The Office of Foreign Assets Control, referred to in speech as OFAC, is the branch of the U.S. Treasury Department that enforces the ban on travel to Cuba by U.S. citizens. This is done by controlling who can and cannot spend money in Cuba. As a practical matter, if you cannot spend money in Cuba, you cannot go to Cuba unless fully hosted by someone outside U.S. jurisdiction, which is unlikely. Go to this website to get a full understanding on the rules, and exceptions to them. Policy changes and enforcement trends may also be divined there.

http://www.nautica.cu/fijas1/english.htm

Self-described as “the web from the sea in the largest island of the Antilles,” this entire website is written endearingly in the same English-as-a-foreign-language. The site, though static in nature, describes Cuba’s coastal regions and provides facilities’ descriptions and contact information for 11 marinas.

http://old.cruisingworld.com/timcuba2.htm

“Most of the recent guides and articles on cruising Cuba claim to be politically neutral. But a decision to visit Cuba, especially by U.S. sailors, who fall under the jurisdiction of the U.S. embargo against Cuba, is inevitably a political and a moral one,” Tim Murphy wrote in a 1997 issue of Cruising World magazine. If anything, Murphy’s words are more true today than when he wrote them.

http://www.bluewaterweb.com

Bluewater Book of Fort Lauderdale is your number one source for charts from GeoCuba, the official hydrographic department of the Cuban government. GeoCuba has  issued a series of seven chart kits covering virtually the entire Cuban coast. They measure 15 x 22 1/2 inches and each contains from six to fifteen charts. Charts in these kits range in scale from 1:150,000 down to 1:5,000 for some harbors and cover most of the harbors likely to be of interest to foreign mariners. The store’s website has featured some good articles about Cuba cruising, which can be found in the site’s newsletter  archives. Unfortunately, Cuba coverage has dropped off over the past couple years.

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