Skip to content

It Was Fun While It Lasted

It’s a tumultuous world, and you never know when the quiet little cove you’re anchored in is going to suddenly be in the crosshairs of some global dispute. On Tuesday the ‘human wrecking ball’ (as New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman described Trump) and his Treasury Department published new regulations halting group travel to Cuba. Previously, travel had been possible for “people-to-people” educational purposes. That’s now prohibited, along with visits to the island via cruise ships, personal aircraft or personal yachts.

This is true for Carnival Cruise lines, and for cruisers who were looking to amble across the 90 miles from Key West to Cuba for some of the same cruising Europeans and Canadians will continue to enjoy in those unspoiled tropical waters. Members of the Corinthian Yacht Club in Tiburon have now had to cancel their annual commodore’s cruise scheduled to go to Cuba this July.

www.cubaseas.com
Until Tuesday, Cubaseas.com helped US sailors cruise Cuba. But their website now says, “We are not currently organizing any Cuba travel packages at the moment. We will resume operations whenever the overall political climate becomes more favorable to US yacht travel.”
© 2019 www.cubaseas.com

Like all new rules, it will take some time to sort out how this one will be applied and enforced. But, according to the Washington Post, a Commerce Department spokeswoman said, “Cruise ships as well as recreational and pleasure vessels are prohibited from departing the US on temporary sojourn to Cuba effective tomorrow.”

Latitude 38 founder Richard Spindler took his Ocean 71 Big O to Cuba just over 20 years ago. He wrote, “American sailors, of course, have long been able to take their boats to Cuba on the condition they not ‘trade with the enemy’ by spending any money once they get there. Ho, ho, ho, that’s a funny one!” He continued: “We spent nearly two weeks cruising the north shore of Cuba on Big O and marveled at two things: 1) How unspoiled and undeveloped the country is, and 2) How awful slavery is. Teenagers in America complain about ‘not having a life’, but in Cuba it’s really true. Those hopeless people have nothing to do all day but sit around and wait to die.”

Marina Hemingway
Marina Hemingway where, José Escrich, commodore of the Hemingway International YC, welcomed Big O and many American cruisers.
© 2019 Marina Hemingway

Spindler took Big O to Cuba during the Clinton years when the Coast Guard “advised” them not to go but didn’t try to stop them. Upon arrival, they found there were already plenty of Americans on their boats in the Cuban marinas. Under George W. Bush, the US clamped down again, and all the American boats cleared out. Obama’s administration loosened restrictions again. Of course, this all started after Fidel Castro took over and Kennedy imposed economic sanctions in 1962.

The loosening up under Obama helped stop desperate ‘boat people’ escaping in rafts and re-start some friendly inter-island racing in the Conch Republic Cup from Key West to Cuba. The Bay Area’s Peter Krueger participated with his J/125 Double Trouble in 2016. Jeff Zarwell was the PRO. Race organizers canceled in 2018 due to bad weather. Now the event will be canceled due to this latest form of lower atmospheric disturbance. The Obama thaw also allowed 64-year-old endurance swimmer, Diana Nyad, to complete the 103-mile swim from Cuba to Key West in 53 hours in 2013.

Conch Republic Cup
For many years the Conch Republic Cup helped bridge the gap between Key West and Cuba.
© 2019 Conch Republic Cup

One of the reasons we enjoy sailing is escaping all the turmoil ashore. Yet somehow it can find you wharever you escape. Soybean farmers in Iowa might feel the same way. Cruisers in the turquoise-blue waters of Cuba are caught up in a similar Tweet-storm as farmers in the bucolic fields of the Midwest. The amber waves of grain are as disturbed as the sea to shining sea.

Will American cruisers be able to sail to Cuba as long as they don’t ‘trade with the enemy’? Will French, Germans, Canadians and other cruisers miss the American cruisers who will be departing again? The ebb and flow of sanctions has disrupted the course of many sailors, but neither loosening nor tightening sanctions has appeared to change the course of Cuba. While this storm blows through, sailors will once again need to adjust their sails and head for calmer waters.

3 Comments

  1. Pat Rains 5 years ago

    U.S. boaters can cruise from the Cancun area of Mexico over to Cuba, check in at Marina Hemingway, cruise for awhile, then exit Cuba for back to the Cancun area of Mexico, then check out of Mexico for Florida. What was your last port? Cancun, Mexico. OK, welcome to the US.

  2. Greg Gibson 5 years ago

    So, I guess it’s not possible that Trump might be trying to force the Cuban government to change in a way that ends the slavery that R Spindler noted? Or we just assume he’s clueless and defer to the world’s premier foreign policy expert Thomas Friedman? There are many of us out here who found Obama clueless, but thankfully in the Spindler days we weren’t treated to political opinion. The ONLY reason Cuba isn’t wealthy and enjoying their proximity to the US is Fidel Castro and his clan and really has nothing to do with Trump.

  3. Christine Watson 5 years ago

    Yes, American cruisers leaving from FL with plans to stay out of the US and sail long distances before returning usually stopped at Cuba-officials there wouldn’t stamp your passport if requested, so it just took you a crazy long time to get to the DR, lol. Hopefully that option will still apply in the more modern, more connected universe.

Leave a Reply




Sausalito-Built Yawl
Peter Bailey’s lovely yawl Bertie was capsized by what he believes was a white squall 65 miles off Atlantic City, New Jersey, at about 8 p.m. on May 29. Bailey and his wife, Heidi Snyder — the only ones aboard at the time — managed to activate their EPIRB and were rescued about three hours after the capsize.
Race to Alaska
The docks at Victoria’s Inner Harbor were a carnage-fest of broken gear, torn sails, drowned radios, lost hatches, hulls or amas filled with water, and things lost overboard.
Clean Seas
Saturday, June 8, is World Oceans Day. The United Nations website tells us that oceans play a major role in everyday life. And put it simply: “They are the lungs of our planet, providing most of the oxygen we breathe.”