At about 1030 I went to the dock master of Marina Hemingway and got permission document to leave the marina. It was a very friendly, somehow even a bit emotional farewell. I really like the time in the Marina Hemingway and Cuba in general. I would like to live in Cuba for about 1/2 – 1 year .

At the end of our docking channel, we slowed down and waited for our turn at the fuel station. Only 1 boat ahead of us. I prepared 5000 CUP for 200 l. Now we don’t have CUP left. Perfect. I would like to refuel always for that price!

Next was customs and border guard clearance. We docked at their pier. As nobody came, OBM went to the office and came back with a lady from interior ministry. Friendly, with a lot of laughters and my broken Spanish, she completed the first set of documents. Then OBM and Nik were asked to follow her. Face pictures were taken upon departure. Next it was my turn. Thereafter, the lady who took my picture, called a guy from customs to come with me to our nutshell. His task was to check if drone and Iridium GO were still sealed. He opened both and handed them back to me. Now, you finally see hourly updates of our position.

As Nik started to make a lentil stew in the pressure cooker, we stayed at the customs pier until all was finished. The friendly ladies suddenly showed up to ask if we have problem. A friendly action as I experience them often in Cuba. (The pressure cooker reduced cooking time down to 1/3, which reduced gas consumption considerably. I estimate by 1/2 to 2/3.)

Once cooking was done we really took off. Carefullly I navgated MaRe through the very narrow channel to the outer maker so we had enough water to go into track mode to the next WPT, 40 NM west. After about half of the channel, wind came from about 45 deg AWA at STB. I needed to turn the rudder for about 5 – 10bdeg STB to balance the wind drift.

As we had wind of 15 – 16 kn TWS, the gennaker was out and we set just the genoa and are right n ow enjoying a comfortable sailing with a AWA of 120 -150 from STB. If the wind stays stable like this we will, after reaching the next WPT, set the 20 m2 jib and make a butterfly. Let’s see what’s coming up. Right now we have a bit more wine than forecasted.