We often make the mistake to move even if the winds are not in our favor. We have done it many times in the past and we did it now again. To sail 200 nm can take us less than 30 hours in good conditions or it can take us forever- as it did this time.
It took us almost 68 hours to sail form Santiago de Cuba to Caymans most westerly island- Cayman Brac. This bad decision making on my part must come to a stop. All it does is that it bores the hell out of us, burns our diesel and builds up engine hours.
A couple of weeks ago we forgot to close one of our forward hatches during a pretty rough sailing. A large wave must have flushed right in and as a result of this damaged a lot of spare parts such as oil and fuel filters. Hopefully we can find a Volvo dealer here in Cayman so that we stock up again before we continue south to Panama.
They hate Vera!
Before we left Cuba we took us the time and went trough a lot of effort to arrange with a health certificate for Vera´s trip to the Cayman Island. It was not until after all the documents was in order we read that the Cayman has a ban on curtain dog breeds- how silly isn’t this?? You can bring an angry misbehaved Golden Retriever but not a fat happy Stafford Terrier! It is not fare that our fat little meatball lover cant set her 4 paws on land during her stay over here.
Besides that they hate fat happy dogs it was like a dream to clear the customs here. We called in on the radio around 2 a clock in the morning and reported our arrival. A couple of hours later a guy came onboard and sprayed the boat with some mosquito spray and just minutes later we were all checked in and ready to go- all except Vera that will say!
The Russian warship
The water around Cayman Brac is pretty deep and full of coral and interesting dive sites. To stay on anchor is forbidden but you will find mooring balls all around the coast that is free of charge so that is not a problem.
We tied up to one of when it was dark so I had no idea that we had a sunken Russian destroyer 20 meter under our keel. I couldn’t believe my eyes when this more than 100-meter warship appeared. Apparently the Cayman´s bought the old Russian warship from the Cuban government a couple of years ago just so they could sink it and create another spectacular dive site. The ship is broken in half after a storm a few years ago but it is still really intact. The ship was build by Russians in the 80´s for the Cuban navy.
It´s a pity that our underwater camera is broken!
//Daniel
