pick out the Marina area, as you will see lots of boats anchored off it’s concrete piers. You are welcome to anchor any where with in view of the Marina, but remember you can only land ashore through the Marina, so most boats are close in. Anchoring is 0.20 CUC/metre/day (about 20 cents a metre/day). This includes use of the toilets and showers, rubbish disposal and unlimited water. The showers are nothing special, the water needs boiling first but it does have a nice bar with beers 1 CUC and Moijos 2 CUC, so it is not all bad. And it has a sandy area and small beach between the Marina and Club Nautical for me to run about on.

We are back on mainland Cuba, so it is back to see Guarda Frontera. This time we did not need to drop our dingy and pick them up. The Marina anchorage is so popular they came to us with their own dingy. We had two gentlemen together this time. The usual paperwork, passport checks, and questions. On top of this they made us read a list of rules and sign a copy. The usual rules, no locals aboard, only land ashore at Marina, use anchor lights, but they also insisted that be lifted at night and outboard engines locked. They did not ask for ‘anything we could spare’, but we did send them off with a USB memory stick each. They were very happy as they left with our despacho (cruising licence). Again we have to tell them when we are leaving and they will sign us out and give it back to us. Their office is right in the Marina, so it will not take long.

The officials were very busy. Lots of boats were arriving. There is a large charter fleet here and it appeared that Friday was their day to check back in. On top of that we witnessed another 5 cruising boats anchor up. Cienfuegos is a popular place for people to leave their boats when exploring the mainland. The centre of town is only 1 km away. If you are lazy you can talk the bicycle taxis into taking you for 1 CUC. There is a regular bus service to the surrounding cities including Trinidad and even across the island to Havana.

Unfortunately we arrived and finished up with officials too late to make the opening times of the Marina’s little food shop. Luckily we had one set of fish fillets left. With the last of our frozen veg and rice we made a presentable dinner. Another breakfast of powdered eggs and left over rice was pushing it though. It was definitely time to get some more food. Now I would like to say my humans went out into the city of Cienfuegos to experience the history, architecture and culture, but they didn’t. They headed, pretty much, straight for the Agromercado Calzada. The farmers market in the city centre. Saturday is the biggest market day, and after a few weeks without any fresh fruit or vegetables besides onions, which ran out a few days ago, they were no about to miss out.

Now shopping in Cuba is an experience that I could fill many pages explaining. You kind of have to think of it as a mini adventure. You have no idea what you will find on any given day. Bread, if available, is baked in the morning. So do not expect to get any by noon. Fresh fruit and vegetables are only available in season and if surplus. In Santiago de Cuba and Cienfuegos we found sweet potatoes, onions, peppers, lettuce, cucumbers, tomatoes, plantain, okra, carrots, garlic and fruits such as limes, pineapple, mango and passion fruit available at the markets. But in smaller towns you find no more than some extra onions and perhaps some tomotoes. When it comes to the ‘super markets’, well they are small and each stock only a few things each. Very few foods are imported and even fewer people can afford imported foods, so stock is very limited. Cubans get a weekly allotment of basic pantry goods, so any flour, sugar, rice and beans ect. for sale is surplus. One store you might find pasta, another might have eggs but do not expect them to have the same stock when you return next time. We are still hunting for the elusive cheese!

We have eaten through most of our canned and frozen foods. Replacing these in Cuba is near impossible. They just do not sell them. My humans are going to have to get creative in their food storage methods for the next leg of the trip down the south coast of Cuba. But we are jumping ahead. Now that we have a safe anchorage and food available, I think it is time to do some sight seeing on the mainland. It is time to immerse ourselves in Cuba’s history, culture and music.

And we will try and take you along with us.

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Photos, charts and information once we got some WiFi. See link below: