Here we sit in Marina Hemingway (in Havana) and we have a dilemna, we are out of cabbage. So it is market time! Within a 15 minute bike ride is the market of Santa Fe with a vary reasonable market,…

And the final tally is…..(drum roll)…..$150 per week. (real US dollars) This is for 2 people over a period of 14 weeks spent in Cuba and leaving with $1,000 of food and wine stashed on board. This makes Cuba a…

Sailorgirl refuses to make one. This is a site for cruising, sharing information and telling adventure tales, not for politics. The only comment I will make is that nothing is black and white and nothing is simple. The battle between…

the medical kit a Panic Bag communications provisions Medical Kit Sailorgirl is in perfect health and isn’t particulary obsessed with medical issues. We’ve read about various medical disasters on other boats but of course that couldn’t possibly happen to us….

Area: 110,860 sq km Population: 11 million Capital city: Havana (pop 2,200,000) People: 60% Spanish descent, 22% mulatto, 11% African descent, 1% Chinese Language: Spanish Religion: 47% Catholic, 4% Protestant, 2% Santería, many Catholics also practice Santería Government: Communist republic…

Never made it to the Dry Tortugas or Key West. Oh well. While we were hanging out in Marathon getting ready, we found a few other boats heading this way. So we set off in a convoy of 5 boats…

If the wind blows against one side of the sail, then it pushes the boat downwind. If the wind blows equally on both sides of the sail, you have a flag and the boat goes nowhere. If the wind splits…

Can we spell HOT??? Not as in temperature, as in THE place to be. Everyone is talking about Cuba. While we were hanging out in Key West there were anywhere from 20 – 50 boats debating on going to Cuba….

So we were there, where was Fidel? We waited and waited but he never stopped by for a mojito. We spent 3 1/2 months sailing from Havana to Cienfuegos and back again. It was splendid. It would have been really…

“We may as well be painted green and have TV antennae sticking out of our heads”, says Colin. He’s right. The population of Los Arroyos, Cuba has come to a stop to watch us stroll down the main street. In…

The Sundowner is possibly the most civilized ritual of all. When we first started sailing I thought everyone else was a raving alcoholic. It was drinks on this boat, drinks with your neighbours, drinks with anyone passing by. The idea…

The Pirate Guy wants a parrot. Rather, the Pirate Guy needs a parrot or so he states. What self-respecting pirate doesn’t have a parrot on their shoulder? All the other pirates have parrots, he needs one too. Just one small…

The story so far, Sailorgirl and the Pirate Guy are just not good with dinghies. Inflatables deflate. Inflatables get stolen. Hard dinghies sink. You get the picture, we’re not good with dinghies. So by the end of our fifth cruising…

So why do we need another dinghy? Well that’s a story in it’s own. We’re not good with dinghies, I don’t know what it is, they’re our achilles heel. When we came up with the plan to buy a boat…

In my previous life I made things happen. Organize, delegate, march through, accomplish, long to-do lists that get mtehodically checked-off, goal-oriented, detail- oriented, that was me, my life, my daily mantra. It’s not easy letting go of it. At first…

Avast me hearties, haul the mizzen, run the jib and turn off, there’s a leeshore on starbord! Huh? Sailing is like learning a foreign language. Here’s a little help. Sailing directions Beam reach versus dead in the water. Basic sailboat…

Trimming is tightening the sheet to move the sail towards the centerline of the boat (pulling the sail in) and easing is letting it out.

A genoa (or genny) is a jib whose clew reaches abaft (aft of – behind) the mast. It’s size is designated as a percentage of the foretriange. (The foretriange is the area between the forestay and the mast). Genoas range…

I love street food. I love bright coloured carts with local specialties, pots of oil, grills, wierd fruits and stuff I don’t recognize. The best conch salad carts are right beside the water. The conch are kept in the water…

All lobster in Cuba belongs to Fidel. It is illegal for fishermen in Cuba to sell lobster, anything they take they must turn in to a cooperative. It is illegal for tourists to buy lobster. We would never do anything…

1 cup warm water (sea water is fine) 1 tsp sugar 1 packet yeast 1 tsp salt 2 tbsp olive oil 3 1-2 cups flour Dissolve the sugar in the water. Add the yeast and stir. Wait for 5 minutes…

Don’t panic, it’s not Flipper. The most common fish in the Florida Keys is the Dolphin fish, called this because because of it’s big forehead and pointy nose, not because of who it’s related to. North of the Keys this…

Ah the humble cabbage. It keeps for weeks on end unlike a lettuce which will wilt before you get it home from the market. To make a cabbage go further, never slice it, peel off the leaves and slice them….

2 cups cabbage, thinly sliced 3 large carrots, coarsely grated 1 small onion sliced 2 red or green peppers sliced thinly 1/4 cup good quality olive oil 4 tbsp white vinegar 1 clove garlic lots of salt and pepper to…

2 cups coarsely chopped cabbage 1 large carrot, coarsely grated 1 small onion sliced 1 red or green pepper sliced 2 tbsps vegetable oil 2 cloves garlic 1 inch ginger, minced 3 tbsps sesame seeds 1 tbsps sesame oil 1…

Recently a fellow cruiser asked me how I would provision differently on the next extended voyage. I have to say, not very. With lots of practise I am really good at calculating how many pounds of pasta we need for…

Provisioning, you either love it or hate it. It’s still got to be done. Some of us think it’s kind of fun, actually, it’s a lot of fun. Cuba 2001 proved to be quite a provisioning challenge as we were…

2 cups cooked rice 2 cans crab meat, including the liquid 1 small can pineapple chunks, or 1 cup fresh pineapple 1-2 cub finely shredded cabbage 1 finely grated carrot 1 finely sliced pepper (red or green) 1 cup sprouted…

1 onion 4 cloves garlic large pinch saffron olive oil 1 bay leaf 1 cup rice 1 1-2 cups water Heat the olive oil over low heat. Brown the onion and garlic, add the bay leaf and saffron. Add the…

Watch out for the botalón (boat-ah-LONE)!!! Botalón or boom is a noun, they’re here. Verbs are here. The four letter words that sailors have been known to use, you know, like when the botalón just hit you on the head…