Great Inagua to Jamaica

Wednesday, October 3rd

We arrived in Matthew Town not having much of an idea what was there. We had to motor more than expected during the previous passage and needed some fuel before heading on to Jamaica-Mon. We knew that Great Inagua was home to the world's largest flock of pink flamingos, and that much of the island is owned by Morton Salt Company - much of the island is covered by salt flats.

Mark had only anchored off of Matthew Town, but had never actually been on the island or used the docking facilities. The charts didn't clearly show what was there, and we had consigned ourselves to the fact that we would probably have to transport diesel back and forth to the boat using jerry jugs and the dinghy.

As we motored closer, we made a call on the VHF and were told that we could pull into the harbor and get diesel right at the dock, which was good news. The location of the harbor was not immediately obvious & there was no information on any of the cruising guides we had about Matthew Town. Mike spotted a navigational range that seemed to lead through a little slot in a seawall that couldn't have been more than 40 feet wide. Capt. Mark was going to have to expertly navigate the Stray Cat through, so he got out his shoe horn and we made it perfectly.

As soon as we made it throught the narrow cut, a nice fellow named Williams helped tie up the boat and took Capt. Mark to customs & immigration straight away. We told him that we needed diesel, so he put a call in to the fuel man. We also told him we were interested in seeing the flamingos if we had time - he said that it might be possible.

While waiting for Capt. Mark to return from the immigration office, we noticed a couple of guys on a Larson 32' powerboat - the only boat in the harbor and a boat that looked like it would be more at home on an inland lake. They came over and struck up a conversation. Come to find out these guys had been rescued by the Coast Guard 2 nights prior. They were enroute from Miami to Venezuela, delivering the boat for their boss. Did we mention that it was a 32 foot powerboat?? They had been anchored off of Little Inagua in huge seas after running out of fuel and setting off their EPIRB. The Coast Guard rescue helicoptor was there in 30 minutes, and had instructed them to abandon the boat and jump in the water. A rescue diver helped them into a lift basket and they were transported to Matthew Town. The next day, they hired a local man with a small dinghy to run them 40 miles in bumpy seas with some fuel and salvage their boat. When they returned to Matthew Town with their boat to fuel up, they were boarded and searched by the Coast Guard, DEA, Customs & Immigrations, the local police etc... They told us there were 40 agents waiting to search their vessel and it was torn apart. They had never bothered to clear customs anywhere in the Bahamas, and they had already stopped in the Bahamas 3 other times for fuel before being rescued. When we left these two, they were awaiting word on what their punishment was to be. They were expecting a $10,000 fine, 30 days in jail and/or confiscation of their vessel. They seemed to think the whole affair was rather comical and it was obvious that they were excited to tell us their story. They were in pretty good spirits to be facing all of that!

While checking in with Immigration, Capt. Mark got to hang out with some Coast Guard pilots who are based in Great Inagua and they checked the weather for him. We were relieved to find out that all of the tropical systems had dissipated and that the weather should be clear on the passage to Jamaica. Unfortunately though, the forecasted winds were not in our favor, so stopping to fill the fuel tanks turned out to be the correct decision.

After filling the fuel tanks and spending some time at the local internet "cafe", we set out for Jamaica.

As the sun set that evening, we approached the Southeast coast of Cuba and the entrance to the Windward Passage. Overnight, we came within 6 miles of the coast before bearing away to the southwest. The next morning, we could see the mountains of Cuba off to starboard, and that was our scenery for most of the day.

One last night offshore and we should be arriving in Port Antonio, Jamaica by 9am on Friday morning.

We will continue to try and solve our communications issues, but if you're reading this, then we've already come a long way.

More coming soon from Jamaica.

/EX