Cuba

[pugwash60]

I'm doing a trade wind transatlantic this Autumn / winter and primarily interested in visiting Cuba. I have Nigel Calders guide and Florentino's too, as a Brit do I need to worry about visas or anything, they don't seem to be mentioned.
On the way I'm familiar with St Maarten as a good place for wound licking and stores purchasing, is Puerto Rico likely as good? A fun place to visit?

 

[Stingo]

If I recall correctly, no visa is required for Cuba. You will definitely need a B1B2 visa for Puerto Rico. PR shouldn't be missed - the island of Culebra is wonderful, as is the south coast.

NB charts for Cuba: they are notoriously inaccurate and lots of cruisers lose their boats there. May I suggest you spend the time learning how to use SASPlanet and then use the charts you've made on OpenCPN.

Where are you at the moment?

 

[Stingo]

p.s. Puerto Rico is essentially muurican, so in terms of provisioning, all the usual suspects eg Walmart, are in abundance.

 

[pugwash60]

I'm Scotland but will set off from the Canaries. Is that the US b1 b2 visa,? luckily I have that from an aborted transatlantic a couple of years ago.
I'd not heard of SASPlanet but will look into it.

 

[Stingo]

Yes, the US B1B2 visa. A good thing that you already have it.
Ref SASPlanet, give me five minutes and I'll post a link to a good YouTube video

 

[Stingo]

Also, spend time on this website, which is very informative
Making mbTiles

Lastly, you can download a "tweaked" version of SAS Plant from
Index of /Downloads

 

[Stingo]

This channel does a series on OpenCPN and also SASPlanet

https://youtube.com/@OutChasingStars

 

[01_Anna]

I'm doing a trade wind transatlantic this Autumn / winter and primarily interested in visiting Cuba. I have Nigel Calders guide and Florentino's too, as a Brit do I need to worry about visas or anything, they don't seem to be mentioned.
On the way I'm familiar with St Maarten as a good place for wound licking and stores purchasing, is Puerto Rico likely as good? A fun place to visit?

You do need a visa to visit Cuba. I was there four years ago, so my information might be out of date, but do called Tourist card is required. They were supposed to introduce an electronic version. Cubans did not allow any food to be brought into the country, and insisted all was bought there, paying in local currency -for forigners- "cuca" which was valued at one USD. The supplies were scarce, to say the least. Some marinas had no water. Treat this statement quite literaly: no water at all. The fuel (diesel) we managed to buy was quite poor quality. They did not allow use of satellite phones, Cuban custom official sort of sealed it, and told us to use it after leaving the country. Beautiful place, well worth a visit, but be aware of serious limitations.
I very much doubt, the conditions have changed for the better, in the meantime. My advice, search online, people do describe their experiences sailing there. One last thing, we had German Pilot books, there were the most up to date ones we could find.

 

[alan_d]

I'm doing a trade wind transatlantic this Autumn / winter and primarily interested in visiting Cuba. I have Nigel Calders guide and Florentino's too, as a Brit do I need to worry about visas or anything, they don't seem to be mentioned.
On the way I'm familiar with St Maarten as a good place for wound licking and stores purchasing, is Puerto Rico likely as good? A fun place to visit?

Be aware that if you visit Cuba you may subsequently experience difficulty entering the United States.

 

[pugwash60]

Thanks for the info, and was there still the restriction of only going from one marina, getting a pass to sail to the next one, and not stopping in between, and if so was it serious or could one interpret it liberally with going to anchor in between?

 

[Stingo]

Thanks for the info, and was there still the restriction of only going from one marina, getting a pass to sail to the next one, and not stopping in between, and if so was it serious or could one interpret it liberally with going to anchor in between?

That is correct.

 

[Stingo]

Be aware that if you visit Cuba you may subsequently experience difficulty entering the United States.

Serious question: Why on earth would you want to visit the sugar-loaded-burger-munching-land-of-the-free when there are so many other places to visit?

 

[01_Anna]

Thanks for the info, and was there still the restriction of only going from one marina, getting a pass to sail to the next one, and not stopping in between, and if so was it serious or could one interpret it liberally with going to anchor in between?

I do not know if there are restrictions, but we were expected to tell the next marina about the time of arrival, in advance. Which in one case we missed by over 24h- due to beat to the wind- all the way there. The marina officials (custom officials? hard to tell, there were there in every place) were not pleased to say the least. A lot of explanations, as we were one of two boats there, they could track us on AiS all the time, big boat 50 footer; so it was obvious what has happened, and why the delay.
Additionally, I had no problem travelling to USA, two years later, with the same passport, with Cuban entry/leaving stamps clearly visible. Ah, one more thing- they take a photo of you on arrival, and on departure.

 

[RunAgroundHard]

Be aware that if you visit Cuba you may subsequently experience difficulty entering the United States.

If there is such a difficulty then, as a UK citizen, ask for a second passport and use that for other visas, entry stamps etc that could be problematic. It is a common thing, you just need to send a letter with an outline of countries and rough dates, explaining why, and they will issue, for a fee, a second passport. I have had 3 UK passports, simultaneously. I also don't think that Brits have an issue with entering the USA after a visit to Cuba.

 

[RunAgroundHard]

Also, spend time on this website, which is very informative
Making mbTiles

Lastly, you can download a "tweaked" version of SAS Plant from
Index of /Downloads

That is great link and contains so much learning on the limitations and use of electronic data for navigation.

 

[Zing]

I also don't think that Brits have an issue with entering the USA after a visit to Cuba.

Get that in writing first from a senior official if there is a shred of doubt, like ‘thinking’ it is so. Great power is delegated to CBP officers. They have no sense of humour, a sadistic tendency and an assumption that every traveller is a scum bag third world criminal, economic migrant or drug dealer. There is no route for appeal and they can deport you and ban you from re-entry or throw you in jail and threaten to seize your yacht for looking at them the wrong way.

 

[geem]

I'm doing a trade wind transatlantic this Autumn / winter and primarily interested in visiting Cuba. I have Nigel Calders guide and Florentino's too, as a Brit do I need to worry about visas or anything, they don't seem to be mentioned.
On the way I'm familiar with St Maarten as a good place for wound licking and stores purchasing, is Puerto Rico likely as good? A fun place to visit?

You only get a one month visa on arrival. You can renew on expiry for another month. I believe you might be able to extend further but not so straight forward.
PR is a fun place to visit but not so good for yachty stuff. If you need boat bits then importing via USA would be easiest. PR is like a poor version of US and Spanish speaking. I was surprised how little English was spoken.
The Spanish Virgin islands are lovely and not so busy.

 

[pugwash60]

On the visa front it looks like you cant enter the states on an efta after visiting cuba. I have a b1 b2 visa so no issue but various crew may need to change or have an additional passport if they want to go to murca Later.

 

[RunAgroundHard]

Get that in writing first from a senior official if there is a shred of doubt, like ‘thinking’ it is so. Great power is delegated to CBP officers. They have no sense of humour, a sadistic tendency and an assumption that every traveller is a scum bag third world criminal, economic migrant or drug dealer. There is no route for appeal and they can deport you and ban you from re-entry or throw you in jail and threaten to seize your yacht for looking at them the wrong way.

Over 100 entries in my passports and only one issue, Barbados. I turned up in shorts, T shirts and unshaven, and was sent back to my boat to present myself as respectable. Lesson learned.

If you have been in Cuba, you can’t use ESTA and have to get a visa. However, ESTA is not applicable if you’re on a private yacht, you need a visa anyway. As the visa application requires notification of countries visited, then entering with a Cuba visit should not be a problem if there is no
other reason to be concerned. All this is online.

A work colleague has the same name as a terrorist and has been detained. Three weeks ago at Houston, a person in front of me was detained. I overheard doubts about his address. Hence I recognise what you suggest but believe the innocent don’t have anything to worry about.

 

[01_Anna]

On the visa front it looks like you cant enter the states on an efta after visiting cuba. I have a b1 b2 visa so no issue but various crew may need to change or have an additional passport if they want to go to murca Later.

So, I seem to be the only person writing in this thread who actually has been to both countries, and did not encounter any problems. Admittedly, travelling on an Irish passport. Would pictures of relevant passport pages convince you? Probably not. BTW the Tourist card I was issued was a separate page, not a stamp in the passport. The only indication of entering/leaving Cuba are small date stamps.
I rest my case.
Forum clearly knows best.