Once awake, it seemed like a quiet day wind-wise but if anything was to be achieved, we needed to get going. The passports of arriving crew had been checked the previous night but the details hadn't survived the night, so I gathered the passports and had them noted again. Sarah paid for some bread rolls from the little local store which were to be delivered as soon as they arrived, tea and coffee were had, showers and washing attempted but given up on at the local showers as they're pretty crap - Peter is still coming to terms with not having infinite fresh water and dry towels and laundry etc.
We've not achieved much yet, but it's already 09.00 and I managed to get the harbour master's attention to pay so as to check out. This eventually worked and by just after 10.00, I'm finding the customs and immigration chap to complete the more official side of the clearing out bit and by 12.00 we are ready to leave.
As the bread rolls hadn’t appeared, Sarah, being Sarah had gone to chase them up and come back with her money back plus an extra 0.5 of a dollar from the shop, possibly the first profit to have been made there from a foreigner.
The wind was only about 3 knots so we motored out of the harbour with and enjoyed the cruise out into the sea. We pass an island I had hoped we’d be able to anchor off and explore, but this had been forbidden, so once we exited the channel with the big Bienvenido a Cuba Socialista sign, we found, happily, that a wind from the SE had picked up. We’d cleared to points E and once Phil and I had hoisted sail, we were making 6.5 knots towards Trinidad and Cayo Blanco.
I had not thought that we could possibly make it in time because crew C have only allocated 3 nights with me, but it looked like we could arrive just around dusk and I knew we could go to our previous outer anchorage in the dark if we followed our breadcrumb trail on the plotter, so we fiddled away with the sails and had a good day's sailing, the wind dropped away at one point and I motored for about 15 minutes before it re-invigorated itself and we were sailing again with renewed vigour close hauled or just free of close hauled.
Sarah suffers from sea sickness and was kindly preparing dinner prior to us arriving at the anchorage because I thought the motion may be worse at anchor but this proved a step too far and she had to come back up on deck to regain some air, and Peter carried on with dinner. An ordinary sea sunset took place but for people who aren't used to them, it was enjoyed in all its glory. Clouds had threatened to obscure it but a small gap between them and the horizon allowed it to work well.
We anchored at about 19.00 by which time it was dark. Sarah was still feeling woozy but managed most of her dinner - beans, brown and unintentionally re-fried after they'd dried up in the pan, tomatoes, garlic and bacon with rice. A game of Pit cheered Sarah up after which we had a round of monopoly cards before going to bed with a shift to the inner anchorage and some snorkelling and exploring on the cards for today.
My keyboard has decided to believe that the backslash key would be better interpreted as a division sign. It may be that it's in a wrong mode but I can't find a means of changing it. It has Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and Android options, but nothing changes when I try to change them.
Anyway slainte from Jock and crew C.
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