27 April Check out in Placencia

The season's move on and so must we. From the anchorage in Placencia we walked over to catch the 8.15am hokey pokey water taxi to Big Creek. Papa was waiting and we, and three other cruisers hopped in for our ride to Immigration. There was a bit of a surprise at Immigration – a U$60 fee for services – and a forty minute wait to have our passports stamped.

At Customs they told us we had to see the Port Authority first to pay our cruising fees, but we had paid for more days than we were staying and were able to get out zarpe stamped for Cayo Largo, Cuba. Back on Papa's bus to the hokey pokey, back to Placencia and the job is done.

Except there was another surprise later in the afternoon. I was eye grazing through Facebook and came across a new post in the Cuban group. It seems a large area of the southern part of Cuba, and one of the best cruising and diving grounds, has been closed to private yachts. It's reported an Italian Cuban man who owns the only diver resort in the area called The Queen's Gardens want to keep it all to himself and his charter company. Cruisers were confirming the Cuban Coast Guard weren't approving cruising plans to include this area and were being told they could either hug the coast or go offshore to pass this 70 mile stretch of islands.

Because the Queen's Gardens were to be the focus of our visit we had to carefully consider whether it was still worth sailing hard to wind, or landing more to the west and working our way east, because there was too much north and not enough south in the wind for a short visit. We came up with a compromise which was to aim for the west tip of Cuba where there is a port of entry. If, over the three days the forecast changed for the better we could make landfall at Los Morros and begin a visit to either north coast to Havana and then Bahamas, or along the south coast hoping the reports denied access to the islands were exaggerated and thence through the Windward passage between east Cuba and Haiti to south Bahamas.

Ranguana cay

We sailed from Placencia to Ranguana Cay to stage for an early morning exit. Ranguana has a protected anchorage and we can pick up free WiFi from the island to check and re-check the weather. In the end we waited an extra two days for more favourable conditions.