Jamaica, 19/05/2017o

First of all apologies to you all for the lack of blogs recently. It's simple really, either no, or very slow, Internet on some islands.
Since leaving Tortola, or Tortuga, same place, different name, we have been to The Dominican Republic, Inagua, Cuba and now just arrived in Jamaica. We will stay here for a few days and then head on south to Colombia.
The Dominican Republic was very enjoyable. I thought we were headed to another Marina in Samana but in the end we picked up a mooring for 2 nights. Our new found agent, Chicho, was great. I went through the check in procedure in no time, even though it was a Saturday. All the officials came in, at no extra cost, specially for me! That doesn't happen to often. WiFi was only available in a local cafe where we spent a fair amount of time, slow but it was available, when the power was on. Chicho arranged a lovely tour in a minibus along the NE coast to a lovely bay and resort area, complete with pirate ship in the bay. Not much else to report as we wanted to keep moving so as to arrive in Panama on the 1st of July, this is no longer necessary.
From Samana we headed NW to Inagua, the most southerly of the Bahamian Island chain. 2500 people live here, with about 100,000 Pink Flamingos and a salt production facility.
The check in is about 3 kilometres from the harbour, not ideal! Kevin, our new best friend in Inagua, drove us there and back. Check in was a shock. For 2 nights our stay cost $US 325.00! This did allow us to visit all the Bahamian islands for a year, but that's expensive for a short stay.
Next day we all went off with Kevin to view the flamingos and the salt production. We saw some of the birds and a hell of a lot of salt. Apparently they can export up to 6000 tonnes of the stuff a day if needed. It's all made from seawater that's allowed to evaporate. It's then shovelled up by machine and stockpiles. Having seen all this, and a fishing trawler being strip searched by the USCoastguard, looking for $20 million in drug cash, we left for Cuba.
Initially we were going to go to Havana but changed to the south coast city of Santiago. We tied onto a Marina of sorts. A concrete quay wall really. All the officials were on site and the Marina security people all spoke English so all went smoothly. We were introduced to Paquitos and his family. We saw a lot of them in the next days and ate with them several times. This is the second city of Cuba and is where Fidel Castro is buried. He didn't live there or anything but apparently this is where the revolution started. We visited his grave in a public cemetery in town. We looked at the Cathedral, very grand looking but closed whilst we were there, shame really.
Next day we climbed into a 1950s Dodge wagon in lousy condition, complete with Chinese Diesel engine and transmission. We were headed off to see some mountains and rivers, but after about 100 plus kilometres a half shaft broke in the axle. No problem, we all had lunch whilst the driver removed the offending part, had it welded, and then refitted it, breaking a few bolts in the process. That's when I noticed no rear brakes and no shock absorbers! Not really needed. On the way home there were 3 roadside stops to tighten everything up as the wheel kept wobbling loose. Then another stop when we ran out of diesel. A call into the nearest farm yard yielded 10 litres of fuel in exchange for a T shirt! Not mine.
There are some strange laws in Cuba. Cows all belong to the government. If you kill one without approval then you go to jail for 20 years, one guy we met had just spent 10 years in jail for having 10 lbs of coffee in his car. The place is ripe for another revolution.

Enough of this, all is well on board and we are on the Montego Bay
Yacht Club Marina for a few days