Cuba Bound — Captain Father John

Provisioning Pilar for a three week cruise is not hard to do at Walmart in Miami. We will sail to Key West and then cross the Gulf Stream to Cuba. Our first stop in Cuba will be Marina Hemingway near Havana. There will be numerous restaurants and shops for the first three days. Then we will cruise the north, west and south coasts of Cuba which are mostly desolate. There are lots of desert islands along the way. In the few harbors that have marinas the shopping is very sparse. We loaded our shopping cart with 10 soccer balls and wide range of provisions. We will hand out soccer balls and baseballs to the Cuban children.

Gabe and Angela have been doing major upgrades and additions to Pilar. Once we depart from Key West, Pilar will not return to the US for approximately four years because Gabe and Angela are going to circumnavigate the globe. The spare parts list is impressive. You could almost build another Island Packet 485 with the spate parts. Take a look at this itinerary presented to the USCG. I know boaters that get nervous thinking about crossing Lake Michigan. Priscilla and I are onboard for the cruise to Key West, Cuba and Jamaica. We will fly back to Miami from Jamaica.

This is Pilar. The Island Packet 485 that Gabe and Angela will sail around the world.

The weather is not cooperating. Strong NE winds have been blowing 20 – 30 kts for several days. We are hoping to get delivery of the gypsy for the anchor windlass on Monday morning.

The gypsy arrived at 10:00 am on Monday and was installed by noon. This is the windlass to haul the anchor.

This is the gypsy that holds the chain. It is also called the chain wheel.

One of the highlights of staying in Coconut Grove is eating dinner at the Mobil gas station. The last time we visited Coconut Grove was October. We were driving around with Gabe to buy provisions for our cruise to the Dry Tortugas. Gabe’s car was literally out of gas as we rolled into a Mobil station near his marina. We went snide and there was a huge selection of wine and beer as well as a restaurant. There as no signage for the restaurant but the food and service were excellent. We returned to this restaurant twice on during our current visit. There is a large sign outside the gas station. It took the owner a long time to get permission to put up the sign because it is a derogatory phrase in Spanish. A polite translation is “go to hell”. Our Latin American readers might have a different interpretation.

The intrepid crew of Pilar cast off the dock lines at 2:30 pm on Monday. Winds were 20 – 25 kts from the East. Seas were rolly and pushed around until we entered the Hawks Channel. We will sail all night and stop in Marathon or Key West to time our departure to Cuba so we arrive in daylight. We are currently blasting along under reefed main and jib doing 8 kts. All is well.

Priscilla, John, Gabriel and Angela – the crew of s/v Pilar.