C'est en anglais, il faut faire avec. Ce ne sont que des descriptions de chenaux et de waypoints et de mouillages.
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After 5 days, we left Santiago, clearance out was performed at 8 o'clock in the morning easily and quickly, providing us also with the navigation permit that served as clearance out or "despacho". We popped in Chivirico lagoon six hours after having motor sailed nearly all the way. Wind was stopped by the high and gorgeous mountains of the south coast.
Entrance in Chivirico was easy, the recommended track that appear on the navionics charts is exact but our opencpn' cm93 maps are completely useless and out of range.
You have to keep an eye on the sounder as there is a reef outside the bay, around 19d57, down to a few meters which is not well charted.
We wait on board for a guarda-frontera that never came and we were a bit frustrated not to go ashore on our arrival day. At Punta Gorda, we were told by the marina staff that stop in other places than Port of Entry is permitted but not going ashore, but this seems to be of the old days now.
We spent the next day in the village (4000 people). It is a very nice place, very clean and organized. The guaguas are no anymore buses or trucks but tractor or more often horse driven wooden chariots.
We walked up to the hotel "Los galeones" , full of elderly Canadian tourists, probably as old as the galeones (!). Access is denied to children under 16 not to disturb them!!! There is a wonderful view on the lagoon and surroundongs reefs and mangroves.
We had lunch in a cuban restaurant, we make friend with an artist, whose job was painting Figures of Raul, Fidel, El Che, Vilma and some others on the walls of Chivirico's houses.
There is even an ETECSA office in this village where you can make some internet connection.
We had a nice snorkelling session at the beach down to the hotel that you access from the hotel by a long long long staircase.
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We left Chivirico at the end of the afternoon and head to Cabo Cruz where we arrived early in the morning. The three buoys marking the entrance of the mooring place are there. The red one at the end of the reef is not completely at the right end of the reef and you may want to give it a large berth. Then you head between the green and the red buoy and make your way to the lighthouse. We anchored at 19 50.4N and 077 43.8 W, around 300 meters from the dock. You are not welcome at the dock even with the dinghy that you will tie a bit further east, there is a tiny concrete quay that one can call a dinghy dock.
The anchorage is very very sheltered even when the wind is blowing outside (lots of white horses seen when we walked to the Cap cruz), it was barely felt at the anchor.
The guarda frontera was quickly on board, 10 minutes after we dropped the anchor, he was there with a fisherman rowing for him. No problem with the despacho, except that he kept it until our departure from Cabo Cruz, nobody knows why.
Nothing much to do in Cabo Cruz except having lunch at El Chino, a totally private restaurant with only one table at present time! Try the congri there (rice and brown/black beans) which is, they say, a speciality of the Oriente Cuba. And the guy had of course some lobsters in the fridge. 2 cuc for a lobster's tail seem to be the local price (may be cheaper further west in the cayes....).
It is difficult to snorkel outside the reef as you have to go round it (more than one mille) or cross it (maybe 50 meters of sharpened coral and black "oursins"... (don't remember the english name for these black animals with hundreds of long painful neddles). Inside the reef, you have 2 meters no more and if the coral is nice, the fish is rather scarce.
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After a couple of nights in Cabo Cruz we departed for the Jardines de la Reina, aiming to the Canal Pingüe and before that,the Canal de los quatro Reales.
We departed from Cabo Cruz at three o'clock in the morning backing our track to the end of the reef then head 330 to make the 40 milles up to Canal de los Cuatro Reales.
We had a very nice NE / ENE 20 knots breeze and we made it at 8 knots to our first cayes, arriving at 9:00 in the Canal de los cuatro reales, when we only expected to be there around 14:00.
We anchored at Cayo La Vela (20 28.8N and 77 57.5W) in 2.8 meters of not so clear water in front of a small beach we will visit later.
Charts are not at all accurate (both cm93 and Navionics) and you have to make your way around the submerged reefs. Funny that the Navionics charts with the Navionics App on my iPhone are slightly different than the Navionics charts with the iNavX App on the iPad, the reef line is much better drawn on the Navionics App. Probably I did not actualize them on the iPad.
In the 1999 Imray pilot, the whole lagoon is mentioned as an excellent anchorage. We did not think so, it is far too big to flatten the water. Much better to go very close (200m) to a small beach at Cayo La Vela but there is a long reef extending west that you have to round on the left before you can make it towards the beach.
Cayo La Vela is a very sheltered anchorage. Fishermen came along in the afternoon, 4 of them on two tiny 20 feet wooden boats. We had a drink together, respecting the law i.e. each one remained in his own boat. And we separated all very happy, the fishermen with cigarettes and French soap, Orionde with lots of lobster tails. They wanted to fill our bucket and we had some difficulty to make them understand that the three of us won't eat a bucket of lobster. They don't keep the heads and legs, only the tail. There were from Guayabal, 8 hours of poutpoutpout away and it was their fifth day out. They spent the nights on another cayo further east and we were wondering how it could be to sleep on these small beaches infested with billions of mosquitoes and these tiny tiny biting animals (nonos, yenyens, nosee'em, bugs, whatever are their names).
They fish lobster by diving and catching them with a hook. We saw them doing that on the reef 100 meters from Orionde but when we went there later with masks and flippers, the water was not clear and we were very unable to localize any lobster.
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Next day we followed our track back to the Cuatro Reales channel, the buoys were there, no problem. Pasa Ancha leads us to Cayo Granada, a half-moon shaped mangrove covered cay.
A very big lagoon when you passed the reefs extending from the north and south ends of the island. We anchored at 20 37.6 / 78 14.9 in 5 meters of muddy sand. There is a dangerous coral patch at 20 37.5 / 78 15.1. One can see some herbs outside the water at low tide (when we went out the next morning) and a green spot at high tide (when we entered). We went diving on it with the dinghy... lucky to find it on an oily sea. Disappointed with the not so clear water, there were lots of fish. Maybe it is the moon (full) maybe it is the season, maybe it is only bad luck but until now, the waters were not at all clear as other people had.
Under water on this patch, we saw the rests of a small metallic structure which could have been years before some sort of a tripod... which is mentioned on the imray 1999 guide.
On the boat, since we left Santiago, we were not too much bothered by theses voracious animals when others yachties were complaining very much about that. Only a few in Cayo Granada at sunset but we were exploring the laguna with the dinghy without waving hands all the time. Maybe it is due to the sunny weather, to the autumn, to the full moon... I don't know I am not a mosquito.
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Next day, we went through Canal Rancho Viejo then Canal del Pingüe. Lots of buoys but be careful. Some are out of their position, either on Navionics, or OpenCPN or the detailed Cuba paper charts (we have chart kit no 3). For exemple, the buoy no 6 at the exit of channel Rancho Viejo is at 20 42.65 / 78 17.66, 0.34 nm in the NW of the charted position. But the canal is often used, you have always 15 meters of wate and one may believe that an orphan coral patch would be well indicated, but...
In Canal del Pingüe, we passed close to the red buoy marked no 5 but could not see the charted green one 0.4 milles in the NW... In fact we saw some minutes later! 20 meters away from Orionde, nearly on the charted position there was the rest of a concrete pillar, only sticking half a meter out of the water! And it was low tide! As a friend of us used to say, "The worst is not always certain", we could have hit that one. There are many of them, these old buoys, They call them "palitos partidos".
We arrived in Cayo Algodon Grande 30 minutes before the cold front so we had a peaceful entry in the lagoon on the west of the island. The entry is wide nd easy, 5 meters all along. Water is not clear and you cannot rely on the color to guess the depth except when it turns brown... which means that event the dinghy will touch the bottom. We anchored at 21d05.93 / 78d44.04 in 5 meters of water, 200 meters south of the mangrove or the ruins of the mangove which is completely grey, first time we see that in Cuba. Then the cold front came and we spent the night with 20 knots but the anchorage remained totally calm except the usual noises in the mast and the stays.
The next morning, we made a tour with the dinghy and it was a wonderful tour. We knew that there is some sort of a channel leading to the north coast. We found it (thanks to the iPhone we took with us on the dinghy). It is even marked with a green buoy... hum, say a green plastic bottle popped on a stick but it was helpful for us within this huge laguna full of branches.
This small channel leads to a muddy end, but organized with flat stones (imported of course) which prevents you from having mud up your knees. The beach on the north coast is 200 meters away easy to walk. The sea was rough there, no way to anchor this side by this wind even if there are some poles, remains of an old dock. I wonder how many hurricanes this dock endured.
There are also the ruins of what must have been a hotel 60 or 80 years ago. Some filaos and coconut trees had been planted and had some coconuts (but too high for my small arms). I suppose at that time, they dredged the channel in the laguna for small boats go in and out this side, much calmer. The beach is splendid, large and wide, not too much plastic, hundreds of trails of iguana tails.
Only three regrets: first is that we had a long long look around but we did not see any sight of crocodiles, if I were a crocodile I would have loved this laguna eating iguanas or coconut rats (jutias is the local name I think).
Second regret is that we did not see any flamingos. Again, if I were a flamingo, I would have appreciated the shallow laguna full of little fishes and probably shrimps.
And third, no fish today, no bite on the line. This might explain that.
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Next day, 18th of November we had a small trip, 13 nm westwards to Cayo Cuervo, the sea was quite rough in this shallow waters with the Norther blowing for 24 hours already.
Again it is a very good anchorage, flat see, no rolling at all. Access is an all-weather one. We turn round the green buoy (not exactly placed as charted), leaving it a good berth but one can easily see the reef. At the entrance we had 4 meters of water, then deepening to 7. We made our way northwards, leaving some old poles on the port side, then an old wreck on the starboard side (only showing up 30 cm at high tide) and then anchoring 200 meters off the small beach. 4 meters deep, very calm water, but you still get all the wind. Our position at the anchorage is 21d04.8 / 78d55.5.
The expedition on shore was much shorter than yesterday. The beach is small and the little appealing channel you can take with the dinghy leads to a dead end. Some shy iguanas was the only sight of life. We expected to see some fishermen (we now ran out of lobsters) but the island may be too far away from the mainland or the weather may have forced them to remain closer to the shore.
We changed our plans for the following stops. We first wanted to go outside using the Boca Grande channel and stop in Cayo Cinco Balas and Cayo Breton, but this north wind will be uncomfortable to beat against. So we will go instead to Cayo Zaza de Fuera.
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So the we had a very fast journey to Zaza de Fuera, and moored at 21 27.9 N / 079 34.4 W, very easy also. Nothing to say, we did not even go on shore, no beach. Short dive on the wreck, lots of "Rabo rubio" but we already had caught a not so small bonite.
Next day was a bit strange. We decide to go to Tunas de zaza in order to meet some fishermen And when we made it, we were called by two green uniforms standing on the old dock. When we were close enough to talk they just told us to get out, to go back to the cays, they did not want us to stay overnight. Despite our attempts - there is too much wind, is is too late to go back to a safe mooring in the cays, all which was true, they just unwarmly waved us out. So we aimed for Trinidad and just after the corner, when Tunas was not any more visible, we changed course to the coast and dropped the anchor in Ensenada de Guayacanes, a bit anxious every time a small boat was passing along in case some coastguard was on-board.
Later on we met another french yacht, which had the same experience in Santa Cruz del Sur."No anchoring less than 3 miles from the main shore" seems to be the rule in the busy small towns. Fisherman told us that three miles is also the limit that thay must not cross with their small private fishing boats.
Nest day we made it to Machos de fuera, first anchoring in the north laguna (21 35.94 N / 079 46.20 W), which is fairly deep, 10 meters at the anchor. There is a stake at the entrance, one can go both sides of it we had 2.5 meters of water there.
It is more a day stop as the cays all around are close and as the 25 knots NNE wind we had was making too bumpy for a still night. We went on the west side, very close to the small southern island and, thanks to the ovni, anchored in 1.3 meters of water, well sheltered (21 35.74 N / 079 46.67 W).
We will hear later at Trinidad that there is also an anchorage on the east side, very sheltered, with enough space and enough depth for 3 or 4 boats. It is not indicated on any chart but well drawn on the satellite maps. We will go there next time.
We stopped the following day at Cayo Blanco for some hours on the south side of the island, again well sheltered. There is there a small mooring for the daytrip catamaran. The snorkelling was the best we had in Cuba, corals are wonderful, even if fish is rather small, too small to catch.
Marina Marlin Trinidad on the 22nd, entrance in the bay through Canal de la Mulatas, well-marked, buoys might have been changed, they are big and well charted. Entrance in the marina was for us with 1.7 meters of water but another boat with a draft of 2 meters made it also probably dredging a little bit the channel.
We were lucky enough to get the last available berth! There were three docks but one has been totally broken last august and is now lying on shore. Three or four foreign yachts no more. But the little lagoon is very very sheltered and I would even prefer to anchor if I had to leave the boat during the hurricane season.
As usual in Cuba (and many places elsewhere), not everything is working at the same time. As this time, there are no showers. But the marina staffs are very helpful and happy to talk with you. Internet is at the Ancon hotel, 5 minutes away. Trinidad is 8 cuc (10 at night) away. Our best Cuban gastronomic experiences until now, we had them at "La Botija" and "Sabor a mi", remember these names even if there are hundreds of restaurants in Trinidad and it is not too many for the thousands of tourists you see in the street despite the fact that the season is just beginning.
So it was a very nice sailing fortnight between Santiago and Trinidad and I suggest not making it shorter to have the opportunity of visiting many cays (they are all the same and all different) and navigating through these cays and channels is funny and rather easy and the NE winds should make the southeast or northwest trips a wonderful reach.
Some more details, not chronological:
- We stopped at the Marina in Cienfuegos. It was not full at all, but all berthes are reserved for the catamarans backing from Cayo Largo on Fridays. We had a berth only for two days. It is much more expensive and not as cheerful as Trinidad.
- We stopped in Guijimico. But there is much less water than expected. In fact just after the mooring of the divers' boat, we had only 1.3 and we grounded a bit. Locals say that there is no more than 1 meter in the middle and that a week before one yacht grounded hard and had to be towed out by the divers' boat. We anchored overnight in the channel, it was ok but I won't stay there if the wind starts blowing.
- We had a second trip to the nearest cays, east of Trinidad: Cayo Blanco de Casilda, Cayo Machos de Fuera and Cayo Blanco de Zaza. The first two have a restaurant on shore and catamarans visit them daily. The latest is our top spot. There is a beach (white beach with millions of shells), The island shelters from north to south, there is plenty of water very close to the shore, there were no mosquitoes (at least when we were there), there were fishermen trading their lobsters and snappers, very nice spot.
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