Five Days in Havana

Cruisers fulfill a long-held ambition to sail to Cuba

- Andy Schell

Cuba is huge—it spans more than 600 miles from east to west. We saw abundant signs of civilization as we sailed along the coast and closed in on Havana after a six-and-a-half day passage from Fajardo, Puerto Rico. We dodged fish pots, usually laid out in strings of eight to 10; freighters came and went from the old port of Havana; an old military launch that looked definitively Soviet-era steamed past us to the north. But there was no sign of the marine police, the USCG or other authority figures. I was almost sure we’d be boarded once officially in Cuban waters, but it didn’t happen.

We docked at Marina Hemingway, which is like no other “marina” we’ve ever been to. It’s huge, and is laid out in four large east-west canals, each nearly a kilometer in length and about 75ft wide, with substantial land between them. Each “slip” is a designated spot alongside a dilapidated concrete bulkhead, with run-down hotels and abandoned or unfinished apartments backing the waterfront. It felt like a colorful, post-apocalyptic Ft. Lauderdale.

Customs was much more efficient than we’d expected, and the folks were as friendly as everyone said the Cuban people would be. Several groups of uniformed officers came by the boat to do various inspections, each of them polite and respectful, even taking off their heavy military style boots as they boarded our Swan 48, Isbjorn. A comically small, fluffy dog was brought aboard to sniff for illicit cargo. I specifically requested to have my passport stamped, which got genuine smiles from the guys behind the desks, and we were ushered off the dock and directed to our “slip” within an hour of our arrival.