In this video, Repatriation of an American Citizen from Communist CUBA, we leave Havana Cuba for Key West Florida, taking along Tom, an American citizen who was accidentally stuck in Cuba due to an emergency at sea. With the aid of the United States Coast Guard, Homeland Security, and the American Embassy in Havana we were able to take Tom back accross the Gulf Stream with us, North to Florida. Along the way we catch our first Mahi Mahi, and have a small bird hitch a ride with us. Finally back in the United States we take a quick tour of Key West before setting sail for the Mainland of Florida, stopping in Marathon and Key Biscayne before heading back out into the Gulf Stream once again heading for Jacksonville Florida. #havanacuba #gulfstreamcrossing #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 leave havana cuba

for key west florida we repatriate an

american citizen

and we start moving north along the

florida keys

last time on sailing bellachandra we

beat into the wind along the north coast

of cuba

then tied up at hemingway marina to

explore old havana

in a classic chevrolet car

hi if you're new to the channel i'm

noelle and i'm dan and we're

sailing bella chandra if you haven't

subscribed to our channel just go below

this video look for the big red

subscribe button and press that button

one thing about cuba that we found

really surprising and we didn't expect

was the amount of people that would come

and approach our boat while at hemingway

marina

asking for a lift back to the united

states

apparently it's quite common for people

to enter cuba

and get stuck there when that happens

it's very difficult for them to leave

especially now during the pandemic

flights from cuba to

many places in the world are not running

right now but we were approached a few

times

by different people of different

nationalities looking for a lift

there's a lot of red tape when taking

people outside of cuba

and you put yourself and your boat at

risk and we talked to a lot of different

people

at hemingway marina and asked for advice

as to whether or not it was a good idea

and generally most of the advice is no

don't take them

you risk losing your boat you risk being

incriminated for something if they have

committed a crime

you could be implicated and you may not

be admitted into the united states when

you

make the crossing if there's some reason

that that person you brought on board

with you is not allowed

into the united states it's possible

that they might turn your boat away

it's really risky and we decided not to

do it

however there is one person we did agree

to take

and it's because they are a united

states citizen

and we saw them come in on a boat that

had an emergency and it all happened

right in front of us

and there was boots on the ground u.s

coast guard present at that moment and

we spoke with them

and we spoke with homeland security in

the united states and everything was

okayed

and we were able to take one person back

to the united states

and repatriate them so that was pretty

cool

[Music]

so we left havana this morning and we

are on our way to key west florida

crossing the gulf stream from cuba to

the united states we left bright and

early we did all of our stuff

in the dark roughly 16 hours maybe more

maybe less but we'll see we're doing

really good we were doing

six knots most of the way we caught a

big mahi it's the first mahi mahi i've

ever caught so it's pretty awesome for

me i've been waiting to catch him

for a long time and finally got a

mahi-mahi it's awesome

and we have a guest on board we have a

guy named tom who's with us who's an

american

and uh he arrived in cuba due to an

emergency

he was with another boat who had a

mainsail failure

they called in an emergency and they

ended up anchoring in cuba and then

eventually got to havana and he needed a

ride back to the us so we're helping him

out

so hopefully we'll be checking in to key

west pretty soon

we'll get tom back home everything

should be good

about halfway through our gulf stream

crossing this small bird looking

completely exhausted

landed on our boat to hitch a ride back

to the united states

birds when caught at sea like this will

typically hitch a ride on a vessel

they're so far from sure they might

otherwise die from exhaustion and

eventual drowning

[Music]

we did a little exploring in key west

with our new friend tom

when in key west you have to try a pina

colada

mixed in a cored out pineapple it's

delicious we were eager to get moving

as the people in key west were not

following any covid19 safety protocols

and noel and i have not yet been

vaccinated for covid19

[Music]

[Music]

hey everybody so after a couple days in

key west we sailed to marathon for a

couple nights

and from marathon we sailed north here

to

miami just about we're going to anchor

and keep this game for a few days

we're having a little trouble with our

roller curler so uh

we got to get that sorted out i guess a

couple of the screws came out where two

of the foils connect

and it's loose so we furled up the jib

so it wouldn't get any worse

but we've had a great day of sailing we

left last night

uh from marathon and sailed pretty much

all night long we were upwind then the

wing clocked around to behind us

and we just had to dip out in the end

and we were doing five knots on the jib

which was great but then

we noticed the issue with our furler and

we throw it in

and now uh we threw out the main and we

were downwind sailing on the main for a

while

uh but now we're uh motorcyling because

we're very very close to keep this game

and we're losing daylight so we figured

we'd motor the rest of the way but

um no it's been good we haven't really

stopped to smell the roses here in the

keys very much we're trying to get

into the mainland of florida as quickly

as possible

[Music]

so

[Music]

hi hi

so we left no name harbor key biscayne

the day before yesterday

and that was the last day we spent in

the florida keys

just outside of miami we decided to

buddy boat with another boat that we met

there in key biscayne

and we had this really good opportunity

with the wind blowing straight up from

the south

and you could sail the entire coastline

of florida downwind

we decided that we would jump right into

the gulf stream and use the current of

the gulf stream plus this amazing

downwind

sail that we were going to have to see

how far north we could get

our buddy boat was intending to go all

the way to north carolina

and we decided that we were going to

jump off there in jacksonville

because we wanted to get into green cove

springs where we

plan to do our haul out we haven't

hauled out the boat since nova scotia

when we first left canada at the very

beginning of our journey in october 2019

we've been in the caribbean a long time

and we figure it's time to get her

hauled out it's been a long time and

we'd like to get home to nova scotia

for a few months so green cove springs

is a great place to put the boat on the

hard during the hurricane season

we just have to go underneath the bridge

that's like 65 feet

and i figure if we go at low tide we

should be able to clear it but we'll

give it a try

so once we hit the gulf stream we were

making record time

and one day we made 200 nautical miles

on bella chandra it's unheard of

we topped out at a max speed of 10 knots

we've never done

10 knots on this boat it's incredible i

couldn't believe

my eyes when i saw 10 knots but when you

take into account the three three and a

half knot current of the golf stream

plus

this incredible downwind sail we had we

were able to maintain that

and so did our buddy boat which was a

pearson 424

and together we were able to cover that

ground we made it almost all the way to

jacksonville

and it's funny as soon as we left the

gulf stream and made our turn towards

jacksonville we slowed down to like four

knots

uh that was kind of anticlimactic but uh

it's just incredible that in that first

day we did probably two three days worth

of sailing in a single day

it was amazing we saw dolphins we did

some fishing but there was a lot of

sargasso so we didn't really catch

anything

and a little rolly in the gulf stream

but the waves didn't pick up too high

because this time of year i mean

we're coming into the month of may now

and

in may going on june july that's the

best time to sail that part of the

atlantic so we had favorable conditions

for sure

[Music]

[Music]

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thanks bye see you later

[Music]

why are you being so cute right now

it's a pubs

you're just a face in a couple of paws