13 December Marina Gaviota Varadero

Capacity for 1,000 boats at Gaviota Varadero

We began the 320nm passage from Puerto de Vita to Varadero with 15knots on our starboard quarter and a favourable current on Wednesday morning. At dawn on Friday morning, Friday 13th, we arrived at the seaward entrance into Varadero twelve hours ahead of the onset of strong north winds.  The channel is wide, clearly marked as per Navionics and with a least depth of 6m through the five mile course from sea to Customs Dock.  It such a long way in and around two sides of a mangrove covered island we questioned whether our GPS was correct as we seemed to be in the same spot for a long time.  GPS was still working. It was our eye to brain co-ordination which was faulty.  

I had first hailed the marina when we arrived at the beginning of the channel and called again every fifteen minutes.  It was when we were outside the entrance that we were answered.  I think they only have a hand held VHF.

We were impressed by the quality of the marina entrance which lined us up to kiss onto the Customs dock straight ahead.  The marina manager and port captain were there to take our lines on a morning without a breath of wind.

Port Captain Felix left his shoes on the dock and came aboard to check our paperwork. He was followed by his tall assistant. All papers were in order.  Felix searched the boat, presumably for stowaways, checked we still had a cat and went through the checklist of electronics and equipment we carry.  He sealed the box we keep our flares in with official tape and included the hand held Garmin GPS inside.  This was to stay sealed while we were in the marina.  Felix had accepted a can of cold Coke while No. 2 declined, but when he was about to leave he asked for a tip for Christmas lunch.  Quick as a flash I returned 'cook it well'. Not an original riposte but the best I could manage at short notice. Like most cruisers, we strongly resist giving additional remuneration to officials, we feel it doesn't help the people travelling after us, so avoiding a direct 'no' we offered an alternative of a Coke or soap or biscuits which were declined.

Varadero resort midday empty

Once finished with Guardia Frontera marina manager Jose directed us to our slip in the eastern side of the marina.  Boy were we lucky to get a slip!  1,000 spaces and only 7 boats here.  We had a dock which could hold 25 boats to ourselves.  It was designed for Med mooring but with so much space we went alongside.  Transient boats used to go to the western basin close to the shower facilities.  We were told this has been closed since hurricane Irma damaged it in 2016 and it still needs repairing.  With our bikes the eastern section is not too far and there are showers under the bar playing loud music 200m to the east.  OK not all the lights work and they haven't been assaulted by a mop and bucket for a while and there wasn't any hot water until we asked for the electrician to take a look. He fixed it.

tasting the new brew

The electrician, Liber (sp?) is a great guy, built like a Russian shot putter, always smiling and good English.  He knows his electrics and reconfigured our plug to allow us to take 220V from a 110V supply.

Laundry service was excellent with our washing collected and delivered back same day for CUC6 a big bag. 

The last event worth mentioning is the Mexican cerveza home brew was ready to drink today.  A fine drop of ale.