In this video, Havana Cuba 101 For Liveaboard Cruisers Post Pandemic, we get caught in another north front of high winds and have to wait ot out on anchor for 5 days, then we get a lucky break of south east winds and we start moving eastward again towards Havana but end up beating into it for several days until we FINALLY reach Hemmingway Marina in Havana. We cleas in and check out the marina, then meet Steve, an Austrailian living in Cuba who gave us a tour of Havana in his classic Chevrolet car! #havana #sailingcuba #sailingchannel If you like our videos and want to see more/better videos, more often you can become a patreon supporter: https://www.patreon.com/sailingbalachandra If you haven't yet SUBSCRIBED and want to see more please click the SUBSCRIBE button above, and be sure to give this video a like! In August of 2017 we sold everything and moved aboard Balachandra, a 1986 C&C44 sailboat, then sailed it over 300 nautical miles to Halifax Nova Scotia to spend a cold Canadian winter in the frozen waters of the North Atlantic. Sailing Balachandra is our YouTube sailing vlog inspired by other great channels such as Delos and La Vagabonde, which documents the sailing adventures of myself and my partner Nawal as we navigate the globe. We also dive into lots of DIY boat projects both above and below decks, and share with you all of the pros and cons of living aboard full time. Sailing Balachandra is published weekly so please subscribe so you don't miss out on future videos! This video was shot with equipment from Optrix by Body Glove, Nikon, Apple, GoPro, and Polaroid Opening Theme Music: License Info: Beautiful Story / Taketones.com Used with a Paid Licence / Permission PURCHASED MUSIC: LINK: https://taketones.com/track/beautiful-story LICENSE N: TTEXTENDED157339559892860327 EXTENDED Special Thanks to our Cuban friends Group Nucay for giving us permision to use to use their album "Tropicalissimo" throughout our YouTube series. Other Music: the YouTube Music Library Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/sailingbalachandra Follow us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sailingbalachandra Instagram: http://instagram.com/sailing_balachandra

Closed Captions (CC):
in this episode we beat into the wind

along the north coast of cuba we arrive

and tie up at hemingway marina

and then explore old havana in a classic

chevrolet car

last time on sailing bellachandra we

enjoyed the beautiful deserted beaches

and snorkeling at kyo largo then sailed

for the west coast of cuba and into the

yucatan channel

heading north for havana hey everyone if

you're new to the channel i'm dan and my

partner is noel and we are sailing bella

chandra

we sailed from nova scotia canada to the

caribbean

back in 2019 and we are currently in

cuba

if you haven't subscribed to our channel

just go below this video look for the

big red subscribe button and press that

[Music]

button

[Music]

oh

[Music]

so we were stuck on the north coast of

cuba for another

god it must have been six days waiting

for another cold front to pass

we're getting pretty antsy stuck in this

anchorage there was nowhere

to go to shore nothing to do it's like

being on quarantine we're just stuck

there

waiting for this like north wind to blow

through we saw

gusts just over 30 knots and uh it was

pretty

consistent out of the north northeast

which is the direction that we needed to

sail

so today the wind is blowing kind of on

an east northeast

and we do have a sail angle and we're

going to sail

along the northwest coast of cuba

heading for havana today

so we'll see how far we can get

[Music]

[Music]

it seemed to take forever to reach

havana beating to the northeast and

stopping to rest along the way

[Music]

we've finally made it from the west

coast of cuba

all the way to havana and we're just

approaching havana and marina hemingway

now and that's where we'll be putting in

tonight

and that's our last stop in cuba

basically

sailing from the west coast towards

havana you're

you're upwind the entire way so you're

beating if a cold front comes in

out of the north like it did with us you

pretty much just can't go anywhere and

then you're stuck

so we sat on anchor for a while waiting

for that to pass

today it looked like we had really good

weather we had wind coming out of the

southeast which is

ideal and fairly rare up here on the

north coast so far

we took advantage and we left but it was

really intense

on the weather that i got off windy.com

in the ecmwf model

it said that we'd be getting 15 knots

maybe gusting to 21

but we actually experienced and we're

still getting it

like 18 knots gusting to 25

to 30 knots so right now we're getting

about

maybe 20 gusting to 30 and we decided to

keep sailing we just have a scrap of

jibba that's it

and we're still doing five knots on a

scrap of gym which is crazy

but uh it was just too much to have all

of that canvas out and we were just

getting beat to heck we're rolling along

we're just getting close to hemingway

we'll go tie up at the garda dock and

check in

finally finally in havana

[Music]

hemingway marina is the only place in

havana where private yachts

can go check in and tie up you have to

stay here in hemingway

during your entire visit to havana and

there is nowhere else you can take your

boat

however power and water are free and the

rates are very low at 70 cents us per

foot

per night be careful when choosing your

slip as the dock wall is concrete

and there are underwater protrusions

that stick out about a foot and a half

to two feet

which can be a hazard to some boats

before the pandemic the tiki bars on

site and their concession store

and restaurants were open however

there's a pool on site and supplies rum

and cigars

are still available at the end of the

pier

[Music]

we were fortunate enough to meet steve

an australian living in cuba

who offered us a private tour of havana

in his fantastic

fully restored retro classic chevrolet

car

how could we resist

[Music]

three missiles that you see are modified

things

which were supposedly nuclear tipped

rain but they were drones back in the

day they were

just like a rock but that other one

is the full-blown russian number these

are actual russian missiles

from the cuban missile crisis event here

on public display

along with wreckage from a u2 spy plane

it's really cool to see these relics up

close

[Music]

havana cuba is a mix of old spanish

fortifications

and churches buildings from the 17th and

18th centuries

and dotted with modern hotels resorts

cafes and restaurants

the opera house is one of the most

beautiful buildings in all of havana

it's a must-see if you plan to come here

the allure and romance of old havana is

irresistible

these streets are typically covered in

tables and outdoor dining

unfortunately all gone now due to the

kovid 19 pandemic

[Music]

[Music]

while in havana be sure to visit

fustelandia

an entire neighborhood that became

artist jose fusta's mosaic

masterpiece all completed using small

fragments of colored tile

wrapping everything and covering themes

from international to political to

purely decorative

it is truly amazing to see and really

worth the stop

we found havana cuba to be just a

beautiful location

and i think we'd like to go back there

at some point maybe by plane

or maybe again by boat if you can only

visit one place in cuba and you like

history and fine dining and culture

and maybe you're not so much interested

in visiting the resorts

and the beach life havana is

definitely the one place you have to

check out of all the cities in cuba that

we've been to

havana had the most in terms of culture

and catering to tourists

purchasing vegetables and local products

like cigars and rum

we were able to find those things in

havana and even though the kovid 19

pandemic had a lot of things shut down

we were able to

find some restaurants open and there was

accessibility for

someone visiting havana even now but if

you were choosing to visit

havana now or after kobe 19 i would

choose to go after kobit 19

because there's a lot of culture and

public things that you can do in havana

that are really worth checking out

especially the street cafes and the art

galleries

there's a lot of stuff that we couldn't

go into and see because of cobin 19.

thanks for watching if you like this

video and you haven't yet subscribed

just go below this video and look for

the big red subscribe button and press

that button and if you want you can

leave a like or a comment below

and if you haven't checked out our

patreon page it's always a good time to

do so

patreon is a place where you can give

back if you like what we do and you want

to support us

thanks see you later

yeah it's beautiful

and what happens at night no pandemic

it's so hot everyone comes out into the

street

in old habana right and the street

becomes

like another room at the house

so they're out there and they're playing

dominoes

in the street

you