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| customs dock |
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| seaward channel |
The channel widens into a protected hurricane hole with the Guardia Frontera building in front of us and channel markers just before it leading to the marina, the anchorage and the Customs dock. I've radioed ahead to the Harbour Master to announce our arrival and request permission to enter. His English is fair though not entirely clear over the radio. We are lucky he does speak English because I have no Spanish. I ask about the depth of the channel to the marina. All my research pre-arrival indicated it would be a close call for our 2.1m draft and the tide was falling. A cruiser who came here two years ago wrote it was 2m deep and they went aground on the west side in 1.8m. The Harbour Master told me it was 'about 2 to 3m'. Still not feeling confident. Our electronic charts showed depths of 1m in places. Finally the marina sent out a young man who was leading a group of tourists in little speed boats and he said 'it is 4 metres all the way'.
Very cautiously we followed him setting our bow half way between the green and read bifurcation mark and the red marker to starboard. From there there are sets of greens and reds and we kept to the centre all the way to the last red and green bifurcation mark. At this point you can continue south west into a large anchorage or turn sharp left onto the Customs dock (21.04.31N 075.57.34W).
What were the depths? Plenty deep enough. We calculate that the shallowest we saw keeping to mid channel would be 3.6m at MLW and that was for a brief moment. For the rest of the time it was 4m (as the man from the marina said it would be). The depth in the anchorage is about 3.8m and on the Customs dock 3m.
The Customs dock is the first section of the concrete jetty and painted grey. There were plenty of hands to take our lines and tie us off to big and solid cleats. The marina manager is a lady called Janey. Her English is excellent and she took the time to explain everything to us from procedures to costs at the marina before handing us over to the authorities to begin the clearance.
First on board was the doctor who asked a number of questions and took our temperature by pointing a laser beam on our foreheads. We were clear and issued with a certificate. Next came Port Captain, Yulexis A. Napoles Garcia, with the sniffer dog with handler. Spaniel Sula looked less than enthusiastic about her work and needed lots of encouragement from her handler. She went around the decks and then inside. It wasn't clear whether she was drugs or explosives or both, but she didn't detect our flares in a box under the floor. Sula went ashore and handler stayed on board. Port Captain went on a tour of the boat with David, opening some cupboards and asking questions then meticulously filled out the forms. He is a charming man with excellent English, very polite. A man from Customs joined the party briefly and he and I had a chat about our sailing life and family. He opened a few cupboards within his arm reach.
Port Captain departed with our passports and papers. Everyone else left with him and we had time to have a lunchtime BLT sandwich.
Port Captain returned with our passports with visas on a slip of paper folded inside. They understand that a Cuban stamp in your passport might cause trouble further on and offer the removable paper. He also brought the Ministry of Agriculture inspector and the vet. Mr Agriculture inspected our stocks of fresh fruit and vegetables, believed me when I said we had no fresh meat (only frozen and tinned), and issued a certificate to say we had passed. The vet spoke no English, was the most timid vet we've encountered. David had to hold Polly while he tentatively checked her legs and paws. Was she well? Yes. Do we have a certificate of vaccinations? Yes. Rabies too, but he wasn't interested. He gave us a piece of paper to say our cat had passed inspection.
By now we had a nice pile of certificates and papers and we could step ashore. Directly above the customs dock, two flights of steps are the marina buildings. We needed to see Janey to sign a contract setting out the terms and conditions of Marina Gaviota Puerto de Vita. We could anchor for free or stay alongside on the Customs dock (they weren't expecting any other boats to arrive) for $0.70 per foot including RO water and electricity, showers too. However...the showers were rural with a resident insect population, no seats on the toilet and basic. There is a restaurant on site where we were able to order food and drink on the promise of paying once we'd been to the bank to change money.
Getting electricity nearly cost us our boat. Despite the power towers being new, top notch American style provided by a Spanish company they were wired incorrectly. We were told there was a choice of either 110V or 220V. As we are able to take both David opted for 110V because we had the right adapter. Mr Electrician and David communicated with hands, words and drawings and the plug was pushed in. I was inside and smelt burning rubber before seeing smoke pouring out from the cupboard over the sink. Fire! Fire! If I hadn't been close to call the alarm we would have set on fire. As it was was our transformer damaged beyond repair? Something was very wrong with the power supply. Mr Electrician tried another power tower and the same thing happened the wiring overheated and they was a horrible small of burning rubber.
We decided we would cope with power to avoid risking more damage. When David had time to run checks he found there was no permanent damage to our system. Thank goodness.
The restaurant closes in the evening so I cooked on board and while we ate we in turn were eaten by No See-ums until they disappeared after sunset.
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