We left on 13 January for Casilda, some thirty miles away. I was not looking forward to Casilda by what I had heard , $10.00 per night to anchor and nothing for it. We sailed out of the narrow entrance and were rapidly overtaken by the pilot boat who was bringing a huge tanker in. We left with the main'sl up and soon killed the engine (once out of the channel) rolled out the Genoa, raised the mizzen and storm jib, and were doing 8kts plus in no time at all. It was a wonderful sail in the lee of the mountains with 20 kts of wind and no seas. Barreling along with a huge swath of foam spread out behind Gilana approaching hull speed is an experience that I hope to share with all of you sometime. After about 20 miles of this, the wind suddenly died, the water took on the powder blue of calm, and we stopped all way. I downed the sails and the Detroit breathed in cool air once again as we motored to the coast two miles off the port beam. We anchored on a rock shelf in the quiet bay of Yaguanabo. It was so still that the anchor lay on its side, and we hadn't moved by morning, being held there all night by the weight of the chain lying on the bottom. Thank you "Royal Duke" for throwing out the chain that was 'too heavy' for you. On the subject of anchoring, Dave and Katrin would not beleive the way we now do this manoeuvre, compared to that time the motor stopped in Hout Bay. (remember?)

We all had caught a 'snot-neus' head cold in the bitterly cold 21 deg C of Cienfuegos so the stop was most welcome as a rest even though the local Guarda Frontiera bloke was a little overzealous, rowing out to check our papers, with a really officious attitude. The next morning we awoke with the first rays of a beautiful day and set sail before breakfast, bound for Cayo Blanco de Casilda, a small mangrove island out on the reefs, made popular by daily boat trips from the hotel, that come here to picnic and experience our privileged lifestyle for a few hours. On the way there we landed up seeing a sailfish, and were accompanied by a pod of Pilot whales, later we saw a pod of Orca, Killer whale in the opposite direction.