Marina Hemingway 2
10 March 2019
Paul Attwood
More than a month has passed by so very quickly. This Winter Season, appears we are not really doing a lot of cruising, it is more of a “floating cottage” life. Which is very pleasant as well.
From Varadero we had another pleasant, light winds & no waves overnight sail west to Marina Hemingway.
As expected quite a lot of cruise ship & freighter traffic around Havana, picked them all up on our “AIS“. Paul handed the wheel over for my 2nd shift, telling me what was around etc, as well couple of small vessels with only bright green light had passed us.
Well, after awhile there were 20 or so of these little green light vessels, then more and more when I figured out they were “lobster pots”, a green light is placed on a rod sticking up out of the water.
By 8am we were at the Customs dock, this time it only took 1/2 hour, but they still rewrote all the same info and our “famous Erica” painting was examined again. Then after another hour wait to get our preferred spot in canal 2 we were finally docked and secured.
First couple of days were spent going to our familiar little spots in the village Jiamantas stock up on the local fruit & vegetables. However, our “lobster lady” no longer there.
Became friendly with our boat neighbors Beth & Paul from Peterborough, ON, they are on a catamaran and it is their first season cruising. They crossed from Key West to Hemingway and been here since.
Feb. 10th Christian, Maria with our youngest little granddaughter Ella (9 months) arrived to spend 2 weeks with us. We had such a good time with them, a privilege to get to know and watch Ella. Weather was very hot, so we spent couple of days at hotel pool as well as the local pool, which actually was a lot more fun. Ella loved being in the water, the dinghy rides also a lot of fun.
With the disappointment of no lobsters available, Paul was adamant he would find some. Well he did, a “lady” came out, we had a fellow boater speaking Spanish helping. She had 65 lobster tails, we had to take them all. Negotiation was done sitting under the palm trees. Cubans are not allowed to step on foreign vessels.
So we had lobsters, which we shared with a couple of fellow boaters. Needless to say, during Christian & Maria’s visit we had several lobster dinners. Even lobster roll sandwiches for lunch.
During their visit here, a big sports event went on in the marina a “Triathalon” with participants from various countries. Last day of the event was the swimming, with hundreds of swimmers going past our boat in the canal, quite fascinating to watch.
Had also trip to Havana as well walks to our local village & “Gaudi” mosaic art streets.
Feb 24th arrived much too soon and off they went in a red/white 1953 Chevrolet to the airport.
Next couple of days we got the boat re-organized & cleaned. Then we saw good winds to take a trip down the coast to Cayo Levisa. Beth & Paul and their visiting guests joined us. First a stop in Bahia Honda 22.58.133 083.09.663, then Levisa 22.52.830 83 31 440 . To our surprise the Guarda frontier wanted us to bring him out to the boat, he then filled out exact same papers & examined the painting too.
Levisa is a beautiful tropical island, with a Cubacan resort, small cabins a restaurant and tiki huts. It is mostly Europeans visiting either for the day, being ferried over from Vinales or staying for a week.
We walked the 4km long white silky sand beach, enjoyed the shade under the palm trees or under their tiki hut umbrellas. enjoying the view of the aqua water as well as the visiting kids & families. Very relaxing. One day Paul spent quite some time watching the work of a couple of sand crabs.
Unfortunately a bad weather front was approaching, so we decided to leave after a 4 day stay. The little bay is only protected marginally good from the North. In addition, forgot to mention when we arrived to set anchor here, our windless did not work. So anchor was set manually. In the event we would drag in the storm, the idea of taking the anchor up in 30 plus knots not appealing.
We were on our way by 6:30 am - back at Hemingway customs by 15:00 - yes we were again boarded & same paperwork filled out & painting inspected.
Pleased to be back in time for the storm that started midnight into Wednesday, and high winds has now been going since then. Very nice to sit in canal 2 where we are pushed off the cement wall instead of onto the wall.
Back to the chores, with cleaning the boat, polish stainless, trying to fix windless etc. as well as other little odds and ends looked after.
Looking at the weather for the next week, looks like we will be staying here. Will spend a couple of more days in Havana, visiting some more galleries.
Our next stop is back to Varadero, have to be there by March 23rd when our OYS friends Marta & Mike will join us for a week.
Paul & Helle
R’Liberty - the cruising cottage