Boat Parade-aka Herding Cats

Sunday was the big boat parade.  This took a lot of work by Commodore Escrich of the Hemingway yacht Club, because you just can't cruise into Havana Harbor. Anybody who has told you they do, and without special permission are either 1-lying or 2-did something VERY illegal.

Tim elected me to attend the captains' briefing on how this was going to pan out. Commodore Escrich conducted the meeting (in Spanish translated) and got very emotional that there would be around 60 American and Cuban boats in the parade.  It was featured on the news and radio and citizens were encouraged to line up on the Malecon to watch the parade.  The Commodore was actually teary eyed and couldn't stress enough the cultural importance of this event to his country.

Of course, what happens when you get 60 sailboat captains together--instant chaos. Nope, they don't want to do it this way or that way or whatever.  I ran mediation a couple of times when things got too spikey.

Countdown to chaos in 5...4...3...2....

Commodore Escrich explaining the parade route.

 

We were given our position assignments in the parade and who was in front of us and who was behind us.  I found my group mates and we gave descriptions of our boats. We were all to monitor Ch 77 on the radio.

We had to do a flyby of the customs dock so that they could see us leaving and confirm our crew. Absolutely no locals can come on board, they can/will be arrested.

First, the organizers had said, all boats leave at once, in which all captains said WHAT?  Can you imagine the clusterf**k that would have been.  Then they said they would call out boat positions and you go to the customs dock then.  That was the plan.

The Commodore's yacht--Follow me, please!

Boats heading out....not necessarily as discussed.....

 

We all got back to our boats, we prepped but hung out since we were at the end of the parade anyway, and listened to the radio chatter. It took approximately 5 minutes for the system to break down with boats clearing customs.  Radio chatter was some of the most amusing stuff I have listened to in a long time.

One of the 'gaggle of Island Packets' as was quoted on the radio.

Queuing up for the customs dock flyby.

  

Heading out of the channel.
Narrow channel with cross current that goes from 0 to really freaking deep in a hurry.

Finally it was our turn (or we decided it was). Tim had helm and I was coms officer, we did our driveby of the customs dock and headed to the first rendezvous spot, at which we were to start with parade position.  The boats got so stretched out that the first boats to the rendezvous got pushed away by the current so they had to head back.

Finally, the parade of boats started, we were supposed to keep 2-3 boat lengths between us and of course our place in line.  Oh, man, the smack talk started then.  The boys on our boat were getting into it and I wound up repeating some things that weren't true.  (thanks you knuckleheads)

Then in the only goofy/disorganized way that sailors can manage, we got the damn parade underway.  

Sorta, kinda, sorta looking like a parade line now.

But not exactly....

The Russian Embassy...Soviet era design, supposed to signify the handle of
a sword sticking into the earth.
Those Russkis.

  

We had to coordinate our entry into Havana Harbor with the beginning parade boats LEAVING Havana Harbor so that we could get our glamour shot in front of El Morro castle.  The Cruising World photographer was on land taking the pictures, one of the Harmony yacht people had the rally flag and was signing to us to slow down/speed up for the photographer.

People lining on up the Malecon.

El Morro Castle.

More folks on the harbor entrance.

Small fishing boats and the tour bus staging area.

We had a great time yelling Hola! and waving to the people on shore, the kids were especially cute, they were jumping about and excited.  I even saw our bus driver from the tour the day before and he gave us a really big wave.

Once we got to the statue of the Christ (to signify blessing of our fleet) we turned and headed out. We passed the Commodore's boat and then we were given the order to fly our sails back to the Marina.  Of course the wind was straight behind us, so once we got past the Malecon (the sea wall promenade of Havana) we doused the main and motor sailed back. (Much to the chagrin of my crew mate who was of course in race mode--sorry charlie, LizzyM ain't a racer, she's a tank)

Sails going up for the return trip home.

 

We got back, did another flyby of customs to show that we still had 4 crew and no locals we got back to our slip. At one point, I thought there was going to be secondary confusion because some boats said they weren't going back to their same slip, luckily they realized that they had to because of the water and electricity charges.

Clean up and get ready for the party!