Cuba, Cayo Sal of the Cayos de Dios – Clear waters and great snorkelling

Cayo Sal is the pick of the Cayos de Dios. About 55 nautical miles South West of Cienfuegos it offers much better protection then the more frequently used light house anchorage at Cayo Guana del Este (7nm East). Between the great snorkelling reefs that run both East and West of the Cay there is deep water (3-5m) right up to the cliff face and good holding (21’38’N, 81’10.5’W). Just East of the anchorage, protected by the outlining reef, is a good swimming beach.

It was a long run from Cienfuegos to Cayo Sal, so we had every intention of getting off early. We can not blame the officials at the Marina for any delays. They were at the boat at exactly 6am as we requested. It just turned out that the officials at immigration had wrongly dated one of my human’s Vias extensions. A trip ashore and a few phone calls to the Guarda Frontera in Cayo Largo, our next ‘official’ port of call, and we were set to go. It took a few hours for the noon winds to set in and we finally had a cracking sail.

We dropped the hook just off the cliffs at Cayo Sal by late afternoon. Early enough for me to get a run on the beach and the humans to have a quick snorkel on the reef. Well one of the humans anyway. The problem with cities is there are a lot of people in them. When ever you have a lot of people in one place you get colds. All the running around Cienfuegos getting supplies, visiting the peso laundry (Avenues 56-41/43) and kissing goodbye to friends made, one of my humans picked up a flu bug. I feel for her, as there is nothing worse then sweating out a fever in the tropics.

But at least this is a lovely Cay to chill out on for a few days while she recovers. The Cay offers a beach, with a ship wreck on it and also some blow holes to explore. The reefs offer beautiful coral, some more ship wrecks and an abundance of fair size lobster. The anchorage is only a short distance from Cayo Largo, a major Cuban tourist destination, so charter boats regularly join us, but they usually arrive late in the day and leave early, giving us the Cay to ourselves the rest of the time.

The weather forecast is settled for the next week, so I have decided to be nice and let the sickly human recover a bit before we move on to Cay Largo next. In the mean time I will work the remaining human hard, filling the freezer with marine delicacies before the season ends this next month for harvesting.

end:

Photos, charts and information once we go internet. Use link below:

Review of Southern Cuba Part 2 -including the pictures you missed