{"id":22326,"date":"2015-03-03T19:28:02","date_gmt":"2015-03-03T19:28:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bwsailing.com\/cc\/?p=22326"},"modified":"2015-03-03T19:28:02","modified_gmt":"2015-03-03T19:28:02","slug":"cruising-cuba-dinghy-diaries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bwsailing.com\/cc\/2015\/03\/cruising-cuba-dinghy-diaries\/","title":{"rendered":"Cruising Cuba: Dinghy Diaries"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"dinghies\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Cruising Compass is excited\u00a0to have received dispatches this winter from cruiser\u00a0<\/i>Sissy Puedes\u00a0in Cuba and will be sharing them over the coming weeks! Here’s the fourth\u00a0installment…<\/i><\/p>\n

When I arrived at Cienfuegos, the Guarda Frontera who dinghied out to meet me came armed with a new paper to sign. It stated that I understood and would comply with the rules of the marina, i.e. show a light at anchor and agree to take my dinghy out of the water every night.<\/p>\n

Winching up our ten-year-old relic was a two- or three-person job. And, I assured them, nobody else wanted it. I\u00a0did not agree.<\/p>\n

Why the sudden need for security? I asked whether there had been an increase in crime? The officers exchanged a look full of cultural context and shook their heads no. It wasn\u2019t something we would discuss.<\/p>\n

The junior officer suggested I lock the motor to the boat instead. I agreed.<\/p>\n

The next day I found the lock, rusted solid. Another cruiser dropped by to help and filled me in on the crackdown. Two nights earlier, a lock had been nearly cut through before the owner scared off the would-be thief.<\/p>\n

Cubans seemed squeaky clean and honest. Who would risk prison for a dinghy?<\/p>\n

After three hours the lock hadn\u2019t budged. When the officers returned that night, I argued that anyone would be crazy to steal the patched, flooded, crippled boat. After another mysterious look, they took the dinghy into custody.<\/p>\n

Their paranoia mystified me. You couldn\u2019t sell a hot boat in Cuba; Cubans couldn\u2019t even own boats. Then it hit me. Perhaps profit hadn\u2019t been the motive. Perhaps it was the boat itself, the means of transportation to a different end.<\/p>\n

The next morning when the officer returned my dinghy, his professional smile confirmed my suspicion. It wasn\u2019t something we would ever discuss.<\/p>\n

\"dinghies<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cruising Compass is excited\u00a0to have received dispatches this winter from cruiser\u00a0Sissy Puedes\u00a0in Cuba and will be sharing them over the coming weeks! Here’s the fourth\u00a0installment… When I arrived at Cienfuegos, the Guarda Frontera who dinghied out to meet me came armed with a new paper to sign. It stated that I understood and would comply with the rules of the marina, i.e. show a light at anchor and agree to take my dinghy out of the water every night. Winching up our ten-year-old relic was a two- or three-person job. And, I assured them, nobody else wanted it. I\u00a0did not agree. Why the sudden need for security? I asked whether there had been an increase in crime? The officers exchanged a look full of cultural context and shook their heads no. It wasn\u2019t something we would discuss. The junior officer suggested I lock the motor to the boat instead. I agreed. The next day I found the lock, rusted solid. Another cruiser dropped by to help and filled me in on the crackdown. Two nights earlier, a lock had been nearly cut through before the owner scared off the would-be thief. Cubans seemed squeaky clean and honest. Who would risk …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22328,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[365],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bwsailing.com\/cc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22326"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bwsailing.com\/cc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bwsailing.com\/cc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bwsailing.com\/cc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bwsailing.com\/cc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22326"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.bwsailing.com\/cc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22326\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22329,"href":"https:\/\/www.bwsailing.com\/cc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22326\/revisions\/22329"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bwsailing.com\/cc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22328"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bwsailing.com\/cc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22326"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bwsailing.com\/cc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22326"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bwsailing.com\/cc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22326"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}