As we leave Cayo Largo and Cuba, we are not alone. El Russo, the employee of the turtle center, has given us twenty freshly hatched turtles. We pack them in a Tupperware and carry them back to Mabul. We cast off and finally we are sailing from Cuba to Mexico. One by one we drop the tiny ones into the sea near the coast. May they have an exciting, long life without shark encounters!
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When we arrive in Cayo Largo, which is southwest of Cienfuegos, we still have a small bill open with Cuba. The Jardines de la Reina should actually be full of sharks, but unfortunately we only got to see a total of two from a relatively long distance. In Cayo Largo we try our luck again – and we are lucky, very lucky! We dive with nurse sharks, grey reef sharks and white tip sharks in close proximity. The elegance of these animals is impressive, they seem to have a similar interest in us as we have in them. By the way, we are not on the menu.
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For the first time since we have been living on Mabul, we leave her alone in the marina in Cienfuegos and make our way overland to Havana. We spend a total of five days in a breathtaking and incredibly diverse city. Bitter poverty and dilapidated buildings are just one street away from the restored downtown where tourists and cigar sellers throng. We also take a tour of the surrounding area and get another deep insight into Cuba’s history, culture and society.
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Karin’s column about the British Virgin Islands.
Published in “global” magazine from Alliance Sud, issue Summer 2023.
https://www.alliancesud.ch/de/lukrative-geschaefte-auf-speedbooten-und-yachten
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As we approach Cuba on an early morning in May, after three days and three nights on the open sea, we immediately realize that everything is different here. In the bay off Santiago de Cuba, on the eastern edge of the big island, men drift across the water on truck tubes, a paddle in one hand and a fishing line in the other. The sailing itself should also be somewhat unusual here in Cuba.
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The passage from Santiago de Cuba to Cienfuegos is wild! Uninhabited islands, magical reefs, many fish, few people. Provisions are no longer for sale, but finally we fish – and how! – Moreover, the lobster fishermen take us along on the hunt. However, we spend a lot of time not hunting, but looking. We dive in the Jardines de la Reina, the Queen’s Gardens, on fish-rich, wonderfully intact reefs, where we encounter sharks, barracudas and doris.
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The Jardines de la Reina, the Queen’s Gardens, take our breath away. Coral bleaching seems to be a foreign word to the endless reefs in the south of Cuba. This is probably also due to the fact that the islands are all uninhabited and civilization seems far away. Only thanks to our diving compressor from Bauer Kompressoren we can do more than two dives.
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Coming from the Dominican Republic, we reach Santiago de Cuba after a large arc around Haiti, various thunderstorm fronts and three days and nights. Mabul is stuffed with provisions, as we have already heard that the current supply situation is precarious, especially since the pandemic. We spend four days in Santiago, immerse ourselves in Cuban (night) life and take our friend Christoph on board, who will accompany us for the next few weeks.
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Life on a sailing boat is more than just drinking gin and tonic at sunset. Karin Mandy Schielke from Deutschlandfunk Kultur explains how we had to completely rediscover our roles and why we would move back to a sailing boat at any time. Listen to the podcast “Plus Eins”:
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After I was able to fix the acute problems of the engine in the BVIs, we set off for the Dominican Republic in good spirits. It is our longest and most beautiful passage so far. Once there, the engine reports back after a short time and screams for attention. I reach my limits and reluctantly agree to get a mechanic on board.
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