Before we started sailing long distances, someone (who shall not be named) gave me the book An Embarrassment of Mangos, in preparation for the tropical destinations Bob and I were planning to visit. It’s a well-known book among cruisers.
While we have found a lot of mangos here in Cuba, what I find even more in abundance is generosity. Starting with our driver Noel, in Santiago de Cuba, I began to notice that getting supplies is almost impossible in this country, and people have to rely on serendipity. They give generously of what they have and sometimes they get just what they need in return. Mostly though, they have to be exceedingly industrious to make or fabricate what they need out of the random things that come their way—like those fishermen we encountered in the inner-tube boat with rag bag sail. Still, they have a generosity of spirit that compels them to share what they have no matter what comes back to them. It’s quite astonishing.
So we had a very gentle sail to Cayo Levisa today, which might be our last stop before arriving in Havana. I don’t know how long we’ll be in Cayo Levisa because we chose this spot to wait out a cold front that should arrive at any moment. Cold fronts always have strong, northerly winds, and since we are on the north coast of Cuba that can mean some pretty rough conditions. Where we are tucked in, we have reefs and some little cayos for protection, and we are a ways out from the mainland, which would be a dangerous lee shore in northerly winds. A ‘lee shore’ means that the winds are blowing you toward land, never a good thing in strong winds. After just hearing Bob’s conversation with our weather router, the venerable Chris Parker, it looks like we may here for a full week! Sheesh! Chris is calling this the never-ending winter because cold fronts, which should be done in March, are still making a weekly appearance. I wonder what is going on in the northern US, where most of these fronts originate.
About midday during our sail, I was startled to see a little brown bird fly right into our cockpit and right down the companionway into our cabin! Bob went down below to check on him and get him outside again. Bob opened a hatch and the little bird flew right out again. I think Bob has had a bird onboard during every long passage he has taken over the past few years….but we were not offshore today! We were only a mile or so from land! Little bird didn’t fly away but landed on our foredeck. He did not appear tired or injured; he did not appear the least bit frightened. He marched up and down the decks, looking, as all birds do, a bit like some kind of military officer. All he needed were some gold stars on his shoulders to complete the look. He perched on some of the lines, and as Bob was constantly tweaking at our sails, which meant some of the lines started moving, he would calmly just hop to a different line.
We don’t know what kind of bird he is. He was bigger than a sparrow, but smaller than a robin, with a black, finch-type beak. He had a dull golden/olive breast and was blotchy brown over the rest of his body, similar to a cowbird’s coloring. I think he was about 6” tall.
He checked out the entire boat, coming back into the cockpit with us for a while, even flying down below again. Bob had to go down and open a hatch for him again. In spite of the fact that Bob was in close quarters with him down below as well as being the giant who originated all the noise of the electric winches moving lines and sails, the little bird was not the least bit intimidated by being close to Bob. Bob put out some crumbs of my somewhat stale homemade whole wheat/rye bread. He seemed to enjoy that! Bob also put out a small plate with a puddle of water on it, and although the bird perched on the plate a couple of times, he did not actually drink any water. He spent a lot of time preening, and I could only imagine that he didn’t like feeling salty anymore than we do! He spent about two hours with us, and he was very curious about us and about the whole boat. He spent some time in the dinghy investigating my window box full of herbs and the pink geranium. At one point he was perched right beside me looking at my legs quite intently. I really thought he was going to hop on my legs, and I was willing myself not to flinch or shriek if he should do it. He looked me in the eye for a moment and then hopped elsewhere. I swear he could tell I was fearful!
Most of the time when a bird takes refuge on our boat it is exhausted and more often than not these birds die onboard. It is very sad. We always think they have gotten lost from their migrating flock and become too exhausted to finish the trip. It was wonderful to have a curious, healthy bird on board. When he’d had enough of a visit he took off.
The other highlight of today is the focus of my thoughts –our encounter with the generous Cubans on Cayo Levisa. The Guarda Frontera does not have an office on this island, so when a cruising boat comes in, the dive boat captain goes to the mainland to pick up an officer of the Guarda Frontera. When they return you are expected to take your dinghy ashore to pick up the GF officer to bring him onboard your boat for the paperwork and inspection.
When we saw the dive boat arrive with the officer Bob headed to shore. As Bob picked up the officer, the dive boat captain handed Bob a big papaya! After doing the paper work with the officer, Bob returned him to shore with the daily dispatch of bars of soap, one for the officer and one to thank the captain for the papaya. Well! The dive boat captain had more gifts for us — an abundance of wonderful vegetables! Two small heads of bok choi, a large head of leafy lettuce, and some interesting long beans that look similar to green beans or pole beans! It was such a generous gift!
Like the woman in Marea del Portillo, who gave us all her eggs (13!) and 8 tomatoes and even all her coffee, this man gave freely of what he had that he thought we might want. It wasn’t exactly what we would have bought if we’d had access to a store. But this is a culture where there is not access to stores and he knew it was very likely we were in need of fresh green veggies not easily found. Both these people gave freely of what they had without knowing if we could give them anything in return, much less anything that would be useful to them. The woman in Marea del Portillo asked for clothes and shoes, and I have a feeling she would have preferred childrens’ sizes of these items, while I could only give her adult clothing and shoes. Still, she had generously offered up what she had, hoping she’d get something useful in return.
That’s just what the captain did. After giving us the wealth of his fresh food, he asked Bob if we had an extra screwdriver. Bob said he’d check in his tool box. Mostly, we do not have extras of any tools, so we are disappointed that we do not have a screwdriver for him. Although it is our natural reaction to hand him our only screwdriver, it would be a potentially dangerous situation for Bob to make such a long passage home without a full tool box. Bob has found that he has an extra vice grip wrench (bought in Florida when he couldn’t find the one he already had), and we certainly hope that the captain will be happy to get one.
Dinner last night was memorable, but I’m not sure if was truly the taste or the immense gratitude of having fresh ingredients. I sautéed a little bacon and then used the bacon fat to sauté some small local onions that look like cipollini to me, green beans, a head of bok choi, and plenty of garlic right at the end. Then I added a health splash of balsamic vinegar and let it reduce to a syrup. I stirred in bow tie pasta with a little of the starchy cooking water. We grated lots of parmesan on top and it was very a memorable dinner. Thank you, Captain!
It’s still a bit mind boggling to me that you can’t just go to the nearest big town and find a hardware store or even a market. A major aspect of life here is giving what you can and seeing what comes back to you. In our experience, the Cubans do this very well.
