November 2015

It’s Monday morning and Thanksgiving has come and gone.  It was great fun but now might be a good time for me to cutting back to part time eating for a while or I risk increasing myself from ultralight to full displacement cruising mode.  It was fun though.

Anyway, time to put up the Christmas decorations, if only for a few weeks.  After that, on to Pandora and a winter of cruising.

Since my last post, I have put some time into finding out more regarding the rules for American’s that wish to spend time in Cuba.  With the “warming”, if you can call it that, of relations with Cuba, American’s can visit Cuba without a permit, for one or more of the 12 reasons (check back to a previous post for those) but to stay longer requires more formal approval and the filing of what is called a SNAP-R form.  It’s a sort of export permit for the boat in order to keep her in Cuba for more than the two week limit.  The same process applies for Pandora as would be needed if I wanted to export a shipload of grain to Cuba so some of the paperwork is a bit hard to understand for mere mortals like me.  Fortunately, I was able to find someone, Mark, in that department, who walked me through the application.  Sound like fun?  Feel inclined to get one yourself?  You can find more information  at this site.

I have applied under the Journalism category and have been told that this process, for which I have been told I have a good possibility of being approved, should take about 6 weeks.   I guess that our final plans for visiting Cuba will have to wait until we hear back.

For now, we continue to consider options and research the possibilities for our visit.  The two major options are.

Option one:  Spend some time in the Bahamas, we particularly want to visit the Berry Islands and spend some time in Great Harbor Cay at the marina there.   After that, we would head south along the Exumas and then on to Georgetown.  From there we would sail the 250 miles south to the Windward Passage between the eastern end of Cuba and Haiti where we would enter the Caribbean and turn west to explore the southern coast.  We would spend about a month exploring the south side of the island, round the western coast and head on to Havana and Marina Hemmingway.  After that, back to the US where I’d rendezvous with crew for my run to CT and home.

Option two:  Spend time in the Bahamas and then head back to Florida.   From there we would continue south through the Keys, make the 90 mile crossing to Havana and spend a month exploring the island using Marina Hemmingway as a base of operations.  That’s surely the easier option if perhaps a little less interesting.   However, we weren’t too happy with our time in the Keys from last winter and spending a few weeks in the Keys again leaves us a little flat.   However, we could also continue beyond Key West and explore the Dry Tortugas and Fort Jefferson before jumping across to Havana.  That would be fun.

I wrote about the Tortugas last year when we were thinking about visiting.  We opted to skip but there’s always this season.   This link is to the Park Service and gives a good history of the fort. As another thought on all of this is that our friends Dick and Anne on the cat Nati have expressed an interest in going to Cuba too and seem to favor option one.   We buddy-boated with them a few years ago in the Bahamas and had a great time. They have one of those funny boats with two hulls but we try not to hold that against them. Lots to think about, I’d say and However, for now I’d better get cracking on preparing my presentation for the folks at the Essex Yacht Club next week. I’ll be talking about our cruises down the Intra Coastal Waterway and Bahamas.   Perhaps my talk will inspire them to take the plunge and head out cruising.

And as far as my discussions with Uncle Sam are concerned and the quest for my own personal SNAP-R, it’s plenty complicated but I am of the opinion that if it’s simple it’s probably not worth doing anyway.    Not completely confident that Brenda shares that belief but that’s another story.

Yes, life can be complex but it’s sure interesting.   That it is, indeed.

 

It’s Wednesday morning and 25 degrees here in CT.  Burrr….

With just a month to go until Brenda and I rejoin Pandora in FL, I am thinking about what we’ll do and where we’ll go when we head to warmer climes.    All of this has me recalling our past visits to the Bahamas.  Yesterday I saw a very nice video of the Bahamas Sloop Tari Anne.  It was three years ago, the year that Brenda and I made our first run south, that I was fortunate enough to crew on a “Class B” sloop at the Little Farmer’s Cay Regatta.  It was a trip, let me tell you.  I wrote about this wild, and totally fun, experience here.   What a hoot…

Seeing this video last night brought back so many memories and has made me long for clear blue waters and warm breezes.  The video was filmed in Georgetown Exuma, a beautiful harbor in the southern Bahamas where as many as 500 boats congregate every winter when cruisers converge from all over the world to enjoy the protected waters of the largest harbor in the Bahamas.  I assume that it was summer when Tari Anne was filmed as the harbor is all but empty.   Note that you can watch the video in HD by clicking on the icon in the lower right and choosing, you guessed it, HD.
In my last post I wrote, with barely contained excitement, about the possibility of visiting Cuba this winter.   I learned after speaking with someone from the State Department, that Brenda and I could visit under the “journalism” category of travel.  As a next step I called my friend Frank, author of numerous Cruising Guides to the Caribbean. Frank is a prolific writer and maintains a site of FREE cruising guides, brilliantly named www.freecruisingguides.com.  He has written, quite a few guides on all aspects of getting to and cruising the islands of the Caribbean.  Anyway, I asked him about the best way to combine a trip to the Bahamas and Cuba in the same season.  His answer was, predictably, “well it depends”.

My first thought was that we would make a run over to the Bahamas, work our way south to Georgetown, on to the Ragged Islands and then jump over to the north coast of Cuba.  Sounds simple enough.  NOT!  Frank told me that the north coast is very rugged with almost no marinas to stop at.  Actually, between the eastern tip of Cuba and Havana, on the western end, there is only one marina and it’s in the middle of nowhere.   Setting aside the rugged coastline problem, the Cuban Government doesn’t allow anchoring out or landing on the north shore which really limits your options. Besides, the waters are pretty rough and, to make matters worse, it’s a lee shore.  Brenda doesn’t like lee shores and Frank reminded me of this too.

As an alternative, Frank suggested that I get crew, assuming that Brenda wouldn’t do the run from the Bahamas (a long shot at best), to join me in Georgetown and run south through the Windward Passage, the body of water between the eastern tip of Cuba and Haiti, a run of 250 miles.   It’s not as far as I thought, which would probably only mean one night at sea.  We’d have a fair current of 1-2 knots and it’s a beam to broad reach the whole way. After transiting the passage we’d hang an right and make the 250 mile run to Jamaica where I could loose crew, rejoin Brenda and make the 80 mile over to the south coast of Cuba with Brenda.

Another option would be to just make Cuba our first stop.  Brenda flies and meets us there and have crew leave by flying from Cuba to the Dominican Republic (DR), and then back to the US.  However, this option does mean that Brenda would have to fly from Georgetown to Nassau, from there to Florida, on to the DR and then to Cuba to rejoin us, a trip that I expect would take about the same amount of time as her sailing there with us.

Editors note:   As you can imagine, Brenda hasn’t immediately jumped at the “let’s cruise 250 miles to Cuba from the Bahamas” option.  Her reaction was more akin to “I am going to have to think hard about that so don’t push it Bob…”, delivered with a stern steely eye glare.   I was encouraged by that.  Very encouraged.  You know me, “ever hopeful”.

Once in Cuba, we would cruise the south coast, continue our way west, round the western tip of Cuba and go on to Havana where we could jump the 90 miles to the Keys, on to Miami and home.  Isn’t that simple?  Yes, excepting the thorny part of getting Brenda to agree.  Hmm…

Another option is to run down the FL coast, make the 90 mile jump directly to Havana and not cruise the south coast this season.    However, Frank said that the south coast is not to be missed.    So many choices.

So, what’s a cruiser to do?  Frank can provide answers!  Along with the free guides that Frank publishes, he has also written a book “A thinking Man’s Guide to Voyaging South:  The Many Facets of Caribbean Cruising“, which is available as for Kindle @ $9.99 from Amazon. This book describes, in great detail, the two options that Frank laid out for me, along with lots more information.  I downloaded it today and will let you know what I learn.

Yes, there’s lots to think about but there’s one thing for sure.  We are heading south and the water is going to clear, blue, warm and I can’t wait.  Did I mention that it’s 25 degrees outside?  Yuck.  No make that double YUCK.

It’s Monday and I am thinking hard about where Pandora will be this winter.

Now that we won’t be in the BVI, (that still bugs the heck out of me), the question for frustrated BVI wannabees, is what now?

Here’s an idea.  How about going to Cuba?  I had kicked this idea around months ago but the process seemed overwhelming with formal State Department approval required and all.  I had heard that I might be able to plan a visit without direct approval and while the same 12 reasons that are acceptable for visiting Cuba still apply, there might be a way to visit without going through a formal written approval process.

As a point of reference, a detailed document describing the rules for visiting Cuba are described in this document from the State Department.  However, if you don’t want to wade through the whole thing,  the 12 reasons are…

1. Family visits
2. Official Government Business
3. Journalistic Activities
4. Professional Research and Professional Meetings
5. Educational Activities, including People-to-People Contact.
6. Religious Activities
7. Public Performances, Clinics, Workshops, Athletic and Other Competitions and Exhibitions.
8. Support of the Cuban People
9. Humanitarian Projects
10. Activities of Public Foundations or Research or Educational Institutions.
11. Exportation, Importation, or Transmission of Information or Informational Materials.
12. Export Transactions

I have highlighted in red, the section that I believe applies to me, #3 Journalistic Activities under the section of the code, #515-563 Journalistic activities in Cuba. (a) General license. The travel-related transactions set forth in §515.560(c) and such additional transactions as are directly incident to journalistic activities in Cuba by persons regularly employed as journalists by a news reporting organization or by persons regularly employed as supporting broadcast or technical personnel are authorized.

Confusing?  Yes indeed.  So, what’s a blogger to do, especially one who doesn’t get paid for his/her efforts?  Am I employed?  I think so and to paraphrase the VISA commercial, “for me, writing for www.sailpandora.com is well, PRICELESS”.  So, I called the State Department of course and talked to Rubin in the Compliance Division of the Office of Foreign Asset Control.

My question to my new buddy Rubin was to find out if I needed to make a formal application to go or if I could operate under what he described as a “general license”.  That class of travel assumes that you are going for an approved reason and that you will keep records of what you did while you were visiting in case the State Department ever wants to check up on me.  He was careful to point out that general tourism isn’t approved which I guess means that I can’t “have fun” while doing it.

Not to tell a lie, I did mention to Rubin that writing and researching while we were in Cuba was likely to be fun although perhaps a bit less so as neither of us speak Spanish.  “OK, as long as you aren’t having fun…”, said Rubin.   That’s going to be a tall order as I am not sure that I am capable of keeping a dour look on my face the WHOLE time I am visiting.

Going around Cuba with a permanent scowl on my face just to prove that I  am not having fun will be tough given my nearly perpetual cheery nature.  This aspect of my personality is particularly annoying to Brenda, especially before she has had a cup of coffee in the morning.  Speaking of coffee, I wonder if you can get decaf coffee in Havana…  I’d guess I’d say…“Puedo tomar una taza de café descafeinado por favor?”  They’d reply… “De ninguna manera. ¿Que eres? Un yankee weasily ?”  Brenda, what did he say? Beats me.  I don’t speak spanish.

However, I’d say it with a smile.  I submit this shot of me looking my usual self.  Sunny?  Annoying?  You be the judge…Never mind about that.   So, here’s where we are now.  It seems that Brenda and I CAN go to Cuba and we plan to write about our visit.  However, and this is VERY IMPORTANT, we promise NOT TO HAVE FUN while we are there.  Ok, ok, got it.

So, there you have it.  Pandora’s definitely, or very likely… I think, visiting CUBA this winter.

Now I have to find out how much it’s going to cost for insurance to do this trip. I’ll bet my broker is going nuts with my change in plans, yet again.

Yes Rubin, trust me, I am pretty sure we won’t have even a little fun while we are there and I am sticking to that.  However, as miserable as we will be, we will just have to tough it out.  Besides, we do like old cars.Who knows, this might be me after our visit.  Besides, I am in touch with my feminine side after all.  Perhaps a visit to my dermatologist will be in order.

One way or the other, no rest for the “retired” weary.  Cuba here we come, I think.

 

As you might imagine, after so many months of my writing about our visiting the Caribbean this winter, I have received many questions and notes of sympathy from friends about how our plans have changed.

Frankly, it’s been a bit tough for me to swallow the need to abandon my run to the BVI but, as they say, “it seemed like a good idea at the time”.  Of all the queries about my reasoning, none were quite so “loaded” as our insurance company asking “just why are you not going to the BVI after all?”

Let me explain…

My insurance coverage for Pandora limited our sailing from Eastport Maine to the Bahamas and in order to include the Caribbean, less Haiti and Cuba, required me to go to a different carrier and the nearly doubling of my premium.  Of course, I didn’t want to pay the extra premium for any more months than I was going to be there so I had the new policy go into effect when I left Hampton.

Well, in less than a week after heading toward the BVI, it was obvious that I wasn’t going to there this season.  So, what’s a penurious boater to do?   Amend the policy, of course.    And let me tell you, this set off alarms with my carrier.  “So, what happened and why are you not taking your yacht to the Caribbean?”, implying “Now you have us wondering.  Should we be worried?”

So glad you asked…  I wrote a letter explaining, in the most balanced and lovely way, why not.  It will be interesting to see if any questions remain.

But wait, there’s more…

I now am exploring a visit to Cuba as I had read that the State Department has issued new guidelines for visiting Cuba by private yacht.  From what I gather, the same 12? rules apply but now you don’t have to have written approval from the State Department.  However, you have to keep records as to why you visited for a full five years, just in case they want to review what you were up to.

I suppose that it is a way for congress to deny Obama what he is looking for and let us visit in the mean time.  A sort of “don’t ask, don’t tell” approach to getting  permission to visit an “enemy state”.

So that’s all I know and I have a call into our congressional office.  It will be interesting to see what they say.   As a point of interest, the administrator that I spoke to did not know and would have to do some research.

Of course, if we decide to go, it will surely thrill my insurance company and I don’t even want to think about what the additional premium will be.  However, it probably won’t be any worse than what I paid when I had two teenage boys driving our cars many years ago, something that insurance companies view with as much concern as visiting a hostile country.  Hmm…

One way or the other, folks who are “in the know” feel that time is of the essence as Cuba will look a lot like DisneyLand once it’s open and easy to visit.

For now, if we go, I would expect that our first stop would be Marina Hemingway.So, where is Pandora going?   Hmm… I guess all of us will be wondering together. For now, it’s Florida and the Bahamas and who know where and that’s a good start.

It’s Monday morning and I am back at our “land home” in CT.  While I have only been home for a it more than 24 hours, plenty has happened in planning our “escape” to the warm weather of the Bahamas after enjoying Christmas with our family and Pandora is on the hard for a few repairs/modifications in preparation for her winter with me and Brenda.  Fortunately, there isn’t too much to do, I hope and she should be ready to go when we rejoin her in late December.

I have certainly gone on and on about what transpired on our run and why I decided to divert from our run to the BVI and take Pandora to Ft Pierce FL instead.  I’d say that a winter in the Bahamas isn’t something to be sad about and there’s always next year for a second attempt to sail to the Caribbean.

Not a bad place to visit.  This was Pandora before she was Pandora when we cruised with her prior owners in the Bahamas a few years ago.  It will be fun to be there again with her soon.  I thought that it would be fun to include a shot of our route as we made our run across the Gulf Stream and back for a stop in Beaufort NC.  From there my crew Jim and I ran Pandora down to Florida.   All and all, a satisfactory “shakedown cruise” aboard Pandora.

You can see our “loop” as we headed out and, oops, turned back.   As a point of interest, the “spots” were automatic at a predetermined interval, so you can see how our speed varied from time to time. I guess that’s all for now. Time to clean up the yard from all the leaves that fell while I was horsing around afloat.