The sailing has been generally good on the south Coast of Cuba. Between the predominate Easterly Trade Winds and the strong land breezes we have had enough wind to sail between ports and anchorages. The sheltered waters have meant we have had to deal with little more than a wind driven chop, as the main island blocks the northern swell that you get everywhere else in the Caribbean.
The other day was a very ‘brisk’ sail. As usual, the Chris Barker’s SSB forecast under estimated the winds speeds on the south coast of Cuba, and instead of getting the predicted ‘light and variable’ winds we had 20+ wind on the beam. We have no wind instruments to give you an exact speed, sorry. Sailing between the Isla de la Juventud and the Cayos de San Felipe I think we were reaching ‘hull speed’ up and around the 10 knots mark. We usually average around 5-6 knots, being a long keeled heavy old monohull. Needless to say we were at Cayo Juan Garcia before noon, covering the 35+ nm in the morning!
This is great as noon time the sun is directly overhead giving the humans the best light angle for reading the water depth and spotting coral heads. The sun bounces directly off them giving great definition. As you arrive later and later at an anchorage the sun is lower in the sky and the light starts to bounce off the water surface making it harder to see below. Arrive too late and it is almost impossible to see below, as the surface becomes a mirror. This was especially important for this anchorage entry as the humans forgot to charge the tablet with the Navionics charts (the only ones with any accuracy they have). Don’t think they will make that mistake again!
Timing between ports is always a challenge. It is always a compromise between arriving on a rising tide (if it is shallow or not well marked)and arriving early enough in the afternoon to still have good light for bottom reading. Forecasts can give you an idea what winds to expect and you can work out you average hull speed and the length of passage, but as we have found in Cuba, we will often not know what winds you will get until you are out sailing in it. If you think that is hard for day passages, try longer passages. This is the last stop for us in Cuba. The next passage is much longer 190nm to Mexico. If we want to make port in daylight (recommended if it is a strange port) we need to work out how long the passage will take. We need to consider: What will the winds speeds be?
What will be our point of sail?
Is there any currents to consider?
Are we willing to motor if the winds turn light?
Wind speeds?
We can only rely on Chris Barker for a forecast as we don’t have internet access and the GRIB and text forecasts on SSB don’t cover much details for Cuba. Half our route will be in the lee of the south coast of Cuba and the other half will be across the Yucatan Channel. The wind speeds depend on the movement of a tropical low developing in the Bahamas. It has made the wind speeds higher than predicted, up until now, but is predicted to do the opposite over the next few days. So winds are predicted to go light. This will ease the sea state, but may make the passage very slow.
What will be our point of sail?
Winds are predicted to be between east south east to south east. This will put the winds on the stern quarter to the beam. Our boat sails faster at both these points of sail.
Is there any currents to consider?
There is a westerly flowing current on the south coast of Cuba, but we have experienced a counter current closer to shore. Our route will take us past to southerly jetty points of the main coast of Cuba. If we get any positive current helping us, it may be countered by a negative current as we pass these points, so I would not count on any overall boast. There is a ‘major’ current that flows north up the Yucatan Channel that joins up and becomes the Gulf Stream. This means our boat will be pushed north of it’s intended route adding either miles to the crossing or slowing our sailing speed if we try to counter it’s effects by sailing in a more southerly direction through it. We have to consider that this current will effect our crossing time. Luckily the current and winds are in a ‘similar’ direction so this should not make the seas too rough.
Are we willing to motor if the winds turn light?
Fuel is money burning away. You know how cheap my humans are, so need I say more.
You put all these things together and you still are doing a lot of guessing! And you thought I was going to give you some magical formula, didn’t you?
So if the winds are 10-15 knots we can count of a hull speed around 5 knots. Divided into 190 nm that makes 38 hours. Count on a delay over the north setting current in the Yucatan Channel. You also want day light to leave and arrive at the anchorages. A 5pm departure from the anchorage will give you light astern, but high enough to reverse your entry and still spot any hazards. That gives you an arrival time in Isla Mujeres of 7am. Delays in the north setting current should push arrival into late afternoon. If the wind speeds are higher, we will have to slow the boat or heave to until daylight.
Best laid plans?
But enough about the coming crossing, I am sure you would like to hear a little about our last anchorage in the bight between Cayo Juan Garcia and Cayo Real in the string of cays know as the Cayos de San Felipe. Cayo Juan Garcia is last, most westerly, cay in the group. It is also the only ‘inhabited’ cay here. Four wardens alternate every 10 days managing the wild life reserve here. They are here to protect the iguanas, jutia, crocodiles and birds from poaching. I have seen, and driven the humans crazy chasing, a multitude of these species on the numerable ‘unprotected’ mangrove cays that dot the south coast of Cuba. Although I think it is admirable that the Cuban government has set up a Marine Reserve here to protect the future of these species I do feel the venture is a bit of a ‘show’. We have met the very friendly wardens here and their main activity appears to be cleaning the beaches, entertaining the visiting yachts and keeping a collection of semi tame iguanas for the tourist to photograph. Do not get me wrong, the wardens are lovely ‘ambassadors’ to Cuba. As soon as we came ashore they greeted us, took us to see their lovely solar powered cabin. Set up some chairs for us on their shaded porch and served us up opened coconuts to drink. They were more than happy to entertain me too, just wanted me to stay on a lead so I could not chase the iguanas lounging about.
The wardens here are also very much into doing some trading. Despite having only one small row boat between them, and being in the middle of a Marine Park, they are happy to trade lobster and fish for any luxury items. The winds have been quite brisk with rain squalls since we got here, and the humans anchored down the beach from them so I have a place to run about with our iguanas, but despite this they have rowed out to us to drop off gifts of fish. They asked if we had any soft drinks to share and they loved the fishing hooks. We also gave them a bottle of rum.
Despite the wardens warm hospitality the anchorage is not the best if you have a ‘tender’ disposition as it has been very rolly. The spot reefs south of the anchorage are not extensive enough to dampen the predominate southerly swell that rolls into the south coast of Cuba. With the easterly winds this put the swell onto the beam of the boat making monohulls like us ‘roll like a pig in the mud’. My humans put out a kedge anchor to turn the stern of the boat around to the north to make the boat face into the swell. If you are a monohull, and you do not have a kedge or winds with a northerly component, expect to roll about. At least it has a lovely beach.
Today is our last day at the anchorage. The humans took a day to do some repairs (the toilet exploded sea water on the passage here) and bake some bread for the crossing. We are going to get everything tied down, the kedge back up and stowed, and then we will be off tonight for Mexico. Hopefully we can find some internet and send you all some pictures. Until then take care and I will make sure the humans do the same.
end:
Photos, charts and information we can share now we have internet. Link below:
Review of Southern Cuba Part 2 -including the pictures you missed
