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The Port Canaveral Yacht Club.
It could also be called the “Any excuse For a Party” club.
What a delightful group of people! We spent a couple of
months there and they made us so very welcome. It’s a
small club where nearly everyone lives on their own boat.
The modest fees cover a club restaurant where a resident
chef caters for the many parties and functions. And what a
lot of parties there were, from Thanksgiving, through
Christmas and New Year to St Patrick’s Day, with quite a
few in between, (and probably many more after we left).
We’d love to catch up with you all again sometime.
Christmas in Clearwater.
Christmas came up very quickly and we were invited
to spend it with our old friends Sage and Guy Chaney at
their home in Clearwater, about a 3 hour drive due west of
Port Canaveral. It was a great Christmas. Guy is a retired
marine colonel and a very good guitar player and folk
singer, and Sage an accomplished cook, so of course we had
a wonderful
time.
Cuban Interlude.
We returned from Australia in February, slipped Evanna
back
into the water and sailed around the Florida keys to Key
West before making the 90 mile crossing to Havana. Under
US law it’s illegal for Americans to visit Cuba, and when
we were some 20 miles off the coast a US Coast guard gun
boat came up and circled us a couple of times to make sure
that we were not an American yacht.
With Evanna safely tied up in the Hemingway Marina, and
having engaged a young local shipwright (with the unlikely
name of Ulysses) to do some painting and varnishing, Carol
and I set out to explore the country. During a couple of
days in Havana we took in the wonderful (but sadly
neglected) Spanish architecture, spent some time in the
Fine Arts Museum and listened to some great Cuban music.
We then hired a car and drove for several days over the
bumpy Cuban roads, spending several nights in various
provincial towns. Most of the cars on the roads dated
from the 1950’s and 60’s, and in the towns the taxis were
mostly horse drawn carriages. The countryside was rich in
agriculture, but on many of the farms we saw teams of oxen
pulling ploughs. Picturesque though all this might have
been, it brought home to us the economic plight of the
country.
While Castro has established an excellent and free
education and medical systems, there is little else.
Cubans are miserably poor, mainly due to the American
embargo. Successive American presidents, needing the
Cuban exile vote to swing Florida have imposed
increasingly severe sanctions. There are two currencies –
the traditional Peso which the local population use, and
what’s called the Convertible Peso for tourists. Castro
outlawed the US dollar which is now illegal tender, so
visitors have to buy Convertible Pesos at a premium of US$
1.20, which can be used in the special tourist shops. The
Cubans with their local Pesos, cannot afford these shops,
so even necessities such as soap and toothpaste become
luxury items, well out of reach of the average person.
Castro himself is an enigma. People have seldom seen him,
his residence is secret, likewise any details of his
family. They only hear from Castro through his weekly
column in Havana Times entitled “Reflections of Fidel”,
which is mostly a diatribe against the United States.
Many Americans we spoke to before leaving the US felt that
the embargo is now self-defeating. In this uncertain time
of terrorist attacks it may now be time to engage the
Cubans and have a friendly nation so close to the southern
US shore. There is also little doubt that Castro uses the
American embargo as an excuse for the further suppression
of the Cuban people, and to maintain a rigid police state,
while he himself basks in the admiration of every anti
American nation around the world.
Leaving Cuba.
In many of the less affluent countries of the world that
we’ve
visited, local officials, (customs and harbour masters)
usually try to supplement their income with a “fine” for
some contrived infringement. Entering these countries is
usually a good deal easier than leaving! We remember
Odessa in the Ukraine where a “de-ratting certificate”
cost $100, and in Bourgas, Bulgaria, a fictitious cruising
permit cost $80, to list just a few. Whilst we don’t mind
contributing to the local economy, (we consider it an
unofficial VAT), we do try and limit it to a reasonable
amount. Cuba was suspiciously east to enter, so Carol and
I were prepared for some problems on leaving. And sure
enough, before clearing us out, a gang of six or more
customs men came aboard and searched the ship from end to
end, including the engine room. What they were looking
for we don’t know, but whatever it was, they didn’t find
it. We were careful not to have any black market cigars
or Cuban artwork on board. After a two hour search, the
customs officers looked so obviously disappointed that we
gave each of them a little present.
The Gulf Stream, friend and foe.
It was on the east coast of the United States that we
first came across the Gulf Stream. The problem was, we
were heading south and it was flowing north, so it was our
constant enemy. As the stream runs at about 3 to 4
knots, it’s better to keep out of it or you make very
little progress. On most sections of the coast this
was not difficult, but around some of the more
dangerous headlands such as Cape Hatteras and Cape Fear
it was only a mile or two off the coast and we were pinned
in tightly against the shoals along the shore. When we
left Cuba to head across the Atlantic the Gulf Stream
became our friend, and we stayed within it to add the
current to our speed. The down side though, was the
heat. The average temperature of the Gulf Stream is about
27 degrees, so the boat stayed very hot.
The Gulf Stream and global warming.
The Gulf Steam begins in the Gulf of
Mexico and after flowing up the east coast of the United
States, this vast body of
warm water heads across the north Atlantic where it
divides up into several
branches, one reaching the coast of Norway, others the
Faeroe Islands and even
the west coast of Greenland. The warm water of the stream
modifies the climate of these northern European countries
and keeps their harbours free of ice. As the stream
enters the colder Arctic regions its waters are cooled,
and this colder water sinks to the bottom and then flows
back south as a counter current. This “conveyor belt”
turns up nutrient rich water, and the stream itself acts
as a large sponge, absorbing carbon dioxide. However, the
Gulf Stream could be one of the casualties of global
warming. Theory has it that as the Arctic waters warm due
to global warming, the Stream may not be cooled
sufficiently to form the counter current. Dr. Graham
Pearman, former chief meteorologist with the C.S.I.R.O.
and now an international lecturer on global warming,
assures us that the Gulf Stream has already slowed to a
measurable extent. This is one global asset the world
cannot afford to lose.
Passage across the Atlantic.
The voyage from Cuba to Brest on the northwest
coast of France was around 4,400 nautical miles (7,900 kms)
and we were at sea
for 42 days, with about 4 days each in Bermuda and the
Azores. Carol and I love
the long ocean passages, and this was one of the most
pleasant. Finn Berger and Neil came on as additional crew
(both had sailed with us last year on the Arctic voyage),
so with four of us to split the watches we had an easy two
hours on with six hours off. The weather fax enabled us
to monitor the weather systems and we were able to keep
well south of a couple of nasty sub tropical depressions
that tracked across the Atlantic from Bermuda to Florida.
The usual high pressure centered over the Azores gave us a
westerly air stream from the Azores to France.
Summer in Europe.
Most English people seem surprised that it rains in
summer. They remember a summer of their distant youth when
the sun did actually shine for more than a couple of days
at a time. Statistically though, summer is the
period of highest rainfall. This year was a “normal”
summer, and it rained nearly every day as depression
followed depression, and gale followed gale. But we
did manage to cover a fair distance and catch up with many
old friends. The first stop was Roscanval, just
opposite Brest, where we met up with Michelle and
Jean-Yves, Roger and Barbara, Joselyne and Bernard always
make us welcome. A couple of days sail took us to Dieppe
where Gill, Paul and Val came aboard, then on to Holland
where among the many people we caught up with were the
Timmer family with whom we’d had a long and friendly
association. The first barge, the Wirreanda was one of
the Timmer family clipper ships before we converted her to
a passenger vessel in 1972.
Chienus Timmer was our pilot on the Rhine until I got my
Rhine pilot licence. We were in time to help celebrate
Ellie Timmer’s eightieth birthday with a cruise on the
Dutch rivers, a fitting celebration for this great lady of
the sea. In the early days of their marriage, Ellie was
with husband Jan aboard their 1000 ton coaster carrying
cargo between Norway and the Mediterranean. Their first
two children were born on board.
It was then back to France via Lymington on the south
coast of England where Jo Sullam joined us for a few days.
It was from Jo’s father that I bought the first yacht, the
Caileen in 1968. (Yes, that makes it almost 40 years that
I have been messing about in boats!) In early August Carol
and I sailed Evanna on the 3 day passage across the Bay of
Biscay, (it behaved itself) to the North West coast of
Spain where we found an excellent little shipyard at Vigo.
She is now sitting up in dry dock for the winter.
Buying an apartment in Paris.
We purposely cut short our summer cruising to head for
Paris. It’s where Carol and I first met in 1978, and we’ve
spent a good part of our lives there. We both love the
city and all it has to offer, so we decided to buy an
apartment. Jo and Ron kindly let us use their flat as a
base, and we spent the month of September walking the
beautiful streets of Paris . We looked at about 40
apartments before finding exactly what we wanted in the
non tourist part of the 9th arrondissement. It’s in one of
the lovely old Haussman
buildings, with lift and concierge. We’ll probably split
our time in Europe between the boat and Paris.
When we’re not there, we’ll rent it out to friends at a
nominal rental, so let us know if you are heading for
Paris.
Where to next year?
Since launching the Evanna in 1993, Carol and I have
logged some 70,000 nautical miles. We both love the sea,
especially the long ocean passages, and the excitement of
entering a strange harbour. We
originally set out in 1998 from Melbourne on a
circumnavigation, and one of these days we might still
sail back to Australia. In the meantime, there is still
too much to see in Europe. For the next couple of years
we’ll be in the Mediterranean to cruise to some of the
places we missed last time, as well as revisit some
favourite spots.
For the 2008 season, have a look on the
cruising Itinerary
2008.
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