ALTHOUGH AMERICANS STILL CAN’T VISIT CUBA AS TOURISTS, THAT ISN”T STOPPING THE SAILORS WHO CAN ONCE AGAIN RACE BETWEEN FLORIDA AND HAVANA.
ALTHOUGH AMERICANS STILL CAN’T VISIT CUBA AS TOURISTS, THAT ISN”T STOPPING THE SAILORS WHO CAN ONCE AGAIN RACE BETWEEN FLORIDA AND HAVANA.
IN 1952, AMERICAN YACHTSMEN were greeted by heavy calibre machine-gun fire as they sailed their schooners through the narrow harbour entrance into the finish of the St. Petersburg to Havana Regatta. Caught in the crossfire between loyal government troops battling Colonel Fulgencio Batista’s forces supporting his eventual successful coup d’etat, sails were peppered with bullets and the exhausted sailors quickly realised that these were not celebratory fireworks for their first place finish. Seven years later, American racers would again be caught in a Cuban whirlwind of revolution when they were ordered to remain on their vessels by armed revolutionaries under the command of Fidel Castro.
Located only 90 miles (145km) from the United States, Cuba has had a colourful history and one that is intertwined with international regatta history. This story has a new and open chapter as Americans are once again returning to Cuba – with regattas and sailors breaching the old walls still lingering from the Cold War and tossing this Caribbean island again into the forefront of must-visit destinations in the Western Hemisphere.
The first Spanish explorers described Cuba in the 16th Century as “a magnificent island crowned in palms” when they skirted her shores. Only a day’s sail from Key West, Florida and making up the southern boundary of the Gulf of Mexico, Cuba is the largest island in the Caribbean and has long had a troubled and intertwined history with her American neighbours to the north. For the last 55 years, the cobblestone streets of Havana, her marinas and the sugar sands of Varadero have been mostly filled with European, South American, Canadian and Russian travellers and cruisers.
In December 2014, the United States and Cuba announced a surprise reopening of diplomatic ties and this rapprochement between the two neighbours after over five decades brought about a fast and surprising resurrection of US to Cuba regattas with legacies that date back to 1930 and the Southern Ocean Racing Circuit.
In May 2015, Hobie Cat racers sailed in the Havana Challenge from Key West and landed the first American racers to finish on the island in 14 years. While they were underway, the Pensacola YC released a surprise preliminary Notice of Race announcing a 500-nautical-mile keelboat regatta that set sail on October 31.
Bob Kriegel couldn’t have had a bigger smile on his face in November as he stared out at the crowd of sailors at the Hemingway Yacht Club in Havana after finishing the race from Pensacola, Florida. What originated as a discussion over beverages at the Pensacola Yacht Club last spring resulted in 22 US-flagged vessels racing 517 miles south – and now this Regatta Chairman was standing with a group of dignitaries from the US Embassy, the Cuban government and the Pensacola and Hemingway Yacht Clubs and about to dole out trophies to the fastest crews and sailboats.
“Regattas, like any sporting event, are a way for the people of two countries to interact,” says Kriegel, surrounded by celebrating sailors. “It’s time for new communications between our people and countries as opposed to the severe diplomacy of the past half century.”
Located only seven miles and a quick run in a 1953 Chevrolet from Old Havana, the Marina Hemingway and the yacht club also bearing Cuba’s adopted son’s name, Ernest Hemingway, is an expansive and modern complex equipped to handle vessels up to 50 feet in length with power and water hook ups. It’s an ideal headquarters for an exploration of the city and day trips further out into the island.
Cuba is unusual in that while it is so massive geographically and has the feel of the larger Caribbean islands like Puerto Rico or Haiti and the Dominican Republic, her largest city and capital, Havana, feels like it belongs more in old world Spain or Portugal. Stone quarries from the Sierra Maestra mountains and limestone from her shorelines gives this city’s architecture an enduring feel, timeless. Old Havana with the Morro Castle guarding the entrance to her natural harbour only showcase the old wealth of this port city trapped in time and built from the gold and silver extracted by the conquistadors from throughout the Americas.
Havana is a city of old European town squares tossed around as if gatherings and revolutions in every neighbourhood should be a weekly event. Cobblestone streets wind through the city’s history and around every corner a surprising cafe or restaurant awaits.
Hemingway had a natural affinity for the Floridita with her long bar and the double daiquiris he consumed in great quantities. Today the Cuban rum of choice is Havana Club, while in his day and age it was Bacardi – before the company originally launched in 1862 was nationalised by Castro’s government and then forced to flee to Puerto Rico.
Bars like the Floridita and the original Sloppy Joe’s feel as if they are ripped straight from a Hemingway novel, and the air and the tropical gardens and parks only add to the inherent romance of this city. Stand in line to enter the Tropicana on a night when the stars are out and each male guest is given a Cohiba cigar and the tables in this open-air venue are outfitted with bottles of rum and ice. It might as well be 1950 or 1930 – with cigar smoke drifting up into the night as an army of feathered dancers own the stage.
Sipping a “siete anos” aged Cuban rum on an expansive porch with the Gulf crashing only a few blocks away on the Melancon and with the brutalist-styled Russian embassy sticking out like some relic from what will be a bygone era, Havana is about to become very familiar to American sailors again.
With 11 regattas already scheduled in 2016, the door is open wide at the Hemingway Yacht Club and the limes and sugarcane sliced with machetes are waiting – and the boats in St. Petersburg, New Orleans and Miami are already en route.
http://www.pensacolayachtclub.org
