Position: N 28° 00,7' W 079° 39,0' UTC 1700

Nautical miles left: 2604

Total nautical miles: 2922

Our original plan was to sail through the Bahamas which is the closest way to the Azores. But, yesterday we downloaded a big grib-file for the coming 7 days, and it showed that if we did as planned we would end up in weak winds most of the time or with headwind, forcing us to use the engine. The other option was to continue north with the Gulfstream and go above Bahamas and then east, the question was how much longer would that be. In the end the difference wasn't huge, around 45 nm more. When considering the fact that the Gulfstream adds almost 4 knots to our speed the decision wasn't hard to make, beating to windward or go with the flow, since we are long distance sailors we chose the easy way north, of course. So after less than 24 hours we are at the point where it's time to turn east, from now on we head directly towards Horta on Faial, the Azores. The total distance has therefore changed and to further ad to the confusion Sofia mixed up the numbers in her last post, before we had 2876 nm in total and after the route change we have 2922 nm. So far the 24-hour distances have been great, but we will soon leave the Gulfstream and be on our own again. Now it really feels like we are on our way, I like it! Let's see what kind of weather the coming days will bring us, it doesn't look like this crossing will be as easy as the last one but hopefully we won't have to tack too much. / The Captain

So now we are off! I can hardly believe that it's time for crossing the Atlantic. I really have to tell myself that this is it, now I won't stand on solid ground for a long time, otherwise it just feels like a normal crossing and nothing more to it than that. Although there are some small indicators of the difference onboard Cantare. We have loaded the boat with a lot of vegetables and fruits! Before Cuba all the fruits and vegetables were very expensive so when we had the opportunity to buy some more price worthy stuff on Cuba we took the chance. And the boat is very well packed right now. Little Volare is nicely stewed under the table in our saloon and in the fore cabin's portside bed we have stacked a hole lot of things. This means that we have only 3 beds available for 4 persons. One in the fore cabin and two in the saloon. But that is actually no problem since one of us needs to be on watch in the cockpit. We now have 3 hours watches 2 times a day. Mine is the best one: 6-9! But after half the crossing we will change and I will get the worst one: 3-6. Well well, Maria who has that watch now says it isn't to bad. You just need some time to get used to it and then you adapt yourself to getting up at 3 a clock in the morning. The big problem now is probably what are we going to do with all our time off?! What am I going to do onboard Cantare for 30 days? I have started slowly with just reading books, sleeping, doing some workout, thinking about life and working on my tan. It's working out fine… and it's just 29 days left to go now!

/Catrine

Cuba's other side

Our first encounter with Cuba during our days in Marina Vita and on our road trip was fantastic in many ways, although, we sometimes glimpsed how hard life can be for the Cuban people with all the strange rules and the lack of money and supplies. But as always you don't really get it as a tourist and I guess we never can, but lately the Cuban ways have affected us directly and we are feeling a bit frustrated.

After Sofia's last post we got an email from Escape telling us that the anchorage outside Cayo Coco was affected by swell and not very well protected, they suggested we meet up in a bay outside Cayo Guillermo instead. The distance we had to sail the next day was twice as long as that to Cayo Coco so we stood up early and sailed almost the whole day arriving next to Escape in the afternoon. After a stroll ashore (found nothing but a beach restaurant) we went over to Escape. Tom had news about the weather, stronger winds from the northwest were predicted for Tuesday or Wednesday and we agreed that the anchorage outside Cayo Guillermo wasn't good enough for us. We had during Low Water less than 0,5 m water under the keel and the protection from a norther or northwesterly wind was bad. Since we were looking for beaches and internet, most likely found in a tourist area, we all agreed to go to Varadero. The distance from Cayo Guillermo was about 160 nm, forcing us to once again rise early to be able to make it before Tuesday night. We left in light winds which during the day increased. Sofia was worse again and couldn't do anything but lie in her bunk. Catrine and I took turns in the cockpit, sometimes it rained, sometimes we were hit by gusts and during the night I saw lightning. Without any proper night sleep for more than 4 days Catrine and I were exhausted when we closed in on the channel leading into the shallow waters on the east side of Varadero. At least Sofia was starting to feel a bit better again. Escape called us over the VHF, but we could hardly here them. They were trying to say something about the bridge, after a while we figured out that it was broken. To go from the east side to Marina Acua in Varadero there is a canal and a lifting bridge, apparently the bridge wasn't working. We told Escape that we would call them when we got closer and continued with the wind behind us. Soon we were companied by big dolphins, Catrine's first view of wild dolphins, watching them jump and swim around made us smile. When we called Escape again we heard that they were in the Marina Acua, they had taken the western entrance instead. We discussed whether we should turn around and go that way as well or if we should continue towards the anchorage in Cueva del Muerto outside the canal leading to Marina Acua. We decided to continue towards the anchorage, there we could get rid of the seaweed and the other stuff that grow on Cantare's hull and take the dinghy ashore. The way to Marina Hemingway would be longer since we would have to sail back and then around the Peninsula de Hicacos but on the other hand we would reach our destination before it got dark, which we wouldn't if we turned around. As we got into the anchorage bay we could see the bridge and went over to it to make sure that it wasn't working. It wasn't, we were told by a man on one of the boats tide up along the canal. Alright, it was worth a try.

On 2,8 m we dropped the anchor and then started to prepare ourselves for a trip ashore. It didn't take long before we were greeted by men in uniforms on a motor boat getting ready to tie up next to us. They asked for our passports, ship's papers and cruising permit, but they didn't come aboard. After filling out forms and asking us a few questions about the boat they told us that we were not allowed to anchor here. We could stay for one night but then we would have to leave in the early morning. As if that wasn't enough, they also told us that we were in no ways allowed to take the dinghy ashore, we were to stay on the boat. I explained to them that we probably wouldn't be able to leave tomorrow because of the strong winds and our small engine but they insisted that it would be possible in the morning when the winds normally are lighter and asked us if we wanted a place in the marina. We were chocked, Sofia thanked the men, that was more than I was able to at the moment, and they went away. We set the alarm on 6 am but before it went of I knew that we wouldn't be able to leave, during the night I had heard the wind howl and decided that it was to dangerous to go against the breaking waves in the entrance channel. I asked the girls weather they wanted to stay here and argue with the officials or if they wanted to go to another marina on the north end of the peninsula. They agreed that it was better to stay here than spending the whole day forcing Cantare against the waves and wind in maybe less than 2 knots speed to reach the other marina in the end of the day. Sofia seems to be much better today and was up and about as normal, after a while she decided to call the harbour master on VHF channel 16 asking for permission to go ashore. The man who answered was very friendly and told us that he would call the authorities and ask. Sadly he returned to us a few minutes later with a no. It was not possible for us to go ashore, but at least we were allowed to stay anchored until the weather gets better. Escape had of course overheard the conversation and Tom sounded almost as dreary as we felt when we talked to him afterwards. Here we were not far apart, the difference between us huge though, they are allowed ashore because they are in the marina and we are not. I guess that might be a bit like how the Cubans feel about the tourists and themselves.

This morning I finished a book called Broken Paradise / Ghost Heart (Drommehjerte in Norwegian) by Cecilia Samartin. It's about two Cuban cousins, one of them leaves Cuba with her family after the revolution, the other one stays. The book is amazing and although it is fiction, since the author was only 9 months old when her family left Cuba, it is built up by stories her family and friends have told her. It feels realistic and is deeply touching. Read it if you are interested in how people felt when the revolution took place and during the years after it, the people here are still affected by it and so are we for the moment. / La Captitan

Me gusto Cuba! Cuba is an amazing country, it's so different from other modern countries. Being here is a fantastic experience and I'm so glad that we will spend our last month in the Caribbean at Cuba. Sure it's a bit more complicated but it's so worth it!

The day after checking in we decided to go on a road trip with our friends Martin and Miriam from the boat Ranja. They picked us up at our marina with their rental car and we drove of to Holguin. Martin and Miriam had already been in Cuba for about a week so during the drive they shared their experiences so far which was great hearing. At Holguin we stopped and grabbed a pizza at a street stand. Guess what it coasted us?! 5 CUP each which is approximately 0,3 Euro. Pretty cheap! First we had planned to stay over night in Holguin but since it was still early in the day we continued our trip to another town called Bajamo.

At Bajamo we had our first encounter with a "casa particular". A casa particular is the place to go if you want to rent a room inside the house of a Cuban family, which I definitely recommend instead of staying at a dull hotel. It's really fun to get to see the inside of the Cuban homes and trying to communicate with them in Spanish. We had read that some of the rooms in the casa particulares could have a double and single bed so we were on the lookout for that, so that I, Sofia and Maria could share one room instead of two and cut down on the cost a bit. But that was easier said than done. The hostess of the casa particular that we first stopped at claimed that it wasn't allowed, that we would never find a room like that in Bajamo and that we had to rent two rooms. In rapid Spanish of course. Thank God that Miriam is good at Spanish and helped us with the translation. But we weren't fully satisfied with this explanation though and decided to try another place. Further up at the same street we had spotted another casa particular and we went over there to check if we could have better luck. A really nice lady welcomed us and showed us a room. The room was nice but there was only one double bed… to bad. When we explained to her that we wanted a room for all three of us she also started saying that it wasn't possible. Hmm, okay maybe we had to rent two rooms here in Bajamo because it was a smaller town but we would definitely not agree on that in the bigger towns we thought. So me and Maria decided to take that room and Sofia found another one.

After drinks with the others at our balcony we went out to get some food for the evening. We found a big street where they had put out dining tables all over it. It looked nice and what really looked nice was the prices on the menu. The prices were in the local currency CUP which makes it really cheap for us tourists. We all ordered beer and food like chicken, rice and salad, and in the end we had to pay 2 Euros per person. That's a good price for dinner and drinks!

After the dinner we strolled down the streets of Bajamo. Sofia heard some distant music and keen on dancing salsa she suggested that we should check out where it came from. So we did. The music was coming from what looked like a normal house and just as we were about to leave since it wasn't a club, someone opened the door and waved for us to come in. Huh!? Should we really go in there, to a private party? Yeah sure why not. As we went through the door they lighted up the room and it felt like they were doing it just so that everyone could get a good look at us. People were really staring! But in a nice way I think and soon they dimmed down the light again and continued their dancing. It was a party for a girl called Lucy who was turning 15 which is an important birthday for Cubans. So we felt a bit older then most of the average guests. But they where really nice to us, typically of Cubans, and offered us beer and food. So we stayed there for a while and did some stiff dancing compared to the locals.

The next day we had breakfast at our casa particular which was really nice. It's common that you eat breakfast at the place where you are staying for a fee of about 3 to 4 CUC. CUC is the other currency here in Cuba and 1 CUC is a little less than a Euro (I think, correct me if I'm wrong). Well anyhow, the breakfast was splendid and the lady that had hosted me and Maria was so sweet. That's the beauty with staying at casa particulares I think, that you get to meet all this nice friendly Cuban people. I love it and just wish that I could speak some more Spanish so that I could talk more to them. Most of them don't know English so if you are going to travel around Cuba I recommend that you know some Spanish.

After Bajamo we continued our journey which will be described in upcoming blog posts. Right now I'm inhaling the smell of a lovely soup that Maria is cooking so I think I will call it a day.

/Catrine

The former invalid person onboard, also called First Mate, has sort of returned from the death today. When we left Bahia the Vita yesterday I had to try really hard to look as healthy as possible, the last thing we wanted was to be kept in the marina by the harbor master who otherwise maybe would have called the doctor again to have me medically investigated before we could continue. I claimed my tiredness and my bend over walk had to do with too much partying and too little sleep which the marina employees believed in and found very entertaining. And as always, First Mate is more than happy to entertain, but this time it was little painful I must admit. I was happy to return to bed when we had cleared out of the marina and I had steered us out the bay when Maria programmed the handheld GPS with the waypoints towards the island Cayo Coco, where Cuba's best beaches are to be found. Cayo Coco is together with another 400 islands situated in an archipelago called Jardines del Ray which means Gardens of the King. The girls took the day watches with help of wind vane monitor and I took the bed watches until I couldn't stand the sweaty sheets any longer. Then Maria gave me a little shot of white rum which I swigged, the immediate effect failed to come though but since the wind vane steered beautifully, beam reaching on starboard tack all night long I insisted on doing my night and morning watches with the help of some painkillers. What motivated me more for the watches was not the white rum, rather the book of Ellen MacArthur, Taking the World, I was reading at the moment. If she could break the world record in 2005 and become the fastest solo sailor round the world, I think I could make those hours. Ellen MacArthur sailed a 75-feet trimaran round the world in 71 days, she is pure girl power in a sailing world dominated of men. However, luckily the world is changing and there are more girls entering the sailing sport. We are showing the islands here around Carribean that girls actually can sail by themselves. And I was very happy the other day when our stalker told me about a girl who had kicked some male egos in last regatta he joined. She was meant to be trimmer but when some other guys joined the crew she was put on the rail, not until the guys screwed up she was allowed to show her capability and did awesome! A phrase I love and try to live my life after, a phrase that is very important for Ellen MacArthur too and was written on her world record boat is YOU CAN DO IT… If you want something really bad in life, you can to it, no matter what!

This afternoon we arrived in the archipelago Jardines del Ray, we didn't reach as far as Escape before it got dark and hard to navigate among the coral reeves, but will sail there tomorrow and intend to have some lazy beach and boat days. If the resort prices aren't beyond the stars we might check in for some "all you can eat/drink/surf on the net". You see Cubans are not allowed to use the Internet (!!!) and it hardly exists anywhere. What is an email address – a question I have gotten from people I have given our Cantare business card to…So no, Internet is not as widely spread as you sometime think and we are happy to be able to use the satellite phone to update our blog. We have heard though that some of the hotels have internet for their guests, hopefully that is true and we can get some access. Sadly our lives are, despite the Cubans, deeply affected by the Internet and we need it from time to time, I mean now it is declaration times :-) Over and Out/ First Mate. A First Mate who is slowly recovering from her strange diarrhea with Maria's white rum shots.

Last Friday morning we arrived as planed in Bahia de Vita. The clearing in procedure was not as lengthy as we had feared. But I will tell you more about it later as we are on our way to dinner at Escape tonight. We have been on a very interesting road trip in "el Oriente", the eastern part of Cuba, since last Saturday and returned to Cantare half an hour ago. Internet is hard to find here, this is posted with the satellite phone, in the coming days we will try to find somewhere to check our emails but please be patient if you are waiting for a reply, it might take a while. It is still possible, and much appreciated by us, to send text messages to our satellite phone or even call it. Of course there will be more updates about our latest adventure soon, and there is a lot to tell you! Hasta Luego! /La Capitan

Yesterday afternoon, while Sofia was uploading the post via the satellite phone, we could hear how the line was being dragged out from the fishing rod. We were all inside the boat getting ready for a movie afternoon and as the line continued to being dragged out I became stressed. I needed to get out in the cockpit before the fish took off with all our line. But there were cables in the way, I was trying to get my lifewest on at the same time as I ducked under the cable connected to the satellite phone. Sofia told me to be careful, though all I could think about was not loosing the fish. When I got out in the cockpit and back to the rod I tightened the brake, I had to tighten it a lot to get the line still, a big fish! We were all very happy about having a fish on the line and desperately wanted to land it. On our way to Grand Turk we lost two fishes, they both took off with the lures so I had bought two new pink and red lures in Cockburn town, one of them was now proving its worth. I could see the fish jump far behind us, it seemed yellow and was most likely a Dorado (also called Mahi Mahi and Dolphinfish). When I got it closer, which took a while since it was struggling hard to get free, we could see that it was a big female Dorado, maybe even bigger than the Dorado we caught on the Atlantic crossing. By the time the fish was alongside the boat Sofia was ready with hook, knife and vodka. On the second try she managed to put the hook through its body and landed it on the cockpit floor. It was bigger than the Atlantic Dorado, it took up the whole length of the floor and later we measured it to be 1,05 m. A new record! This was the first fish we have caught since New Years day and we much enjoyed having fish on the menu again. We had it for dinner yesterday and will have it for lunch and dinner today, they say fish makes you smarter.

We now have about 90 M left to Bahia de Vita on the northeast coast of Cuba, if we continue with this speed we will have to slow down or we will get there while it's dark. Tomorrow we are on Cuba! /The Captain