Nicole's Adventures

June 4th was the day that I got picked up in an American Classic Car... and absolutely failed at life and forgot to ask what kind it was. But I got picked up and with an Italian couple was taken to Trinidad. I met a guy who offered one dollar cheaper to take his classic car than to take the bus.. and it included pick up.. instead of having to take another taxi to the bus station. The Italian couple said what tons of other people I met in Cuba said, they wanted to come to Cuba before the Americans arrived and were very surprised to meet an American. As we were driving it started raining. It had been pretty cloudy the last few days so I figured it was just a little front we were driving through, however when we got to Trinidad, it was POURING. The driver took me to a casa particular. A casa particular is basically a room for rent in someones house to make extra money. I absolutely loved the idea because I am usually seeking out this sort of accommodation in every country I go to. It giv...

After we headed out of Cayo Largo after a wonderful six days there, it was back to the sea for a little bit to follow the Cuban coast and arrive in Cienfuegos. The first night we anchored right outside of the marina and the beach near the reef. It seemed like a nice spot to anchor during the day time but the winds shifted a little bit and we actually moved in the middle of the night because we were swaying quite a bit. We were able to do an awesome snorkeling session and swimming session right off of the boat. There were some barracudas, conch, lots of fish, and corals right near us. The color of the water was incredibly beautiful. The next day we sailed to a little tiny island where we were rather protected from the waves and the weather. It was kind of a strange experience but there was an Italian boat that came up and anchored really close to us, put their dinghy down in the water and then never came over to say hello. Apparently in the sailing community this is not very common and...

While Cayo Largo, was indeed our first official stop in Cuba where we could walk on land, Cayo Largo isn't exactly the real Cuba... but it was definitely a taste. Why? Because Cayo Largo is an insanely beautiful cay full of only all inclusive resort hotels, dormitories for resort workers, the marina, a bank, a restaurant in the marina, a "club"and a "store". Ooo and lots and lots of mosquitoes. They would actually fumigate every night at the marina bar for musquitoes but there were still plenty to go around and maybe this is where my allergic reaction/ infection started? Not totally sure.  I learned quickly that it's a tough life for all the people working on the island. They work twenty days straight and then have ten days off. Most of them come from Isla De Jueventud but unfortunately sometimes the Catamaran which takes them for free to the island doesn't always go the direction they are going with their work schedule so sometimes they lose a few da...

We spent the next four days sailing during the day, anchoring somewhere in the ocean at night in order to reach out immigration check point,  Cayo Largo . The day sails were much much more pleasant than the journey from Honduras. Mainly because we were never quite as far off from land so were some what protected to the open seas a little bit. We cruised around Isla de Juventud stopping two more nights. One of those days was through an amazingly clear bright turquiose channel where I learned how to set up the sails. I think... for the most part I have an idea about which direction they go in, and a slight idea about how to set them up... but would just need a lot more practice to execute it myself. I learned how to steer which is a lot harder then I thought because the changes be such a little tiny turn on the wheel but a huge change in direction. I also learned how to pull up and drop the anchor, and lots of cool things Patric taught me about the boat. Some of the awesome mea...

Like any morning of living on the boat, we woke up, listened to the weather report on the radio, did the Northwestern Carribean NET and check in, made breakfast, and then it was time to hit the road.  We did our last minute packing and secured everything in the boat, said goodbye to our cruiser friends, blew the horn, and off we went into the big big blue sea! We knew going into the trip that it wasn't the perfectly ideal weather for our journey but if we waited any longer we risked having even worse weather as hurricane season was approaching. Patric watched the weather very closely and did a lot of research to make sure when we started the journey that it would be okay. It was thought to be worse in the beginning and then get a little bit better the further out we went.  Once we were away from Roatan and out onto the clear sea,  we set up the sails. The waves were pretty large, maybe 3 meters and then a few pockets of rain during the morning, with light wind. As soon a...