February 5, 2018
Dropped mooring ball C17 at Marathon City Marina and headed out at 7:07 A. M. Motored out Boot Key Harbor just long enough to see that we had good wind to sail. Put out full sails, and for the next nine hours we had great sailing. As the wind slacked, we cranked the engine and motor sailed, then finally took in the sails completely. About 6:00 P. M. seas began to build and JR made a course change to try and get us past the Gulf Stream earlier than previously planned. He had checked NOAA weather, and the forecast was for winds at 15 - 20, and seas 4-6 and building to 5-7. The 5-7 foot seas didn't sound appealing for an overnight trip.
Not longer at all after that, Johnny was ready to get some sleep in the cockpit while I stood watch, but just before he lay down, he heard a disturbances that concerned him, as well it should have. Turned out to be the auto pilot drive unit, about the worst thing besides taking on water or being dismasted that could happen. This meant that one of us would have to steer manually for the remainder of the trip, approximately 17 hours. I knew we had a spare on board, so we could change it once we reached Havana, but we're so accustomed to being able to set our course and having the auto pilot do the steering that the prospect of not having it was honestly overwhelming. As Captain sat at the wheel, I knew he was thinking about that spare auto pilot drive. It wasn't long before he asked if I remembered where we had stored it. And, as they say, to make a long story short...in less than an hour we had the spare drive installed. To those unfamiliar with sailboats, just let me say that no repairs are ever simple, and they're always in tight quarters. This was no exception. JR had to literally lie down with his head upside down in a tiny compartment, with only a headlight, and make this exchange. All of this while, for the first time, I maintained our course manually in fairly rough seas. When the ordeal was over, we were both practically giddy with relief!
The remainder the of the night consisted of each of us taking turns standing watch while the other slept. Most folks who do overnight or longer passages have fixed lengths of time for watches, but we haven't yet managed to come up with a system that suits us, so we end up taking turns on an as needed basis, with the person not on watch sleeping in the cockpit. It's not optimum, and we hope to do a little better on our next crossing, but for this time it worked pretty well.
Our arrival at Marina Hemingway in Havana went much as expected. Going through Customs proved to be fairly cursory, with the only difficulty being our lack of Spanish, and the lack of experience of the Customs official who obviously was very new to her job. Nonetheless, we were soon docked securely after first being directed to the wrong spot. We were treated most courteously at every stage of this process, even though some of it was a bit puzzling, such as being boarded by two veterinarians to inspect our fresh food supply. Welcome to Cuba!