Travel to Cuba in your own as a United States Citizen is limited to 14 days. Tom and I were approaching day 23! Tom was leaning toward staying another two weeks. We had learned that President Obama and the Rolling Stones were coming and the Rolling Stones concert was going to be free. Toms thought, we are already over the limit so why not stay and enjoy ourselves. I was extremely tempted, BUT, funds were running low and I was afraid we would run short. I did not want to end up in a Cuban jail because we ran out of money! I was also a little nervous about what we were going to face when we checked back in at the Key West Coast Guard Station and not sure we needed to push the envelope. In Cuba there are only three places you can check in and out of and Ciao La Visa was not one of them. Now we had another choice to make. Do we boat 65 miles back to Havana to check out or do we just leave. If we just left it would hurt our chances to return to Cuba because our passports would be tagged, or so we were told. We did talk to a boater who said he doesn't always come all the way back to Havana to check out and he has not had any problems returning. This was enough for Tom, we would leave from Ciao La Visa. Of course I envisioned being chased by Cuban boat police as we tried to leave but I'm not very good about taking these kind of chances. We confirmed with several other boaters our weather findings, calm seas and winds.
Timing our departure so that we would arrive in Florida just after day break we carefully made our way back through the reef. This time we could follow the line we made but it was still nerve racking! Just before we reached open water we noticed two men in a homemade raft fishing. They waved and I waved back. One of them picked up a huge lobster out of a burlap sack. Tom put the boat in neural and I waved them over. How in heavens name that little raft held their weight and stayed afloat was mind boggling. It was a basic design, two pieces of Styrofoam with pieces of wood nailed crosswise. The homemade oars were attached to nails with rope. Unbelievable! The one young man held up three fingers indicating the price. I held up four fingers indicating the number of lobsters we wanted. He handed me the lobsters in a plastic bag and I handed him sixteen CUC's. He smiled from ear to ear with the extra and hurriedly began paddling away from Laughter. What a great way to spend the last of the Cuban CUCs that we had. Soon we were out on the open water. I enjoyed the beauty of the seas as Cuba faded away in the background. I wasn't looking forward to nightfall. Traveling alone on open water with no AIS and lots of tankers was not my idea of a relaxing trip. It was a dark night but the lights of freighters lit up the horizon more often than I would have liked. At one point we had one on every side of our boat that we had to monitor. Our radar indicated they were a minimum of two to three miles away but to the naked eye it seemed as if they were much closer. I found myself, pacing and checking the time often, wishing it away. I would not relax until first light. About four thirty a.m. our auto pilot started to act up again squealing and sending Laughter on a sharp turn to port. I shut it off , waited and tried again and again we turned sharply, this time nearly three hundred sixty degrees. After several attempts we just left it off. Just about then I saw flashing blue lights in the distance. Where they heading towards us? We kept our course and they were definitely getting closer. About that time a call came over our radio. This is coast guard cutter ....... please identify yourselves. I got on the radio and told them our boat name and our names. I asked if they were hailing us because we looked like drunken sailors on the water. The captain returned with a little giggle, yes mam, we did notice you were driving erratically. I explained the issue with our auto pilot and that we had turned it off. They never came along side just asked us to maintain our course at minimum speed. We provided all of the information they requested and were told to be sure to check in before we came in to port.
Just before dawn another coast guard cutter hailed us. I explained that we had already been stopped about 2 hours previous to this but I would be happy to provide all the information he needed. Again we were asked if we had checked in. I responded that we would call at first light. He said just be sure we do. The sunrise was beautiful and the seas were so calm. What a beautiful day it was going to be. Tom suggested we keep going to Marathon rather than stop in Key West and risk getting weathered in and the mooring field there is not pleasant. A slight change in course and we were headed to Marathon. No one answered the phone when we tried to call and check in so we waited until anchored in Marathon to try again.. This time we were told we had 24 hours to report to KEY WEST, to check in!! We explained that we didn't have a car. Not our problem we were told. So we rode out bikes to the airport in Marathon the next morning, rented a car and drove down to Key West. With paperwork in hand we walked up to the door. Not a soul around!! They are closed on Sunday!! All that for nothing! We drove back to Marathon and of course they were closed as well. Now we are both fuming!! Back to the airport with the car and then the 4 mile bike ride back to the boat.
On Monday I called the Marathon office and told the officer there the entire story. He asked me for the numbers on my permit to travel to Cuba and my email. He apologized for what we went through. Two hours later I received an email saying we were all checked in and again apologizing for the inconvenience.
We called the couple that had gone with us and they said they made two attempts left two voice mails and let it go never to hear back from anyone. My guess? They are a bit busy with the Cubans trying to sneak in and the drug runners.
Tom cleaning our lobsters
Lobster fisherman leaving as we head out to open water
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