In this video, Sailing Completely Alone in South Cuba, Cruising Cienfuegos & Cayo Largo, we cruise the endless expanse of the completely deserted south of Cuba from the Garden of the Queen to the city of Cienfuegos to Cayo Largo where we visit the small village and sea turtle sancuary, home to rare Albino Sea Turtles! #remoteplaces #sailingcuba #cienfuegos #sailingchannel If you like our videos and want to see more/better videos, more often you can become a patreon supporter: https://www.patreon.com/sailingbalachandra If you haven't yet SUBSCRIBED and wan to see more please click the SUBSCRIBE button above, and be sure to give this video a like! In August of 2017 we sold everything and moved aboard Balachandra, a 1986 C&C44 sailboat, then sailed it over 300 nautical miles to Halifax Nova Scotia to spend a cold Canadian winter in the frozen waters of the North Atlantic. Sailing Balachandra is our YouTube sailing vlog inspired by other great channels such as Delos and La Vagabonde, which documents the sailing adventures of myself and my partner Nawal as we navigate the globe. We also dive into lots of DIY boat projects both above and below decks, and share with you all of the pros and cons of living aboard full time. Sailing Balachandra is published weekly so please subscribe so you don't miss out on future videos! This video was shot with equipment from Optrix by Body Glove, Nikon, Apple, GoPro, and Polaroid Opening Theme Music: License Info: Beautiful Story / Taketones.com Used with a Paid Licence / Permission PURCHASED MUSIC: LINK: https://taketones.com/track/beautiful-story LICENSE N: TTEXTENDED157339559892860327 EXTENDED Special Thanks to our Cuban friends Group Nucay for giving us permision to use to use their album "Tropicalissimo" throughout our YouTube series. Other Music: the YouTube Music Library Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/sailingbalachandra Follow us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sailingbalachandra Instagram: http://instagram.com/sailing_balachandra


Closed Captions (CC):
in this episode we sail into the garden

of the queen

and visit kyle brigantine then sail onto

sienfuego then we sail for beautiful

kyle largo to enjoy our first mojitos

and a sea turtle sanctuary

last time on sailing bella chandra we

made a video

about all of the things that have broken

or failed on board our sailboat since

leaving nova scotia

and cruising full time in the caribbean

if you're new to the channel hi i'm

noelle and i'm dan and we're sailing

bella chandra

we sailed all the way from halifax nova

scotia

to the caribbean that's right we're

sailing around the caribbean now and if

you haven't subscribed

to our channel just go below this video

look for the big red subscribe button

and press that button

we were so happy to finally be underway

again after sitting on anchor for four

days waiting for

a cold front to pass bringing 30 knot

winds from the north

cell phone and cellular data is sporadic

at best on the south coast of cuba

to send any messages to friends and

family we had to deliberately sail

towards and hug the coastline of cuba

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many of the channel markers around cuba

are damaged or missing

navionics charts are somewhat accurate

but caution must be taken as some shoals

and reefs are not accurately charted

read the water and don't try to anchor

at night unless you have guidance from

local knowledge or active captain

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so we just finished riding out a nasty

cold front that lasted

i don't know four or five days and we

were kind of hugging the south coast of

cuba during that whole time

and finally the wind has died down

enough

that we can sail offshore and out toward

the reefs

of southern cuba which is also called

the garden of the queen

we're just heading that way right now

and we should make landfall on our first

little island really soon

we got the weather this morning from

chris parker over our

single sideman radio because uh there's

not great internet anywhere down here so

uh we were able to get the forecast for

the next few days and it looks pretty

good

should be brisk winds for the next two

days but nothing we can't handle

we might get gusts up to 25 or 30

tonight but there's a protected

anchorage in there that we can grab

things are looking pretty good and it's

beautiful out here

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kyo brigantine is a small spit of sandy

paradise at the edge of the garden of

the queen

we found sandy holding in 15 feet of

clear water and stayed for two days

enjoying the beach

while in calm easterlies

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after a good rest we were off once more

sailing through the garden of the queen

one thing we did not expect about cuba

is just how

huge it really is it always seems to

take much longer than we expect to make

any real headway

here things that look small on your

chart always turn out to be much much

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larger

all right so we are well past the garden

of the queen now and we are headed for

san fuego and we've been sailing pretty

much all day yesterday

we slept the night in one spot where we

anchored and we're sailing all day today

and we're just approaching san fuego

we'll probably be in san fuego just

after dark but the anchorage is wide

open

and pretty easy to get into and i think

we shouldn't have any problems anchoring

at night

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and so we arrived in sienfuego this town

has recently reached unesco world

heritage status

as it screams history with 18th and 19th

century architecture

and beautiful thoroughfares we found

that most cafes restaurants and shops

were open and we were able to buy some

provisions

san fuego is a must stop if you plan to

visit the south of cuba

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the people of san fuego were very

friendly we enjoyed

clean public spaces take out street

pizza for only one dollar

and we were lucky to find the only bank

machine in all of downtown

which would accept a canadian debit card

so we could get some cash

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foreign

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after a few days in sienfuego we were

off again

bound for cayo largo

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look at dad tree

it's pretty bad i gotta coax here when

you're looking at the camera

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all right so we did an overnight sail

from san fuego

to kyle largo which is the first island

on the south coast heading west from san

fuego

which has an airport and lots of beaches

and some resorts

like a popular destination spot but it's

also very beautiful

and it has a marina so we can check in

there we can go to shore

so we're kind of excited about this one

we didn't get any footage last night

because we decided we would night sail

we're in this pattern right now where

all the wind is at night

and then it kind of just dies during the

day so unfortunately that means we have

to

leave in the dark and sail in the dark

but as long as there's no

underwater obstructions that we have to

worry about we can do it after kyle

largo

there's going to be a few other small

islands where we can drop the hook for

the night be almost right in the gulf

stream as we come around

the west of cuba and heading up for

havana and that'll be our last stop in

cuba

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the marina in cairo largo was

practically deserted due to the pandemic

however all shops were open during

certain times of the day

and we enjoyed our very first mojitos

before walking the village and visiting

the sea turtle sanctuary

uh

the sea turtle sanctuary is a home to

several very rare albino

sea turtles they allowed guests to

handle and

feed the turtles

although these baby sea turtles were

very beautiful we couldn't help thinking

how their lives must be

living together crowded into these plain

water tanks

we've seen plenty of wild free sea

turtles as we cruise from anchorage to

anchorage here in the caribbean

it seems so strange for us to see some

in captivity

where so many are able to swim freely in

the wild

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thanks see you later

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