Eighteen years ago, While taking a 43 Bertam from Florida to Baja through the ditch, we declared a "Maritime Emergency" and made port in Cuba. We stayed eleven days, avoided big cities, and just wandered and mingled. We ate, worked, visited, partied and discussed with the people. We had a lot of contact with Cuban Army and cops, mostly young guys. Curious, more than anything..wanted to talk about cars, baseball, women...Just like young guys do. We were never hassled, or asked for papers or money. We saw no one starving, and no one who had much of anything. People were, I think a good word would be "resigned" to their situation. Was it a wonderful way to live...NO. Was it horrible...NO..Somewhere in between. Most of the people would rather have been elsewhere, I am sure. Were they "desperate to leave? No. We had a great bon voyage party, and made some good friends. I wonder what will happen now? FYI: We took the Bertam down that way, instead of shipping it, because we wanted to, and we could.
