Musical Cruising - Manzanillo To Cienfuegos

Making Music With Our Fisherman Friends

We departed Manzanillo in company with the English catamaran Miss Molly, heading for Cienfuegos via the Golfo De Guacanayabo and the Golfo De Ana Maria.

Miss Molly

The total straight line distance is around 250 nautical miles, however the thousands of cayos and reefs in this region mean that a straight line course is impossible. So we dodged and weaved our way to the north west, traveling in the daylight and anchoring up each night where ever protection could be found.

Philip and Monica Shorter aboard Miss Molly are members of the Ocean Cruising Club, as are we, so we had a lot of cruising gossip to share each evening. Phil is also a guitarist, so he and I were able to share music and belt out some favourite songs between beers and gossip.

In total we spent seventeen days among the reefs and cayos, and covered around 300 nautical miles. The weather was mostly benign, with little wind, so most of the traveling was diesel powered. On the upside, the water was clear, warm and blue, the fish plentiful and we convinced ourselves to start swimming again.

First Swim Of The Season For Admiral Ley

 The northern hemisphere summer is approaching rapidly, and we're starting to set sun shades on deck again, even running the aircon some evenings to cool the boat when there is no wind.

At Cayo Breton we purchased five crayfish from local fisherman. Next night at Cayo Guayo the same fishing boat happened to be nearby.  Captain Phil and Admiral Ley, the fishing experts, went to visit the local boat and were invited on board. Ley was given a number of coral trout, so we reciprocated with cold beers. Then, in the early evening, the fisherman presented us with a beautifully prepared platter of grilled fish, with tomato paste, onion, garlic and fried plantain chips - a gift from the chef on the fishing boat.

Before another hour had passed Phil and I started a music session, jamming away, and the fisherman joined us onboard Miss Molly. The evening ramped up into a regular floating party. The ladies danced with the fisherman and the rum bottles was eventually emptied. This is the cruising life...

Typical Waters In The Gulf Of Guacanayabo - Kinda Reefy

In Manzanillo, Cruising For Cuban Music

We're cruising the world to meet good people, drink good wine and listen to good music.


In the 20 odd years since the Buena Vista Social Club (both the music album and the documentary) made Cuban music famous again, we've dreamed about the great live music we might experience here.

The fun started in Santiago De Cuba, where we found that a few venues and bands were playing to the tourists, while very many others (often just around the corner) were performing for the love and joy of entertaining friends and locals. That's the music we wanted to hear!

Of course there are many styles of Cuban music, with cultural roots that spread from Spain to Africa and the Caribbean. Across the country, these influences can be heard in every town. On a recent Sunday morning, the food, wine and music all came together for us in the form of a regular local performance.

Strolling through Manzanillo town, looking for a restaurant for lunch, the music simply came roaring down the laneway at us, around the corner and across the cobblestones. Lunch was quickly forgotten as we squeezed into a crowded old bar, with windows open to the street and a beautiful courtyard within - all very Spanish.

The patrons shuffled tables and chairs around and made space for us, some offered rum, placing glasses of the clear and delicious local alcohol on our table. Cruising friends soon arrived, also attracted by the sound, and ordered a bottle of rum to share with our neighbours - and so the party developed. The band was outstanding, crowds gathered on the street outside to listen, while we were hosted by locals and danced our feet off in the limited space available. This is Cuba. Nothing fancy, just a heartfelt joy and great community spirit.

Cuban Cruising - The South Coast To Manzanillo

Fresh Dinner

We departed peaceful Marea Del Portillo on a fine forecast - in fact it was a little too fine and we motored the 30 nautical miles westward to Cabo Cruz. On arrival the anchorage there didn't look so attractive, so we continued on around the Cape, heading North West to Manzanillo, a small city to the north west.

Now we were in the Gulf of Guacanayabo, at the eastern end of a chain of Cayos and reefs that extends almost to the western tip of Cuba. Our immediate target was Ensenada Guano, a small bay that would provide shelter in the prevailing winds.

The approach to the bay looks straight forward, however sailors should be careful of some coral heads rising up from the depths as you close the shore - visual navigation is essential. After anchoring in the late afternoon we were reminded why the Cuban south coast is popular in sailboat cruising circles - the locals are very supportive! Just before sunset two fisherman came by in a tiny rowboat and offered very nice sized spiny lobster - we traded for two, a few pesos plus a couple of T-shirts to cement the deal. Our dinner plans changed for the better, and the locals rowed home happy with their bounty.

Manzanillo

Next morning we worked our way north through the narrow channels under engine power, before breaking out into the wider bay and enjoying a brisk windward beat for five hours toward Manzanillo. On arrival we took the dinghy to shore, landing among the fishing boats on the stony beach, eagerly assisted by fisherman and kids. They guided us to the Guarda Frontera office where we were heartily welcomed and cleared in by a very capable young officer with excellent English skills - a rare thing in these parts.

Local Fishing Boat

 A word about the local boats is in order - while there were many traditional planked wooden fishing boats with single cylinder diesel engines, there was also a fleet of smaller styrofoam vessels, some with sails, available for rent. Against all odds, the Cuban people are inventive and determined to enjoy themselves. 





















Our guide book said that Manzanillo was a typical small rural Cuban city, with less vehicles and a relaxed atmosphere. This proved to be true, as the locals were incredibly friendly and proud to have us in their city.

The city itself was a beautiful collection of traditional wooden, brick and stone buildings, many crumbling, set on streets populated mainly by pedestrians, bicycles and horse carts.

The city center featured a grand square of parkland and pedestrian walks, the Parque Cespedes, with shade trees and seating areas. In the park was a stunning tiled gazebo, The Glorietta, with classical Moorish design features. As in every Cuban town, around the square were arrayed museums, restaurants, bars, banks, churches, ice cream shops and government offices.

The streets near the square hosted small traders and shops, some excellent small restaurants and many homes that also served as "Casa Particular", the classic Cuban home stay. For us, the shopping and provisioning was quite adequate - we bought vegetables from street traders and packaged goods in the stores. This was a fine city, and though the beach landing was through fairly dirty shallow water, that was soon forgotten once among the friendly locals in this city of fading grandeur.

The Cuban Capacitor Bomb

Some weeks back I noticed that our reverse osmosis water maker pump was having some difficulty in starting up. As we're dependent on that machine for all our fresh water supply, this wasn't welcome news - a failure would limit our cruising on the Cuban coast.

After some testing and discussion with the manufacturer, we identified the starting capacitor as the likely culprit, though we weren't optimistic about finding one in Santiago De Cuba. It's an uncommonly large value capacitor - 600 micro farad, and physically quite small.

Then, after many fruitless hours searching stores and even second hand goods markets, our friend and driver Noel Sardina took us to another friend, which is of course the Cubano way of solving most problems. Everyone has many friends...

This friend repairs air conditioners and refrigeration equipment.  From him we purchased this typically Cuban problem solver - our Cuban Capacitor Bomb. A trio of well used but functional starting capacitors, all of lower values, but wired together in parallel to create the desired effect - and this assembly is now starting our pump perfectly. It ain't pretty, but it works. The Cuban way!

Cuban Cruising - Marea Del Portillo

Fisherman Row Home After A Night On The Water - Marea Del Portillo

From Santiago De Cuba we headed west along the southern coast, with the dramatic Sierra Madre mountains running down to the coast right along the shore line. It was 80 nautical miles to our next safe harbour, and we managed to motor and sail the distance in a single daylight run, arriving in beautiful Marea Del Portillo just on sunset.

The bay here is wide and deep, well protected from the ocean with mangroves and reefy cays on the ocean side. Local fisherman work the reefs and mangrove channels in small row boats, setting nets and traps.

The local Guarda Frontera officer, resplendent in green uniform, was rowed out in a tiny fishing boat to welcome us and take possession of our cruising permit - in each port they hold the permit until we depart. With heavy conditions forecast for the coming days, we decided to sit tight in this beautiful bay and catch up on some boat work.

The staysail furler needed some fine tuning, so we dropped the sail to the deck and worked on the furling mechanism for a day, including removing the drum mechanism and detaching the stay from the deck. During all this we (of course) found and rectified the mistakes made by the last riggers that worked on the system, but that's just the cruising life .... sure it is.

After sorting that one, we moved the sewing machine onto the fore deck and Ley re-stitched the sacrificial UV cloth on the staysail. A monster job, now done and dusted. So we re-rigged the staysail, furled it and turned our eyes to the shore, where the local village was waiting for us.

At the local fisherman's jetty we landed our dinghy on a black sand beach. Immediately it was clear that this was a fairly poor rural village, with little infrastructure and most of that in poor condition.

However that didn't stop the locals wanting to help us ... they made us quite welcome.  These were farmers and fisherman, the only industry being a modern bakery that produced bread for nearby beach resorts. It was a sleepy kind of place, with pigs, goats, horses and chickens roaming free in the streets.

A Sleepy Kind Of Village - Dog & Pig Siesta

Local Housing

The housing was very basic, though as we've seen elsewhere in Cuba the people were well fed and healthy, with a medical clinic in the village.

One local lady offered to provide us with bananas, and we visited her house while her husband went out to the gardens to cut the bananas for us - for these we traded clothing, a welcome delight to these folks who are miles from any stores. She proudly showed us the new metal roof on her home, replaced after the last hurricane stole the original roof. We also saw cherished photos of her children and grand children, departing having once again found friends in the Cuban countryside.