Author: crimsonkathyrnandcrew

Hard to believe that we have been on the boat (with a few breaks) since the beginning of January. It's time now to say goodbye to our old friend and let her have a good rest until we return next summer. Our haul out went very smoothly. The guys at Charlotte Harbor Boat Storage know what they are doing and one guy moved CK into haul out position with a single boat hook. Very impressive.

The most interesting thing about this haul out is that our boat is being stored in a yard that is a mile down the road from the haul out site. They used the normal travel lift to get CK out of the water and then put her onto a specialized trailer. This trailer rig drove down the road at a fairly good clip. It was rather disturbing to watch our boat sway back and forth as it went along the road. At one point, the driver, Randy, took a corner sharply and one set of wheels on the trailer went into a pothole – that was scary for us following along behind the boat. But all went well and Crimson Kathryn is now in a very nice spot near the front gate. We have a few more things to do tomorrow but we should be on our way home by Wednesday, July 26.

Well this is my last blog entry for this year. I hope you have enjoyed following our journey. I know I have enjoyed putting this blog together. Until next time…⛵️⛵️⛵️🇨🇦🇨🇦🎉🎉🍾

(I'm not a big fan of this software. They updated it and now I can't put captions below the photos. The captions appear beside the first few photos – you'll have to play match that photo! Sorry.)

Crimson Kathryn waiting to be hauled out.

Engine is off and the boat is being moved by boat hook alone.

Almost in position. A second man with a boat hook is helping at this point.

The slings are being put in place to lift the boat out of the water.

Out of the water and ready for a power wash? Lots of little barnacles on her bottom!

Okay now the tricky part – put the boat on that little trailer!

All ready to go to the boat yard down the street.

Just going for a short drive – no worries!

Made it to the new yard and now just need to find a spot.

Home sweet home!

Well lots has happened since my last blog page. We made our crossing from Varadero to Marathon in just under 18 hours. We had lots of wind and weather and it was super bouncy. Not much sleeping on this overnight! We had all 3 sails up and decided to lower the main sail to help with our rolling. Of course as soon as you lower a sail the wind dies. We decided to raise the main sail again (remember this is at night – way more challenging) and wouldn’t you know, we headed straight into a storm front. We went from under 10 knots to over 20 knots in minutes. Mark got wet from the rain and I got wet from peeing my pants as our speed toppped 10.5 knots (we normally do 6 – 7 knots)!!!!!

Our landing stop in Florida was Marathon Municipal Marina – a very interesting place. It has a huge mooring field and dinghy dock but very little dock space for boats. We enjoyed our brief stay there and were able to do some real grocery shopping (not Cuba style shopping), including some nice wine! Love the US for one stop shopping – food, wine, beer all together!

So we get to Marathon and of course we have to check in with customs – always an exciting process. Mark made many phone calls trying to find out where we clear in and we are told to go to Key West within 24 hours of our entrance – oops. We’d already been in Marathon 5 hours by this time. Well let’s just change our arrival time to the phone call time which is 4 pm Friday, July 14. 
We travel to Key West – an iconic southern city – on Saturday afternoon. We clear in with only a few issues (like finding the customs office) and had a very nice dinner near the waterfront. We did visit a bar called Margaritaville and Mark had a margarita. It’s a very interesting city with tons of tourists!

Our journey north was windless so we motored all the way – 4 days in total. We stopped near the Everglades National Park, Naples, Boca Grande and finally at the dock at Charlotte Harbor Boat Storage. We finally caught some fish worth eating – 2 Spanish mackerels and saw lots of pelicans (I love pelicans), some dolphins and one alligator! Crimson Kathryn will be hauled out soon and stay on the hard here for the upcoming year. She will rest easy and wait for our return in July 2018.

The time has come for Crimson Kathryn to leave Cuba and head back to her land home in Florida. We have had an interesting time in Cuba and have enjoyed learning about the people and history of this country. The best part of Cuba is definitely the people. They are very kind and happy to help you. 

Our overnight trip to La Habana (Havana to us English speaking folks) was wonderful. It is a beautiful city with lots of history and stories. We visited modern Havana with more current architecture. The Cubans are very proud of the fact that they own and operate all these hotels that used to be run by American mafia. We also spent a morning exploring old Havana – that was very interesting. Lots of wonderful old building and cobble stone roads. To top off the trip, we spent our 30th anniversary evening at the Tropicana Club. It’s an open air Las Vegas style show. It was really good – great costumes, dancing and singing. They also gave our table a bottle of rum with a small bottle of coke each – too much rum!!

Today, Thursday July 13, we sail across to Marathon, Florida. We’re leaving around 4 pm and it should take us about 18 hours to cross. We’ll visit Marathon and the Keys for a few days and then head for Port Charlotte on the west coast. Crimson Kathryn will be hauled out and stored here until we return next summer.

We have returned to Varadero to finish the last part of our year off. The boat was in good shape when we arrived at 1:30am. It was good to be back on board. In the morning we did a little grocery shopping nearby but it will be tough to provision well here in Cuba. We also bought an overnight trip to Havana for next Tuesday – that will be fun.

Today we moved the boat back to our original dock and were allowed to side tie!! Yippy – no more walking the plank to get off the boat. Unfortunately we found out as we moved that the propeller and the entire bottom of the boat is covered in barnacles and other growth. Mark had a hard time getting us over to the dock but we made it. Mark dove down and cleared the propeller so we should be able to move better and we’re thinking of having the boat hauled out and power washed to remove the growth. Oh the challenges of boat life.

It’s super hot here and we are very thankful for our air conditioning. Certainly makes Marina life more enjoyable when you can hide inside a cool boat.

It’s been a very interesting 2 weeks in Cuba. There have been lots of neat things and nice people, but on the whole, Mark and I haven’t been that impressed. Puerto de Vita was an excellent check in point. First the doctor came on board while we were still at anchor. He asked a few questions, gave us forms to fill out and took our temperature. Then we were allowed to dock at the Marina. Most of Cuba uses a style of docking called “med mooring”. This means you tie up at the dock by the stern with the bow held out by the anchor. Picture our boat (if you can 😊). Our stern is a good 5 feet from the water and there is no way to cross through to a dock. We’re using a plank of wood that we have on board as a passerel. It’s a bit tricky but works. Once tied up at the dock, we were boarded by many officials and 2 dogs. The whole process took about 30 minutes but we ended up getting our cruising permit and visas. 

While at Vita, we did a day trip to the city of Holguin and had a great tour by a local man named Mick. It was very good and we had a great day.

From Vita, we’ve been sailing along the north coast heading to our final destination, Marina Hemingway near Havana. This has been the not so fun part. Cruisers are required to check in at all stops and if you go to a port, you must surrender your cruising permit and anchor close to the Guardia Frontera offices (which in most of these ports is located at the commercial docks). You’re not allowed to go onshore at these locations. You can only go ashore at islands that are deserted and we only found one of those.

We have seen some amazing islands and lots of resorts. We also saw some of the reefs around a few of the islands and as we got closer to Varadero, the water became so clear and calm that we could see the bottom even at 50 ft. We did some more fishing and managed to catch more barracuda- I’m really done with the Barracuda, lots of fight but a real pain to get off the hook (lots of big teeth).

Now we’re in Varadero at Cuba’s largest Marina, about 1100 slips!!! We’re looking forward to exploring this area and maybe doing a few bus tours of the countryside to see more of Cuba. We also need to buy some Cuban rum and more internet cards so we can keep using the wifi.