Of course, now that the humans finally got the depth gauge sorted, they decided to ‘push things’ and went so shallow they went aground. But I am getting ahead of myself.
A storm front is moving into Cuba’s neighboring islands to the north, the Bahamas. We are not supposed to get much more then a wind direction clocking all the way around and some thunder storms here on the south coast. Just to be safe the humans decided to move to the next Cay west in the string here, Cayo Matias. This Cay has a much bigger entrance canal, easier to get in and out of, and offers a variety of anchorages. Our cruising guide says there are two suggested anchorages in the south side reef protected lagoon, and one on the north side of the Cay in the Ensenada Cayo Matias. They decided to head for the south side anchorage close to the small beach. They thought it would be easier for me to go for a walk and still have a barrier reef for them to play on.
If you know my humans, you know things rarely go perfectly for them. And of course they ran aground. There is very little detail on the paper charts or Garmin, but the cruising guide and Navionics said we should have had 2.4m almost right up to the south east point of the Cayo Matias. But as soon as the humans came into the cut in the western end of the reef and headed east for the beach the lagoon got very shallow. The bottom was sand and grass, and they were going in on a rising tide (meaning more water was coming)so they pushed it thinking perhaps they needed to cross a shallow spot. But it did not get any deeper. In fact they ran aground in the middle of the lagoon. A mile from shore, a mile from the reef and a mile from the reef cut the humans were stuck.
Don’t worry, they were at least smart enough to be going very slow. They were not grounded too hard and were able to eventually reverse back off the bottom. As much as the humans curse their long keel when trying to maneuver in a Marinas, it does mean the boat is more forgiving when it is grounded. The way these guys are always pushing it, maybe it is better they have a long keeled boat. Any way, it looked like the beach anchorage was out of the question so the humans back tracked a bit and headed towards the barrier reef instead. Better for their snorkelling, but a long dingy ride when I fancied a run around on the beach. The humans cruising guide is not that out of date, published in 2013. But the lagoon has obviously gotten a lot shallower.
We did not get too close to the reef, as there were quite a few coral heads running well into the lagoon, but we found a nice sandy spot in about 3m of water to dropping the hook with lots of scoop in case the passing thunder storms brought some strong winds. First order of business as of course to drop the dingy and put the engine back on. The humans are usually too lazy and cheap to use the dingy except when in city harbours. They usually prefer to use the kayaks because they are smaller, lighter and do not require any fuel to run. We all jumped into the dingy for a visit to the beach which was a disappointment. The beach is ok, bordered by mangroves, but the waters off it are sallow and grassy. Fine for me to run about, but not the best for swimming. One of the humans was happy to find Sea Hearts (big floating brown beans shaped like a heart).
The humans went off to snorkel the reef and found an abundance of fish and huge lobster just walking around. The coral is in very healthy shape and is obviously rarely fished. There was an alarming number of predatoral Lion Fish, invaders from the Indian Ocean, but they did not seem to be upsetting the ecological balance here. I just do not know if the humans need any more lobster. It seems crazy to turn away from such huge and easy to catch critters, but the freezer is so full now they will struggle to eat that many tails in a year! They are going to aim to catch more fish, even if it is a little harder as they move a little faster.
We have had overcast weather here. The wind has clocked around from South, to South West but not gained in strength much. Last night thunderstorms came through and the wind continued to clock North West into North. The winds are meant to continue to clock and freshen from the North East to the East. This should give us some good winds for sailing further West along the coast. If the thunder storms hold off, we are thinking of heading tomorrow along the south coast of the Isla de la Juventud and then onto the Cayos de San Felipe. This should put us in a good position for the Yucatan Channel crossing to Mexico.
Best laid plans. You know that the humans are bound to get into more trouble before then!
end:
Photos, charts and information once we got some WiFi. Use link below:
Review of Southern Cuba Part 2 -including the pictures you missed
