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Geert van derk Kolk, Dutch author-sailor gives tips on cruising Cuba’s coast.
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“The website is a fine trove of information about exploring Cuba by sea.”
Read Ocean Navigator’s January 2005 review of cubacruising.net
Welcome to the
Cuba Cruising Net, an online magazine. Your host, Rio Communications, is an association of marine journalists dedicated to informing cruisers about the coast of Cuba and examining issues affecting mariners in Cuban waters. It is a big subject, made bigger by the island nation’s enforced isolation from its closest neighbor. Read the rest.
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Plus: van der Kolk’s 10 tips for cruising Cuba
Dear Reader: Much has happened since this website was last updated. The story that led this page (the one about the British sailor who was hounded out of one port by Cuban officials, went aground because of exhaustion, and then saw his boat looted by a different group of officials) enjoyed a great deal of comment in the cruising community. Reactions were expressed on various nautical website forums and magazine blogs. Notably, the one voice that was absent was that of the Cuban government, which did not respond to our request for comment.
Meanwhile, a well placed source reported that a Gulfstar 50 with a family of five aboard--a U.S. vessel--put into Bahia Manati with serious rudder damage and immediately got into trouble. Initially, the Cubans demanded that the vessel put to sea despite the danger the vessel would have faced without rudder control. The Cubans had either towed or escorted the vessel to Manati and then tried to bully the crew. The family used their single-sideband radio to call a stateside station and the details of their dilemma were relayed to the State Department and Coast Guard. A Coast Guard liaison officer at the U.S. Interests Section in Havana successfully convinced the Cubans to tow the Gulfstar to a repair yard rather than force it to put to sea.
As these stories clearly illustrate, Cuba needs to be a little friendlier to cruisers if it wants to enjoy the benefits of this type of tourism. Having said that, many European and Canadian cruisers transit the Cuban coast and manage to enjoy themselves, despite an overly intrusive bureaucracy. One of them is Gert van der Kolk, who has contributed a wonderful piece Ten tips for cruising Cuba. Van der Kolk, a Dutch novelist living in Washington, D.C., based his observations on a recently completed semi-circumnavigation of the island nation. Another correspondent Don Barr has some corrections and updates to “Cuba: A Cruising Guide” by Nigel Calder. Read Barr’s updates.
Meanwhile there is reason for optimism among those of us Yankees anxiously awaiting the end of U.S. policies preventing us from going to Cuba by boat. Regime change is under way on both sides of the Florida straits. Though Raul Castro is hardly a radical departure from his brother Fidel, there is some evidence that he is pragmatist, who would like to see Cuba develop according to the China model. In the U.S. Barack Obama has promised to abandon the Embargo as it now stands, including ratcheting back on the draconian restrictions on travel. He has had the temerity to say that if elected, he would conduct bilateral talks with Cuba! Click here to read Obama’s Cuba Policy.
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