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The Cruising Guide to Cuba by Simon Charles (1994 and updated since), 343 pages (6” by 9” format). Cruising Guide Publications, Dunedin, Florida.
Simon Charles spent years cruising Cuba. His book conveys a genuine sense of place, emphasizes self-reliance and includes a great deal of navigational and non-navigational intelligence for a cruising boater. Organization could be better. And despite the author’s undoubted expertise in the matter, the book has few specific discussions of the unique provisioning aspects of a Cuba cruise.
Cuba: A Cruising Guide by Nigel Calder (1997 and updated), 280 pages (8 1/2” by 11” format). Imray Laurie Norie & Wilson, St. Yves, Cambridgeshire, England
As we have come to expect from Nigel Calder, this guide is a first-rate piece of work that will open the coast of Cuba to North American boaters because of its well-organized sailing directions and chartlets. It will go far toward alleviating the stress of a first-time cruise along Cuba’s reef strewn shores. But, given that the author never really cruised the coast personally (the underway portion of his research having been completed in an antonishing five months; more blitzkrieg than cruise), the book comes up short in its treatment of non-navigational issues that many cruisers expect to see addressed in a guide. Interestingly, Calder takes a shot at the Charles book at one point, calling it “the story of a cruise around Cuba dressed up as a guide.” Needless to say, Calder’s provisioning advice can best be summarized as: Bring a lot of cans.
We believe a good cruising guide should do more than tell you how to get somewhere by boat. A good guide tells you why you might want to there in the first place. (Or why you wouldn’t, as the case may be). An experienced cruising couple recently remarked that one can learn all about the atmosphere of a place from the relevant Lonely Planet guide. But we still believe boaters are best served by writing that takes their unique point of view. We enjoy Charles for his sense of place, and salute Calder for his rigorous method. For another point of view, read Bruce Van Sant’s evaluation of the guides in his story, Sentimental Journey.
Our advice: Use both guides. But keep up with the Cuba Cruising Net. We will try to flush out these fine books with advice on provisioning in the land of socialist reality. And when change does come, it will likely come too rapidly for the paper guides to keep apace. (And by the way, for excellent insight into the provisioning challenges of a Cuba cruise, read David Allester and Eileen Quinn’s account, Foraging for Food in Cuba.)
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