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An email dated June 14, 2007
Dear Cuba Cruising Net,
I hope this message finds you in good health and high spirits. Last year we briefly communicated about my plan to sail to Cuba. Well, I did it and lived to tell. I returned to our home port on the Chesapeake just about a month ago. Altogether we spent five
weeks in Cuba, starting in Santiago and making a clockwise semi-circumnavigation to Havana. It was an eventful and stimulating cruise that will, I hope, spout some good stories in due time.
First I want to thank you for your advice when I was planning the trip. I got a Netherlands Yacht Certificate for the boat (I am a Dutch citizen). When I arrived in Key West (straight from Marina Hemingway) I raised many eyebrows in the Federal Building, but in the end they gave me a form to fill out for OFAC, explaining why I qualify under the general license (professional writer), and that was it.
I made a web log on which all crew members posted their stories and pictures. The address is:?
http://log-of-the-sea-scout.blogspot.com
We arrived in Cuba from Ile a Vache in Haiti, and that's the other reason why I am writing today. On the island I became friends with several local fishermen and boat builders, and went sailing with them. See attached pictures. My plan for next year is to return to Haiti, built a boat in the local manner, and try to sail it to Florida. It would be a great sporting challenge, but it also has a humanitarian aspect. It would be a re-enactment of the experience of all those anonymous boat people. I hope to interest a US book publisher in the project, but have no contacts. My books (all fiction) are published in Dutch in Amsterdam. If you can point me somewhere, I would be very grateful.
Best regards,
Geert van der Kolk
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