They say a picture tells a thousand words. I can write a dissertation with all the pictures we took while in Cuba. Here’s a few for starters.
We left Stock Island at 4am along side Locke and Camille Bryan on Hollywood Ending, Stuart and Gaye Lynn Zarrow on Majic Ride, and Luke and Julean Durdin aboard Norman Jean. Included in our little posse from Texas were some charter catamarans, a few private sailboats and a few other trawlers. A couple of the catamarans left shortly behind us and a couple of the other boats stayed in Key West and joined in with us along the way. The rest of the boats had to wait for crew to come in and they left later in the day or on Friday. We had some current from the Gulf Stream that we needed to correct for, but it was a really pleasant crossing. We arrived around 4:30 and began the checking into customs process. We had heard many different stories about customs in Cuba, and didn’t know what to believe. It really wasn’t too bad. We were boarded by a couple customs guys who checked all our paperwork and made sure we’re weren’t harboring any fugitives. A doctor came aboard to take our temperatures. He also let us know that is “muy caliente” in Cuba and warned us not to eat out of date food. Gee, thanks for that info. This was also our first lesson on how to tip a Cuban. Some of the officers were upfront about their expectation, some just took it if you offered, and one young guy actually refused the money offered. The guys who were expecting to be tipped knew to be cautious. They were wary of survailance cameras and either took John down into the forward cabin to get his tip or around the corner of the building where cameras could not follow. Our passports were stamped and we were given our slip assignment.
Friday midday the Bryan’s, Zarrow’s, Durdin’s and 4 Sneider’s loaded into 2 1950’s taxies and went to Hotel Nacional de Cuba for lunch and to see some of the sights in Downtown Havana. This hotel is famous for hosting the Havana Conference an infamous mob summit with Lucky Luciano and Meyer Lansky 1946.
Hotel Nacioal de Cuba sits on top of old military bunkers dating back to the 1800’s. In October of 1962 during the Cuban Missile Crisis, a large number of artillery was installed for the anti-aircraft defense of Havana. It was interesting to see the conflict from the other sid
e’s point of view.
