May 19, 2004
Pregnant Dentist and Pedro The Informer

In every adventure story, the hero and/or heroine has to overcome some serious trial or obstacle to get the golden goose at the end. True? Well, it's true in fables and it's true in life, trials come when you least expect them.

The day after we got back from Santiago de Cuba we settled up with the Marina and decided to get the heck out onto open water. Note this: if you are saying you want to leave a Marina and the Harbourmaster boards you and signs your papers, you had really be ready to leave because they expect you take off within a minute. Maciek was still checking his charts as to figure out where indeed we were headed and I was rinsing off the last of the load of laundry I was doing (yes, by HAND, but at least it was fresh water) when the official was untying our line. "Wait!" I still had to say good-bye to our friends in the village and explain we wouldn't be there for dinner. I pleaded as best I could and after a five minute debate the man finally relented and let me go, warning me I could take no more than five minutes. I ran to the little shack and explained that we'd be leaving, and was cut to the quick to see the sadness of their faces. We exchanged addresses though and I tried to comfort myself with the thought that I'd be back some day.

Mr. Harbourmaster was waiting to see that I got back in time and as he inspected the little notebook I'd foolishly left open with that kind couple's address written on it, I wondered if I had gotten them into trouble. Cubans were still not really allowed to befriend tourists, just to treat them as foreigners.

When we finally got going and under sail in the bay, I had another occasion to appreciate at close hand the wisdom of yet another one of Maciek's many sayings:

"Stay under the boom!"

I don't know how many times I have heard that from the Captain, and how many times I've bristled under the implication that I wouldn't be able to duck the boom if it came swinging. The warning was fair though: once Maciek had seen his German crewman, Johannes, flattened by a crack of the boom to his head and he never forgot it. This time, I was untying the topping lift from the boom, a trivial exercise that just stopped the line from flapping against the sail, when the boom swung gently away from me... and then right back at me, hitting me smack in the mouth. Ow.

Tears and blood flowed as I spat out some tooth chips and I kept sobbing as I imagined myself, with front tooth knocked out, looking like some snaggle-toothed wench, all too like my on-board job description of "Anchor Wench". Maciek tried to comfort me but he was crying too and we must have looked a sight as we sailed out of the harbour and into open sea. The tooth didn't actually look too bad, once I got below to look in our one mirror, I had a nasty chip that took out a quarter of a front tooth, but the crack went further up behind and I was afraid the root had been hit and I would lose it altogether.

For better or worse, sailors must sail on.

The next few days were sore and trying, and as we checked into every port we would ask the officials if they had a dentist in town. At Bahia de Nuevitas, there was an English-speaking charter boat diver who offered to take us into the town of Santa Lucia where there was a dentist, but since we were directed by Guarda to anchor out in the middle of a river near the port, there was no way we'd be able to get the dinghy to shore in the current.

We sail next day to Cayo Confites under a strong wind which gets us there quickly, but we realize there is going to precious little chance a dentist would be residing on these isolated cays. We are taking the outside passage up the North coast of Cuba, and unfortunately it's all cays with little chance of getting in to the mainland. It's also so shallow and the sea so rough that we can't even get out of the boat into the dinghy to explore the beaches. Maciek spends his time trying to repair our solar panels, which don't seem to be producing enough power to recharge our battery (which runs the depth sounder and lights; thankfully our handheld GPS runs of AA batteries, take note cruisers!) and I spend my time composing short stories of no consequence, and not looking in the mirror.

After a day there, during which I manage to get out and snorkel to an uninteresting reef, we sail on to Paredon Grande, whose only interesting feature is a hideous black-and-orange checkerboard lighthouse. Again, we can't get out of the boat and I am getting frustrated. The tooth doesn't hurt much, just a bit sensitive to cold and hot but I want to get it dealt with. Our next visit turns out to be a cay with some habitation, Cayo Coco and is in fact a big tourist destination. So there's a chance there's a dentist there and we're determined not to miss it.

We radio in to the guard and he tells us some coordinates where we can anchor, but as it's marked on our chartlet that it's a "Marina" we thought we would just pull up to the dock and tell the officials about our problem. And then we discover the 2 naval gunships - of modest size, they would look like toys next to the ones we see later in the States - and a naval base. Ooops.

They come out to the shore and try and tell us to get the heck out of there but I yell some words about "doctor and emergency". Once they understand there's an unusual circumstance afoot, they become cooperative and tell us to get on the radio. They get someone from a Marina down the way who speaks English to get our info and he tells us that they will send a car down to the dock where we were to bring us to the dentist. Relief! We might be able to get some help after all. Then an ambulance pulls up 20 minutes later and my heart sinks, I can't imagine how much this is going to cost.

The naval guys let us pull the boat up and tie up at their dock, right under the nose of a gunship and a motorboat from Florida, no doubt a confiscated one from someone who made a mistake. After I show the Jefe of the compound my tooth and he shows a sympathetic face ("Pretty Girl Maimed On Grand Holiday") we climb into the ambulance and our driver takes us to.....

a tourist resort. This is not what I expect but we wait patiently and soon, sure enough, we pull up outside a room that has a red cross sign and is apparently a dentist's office. The dentist is working on someone but she says she can see me that day. She is an 8 1/2 months pregnant first time mother and we're shocked that she's still working. At any rate, she examines me professionally enough and tells me she can either put on some medicine to keep it from being sensitive, or repair it completely. I ask her how much, she says it'll be $20 for the exam and $20 for the repair. For that price, I'll let anyone - even a pregnant mother who shouldn't be working, experiment with my smile!

The work was done quickly and I was amazed at how it looked, not even a difference in colour, and it felt great! We paid and got out, after arranging to come the next day to get Maciek's cavities done as he thought even he would splurge for that price. On the way back, we bartered with Pedro our ambulance driver, for the price of the 20 minute ride and settled on $20 for the 2 days. Back at our boat, we were happy and I flash my tooth in a jaunty smile that I hadn't smiled for days.

(T)

Our smiles didn't last too long. Navy boys were very sticky about our onboard electronics, especially our laptops which they examined with great curiosity and obvious suspicion. I wanted to take my laptop to the dentist's office so he could recharge its depleted batteries and pull up some digital Cuban charts which we had unable to use for awhile now due to lack of power.

The official who searched our boat sternly forbade me to take my laptop onshore and no amount of reasoning and pleading would sway him away. Tobi, however, somehow sneaked her laptop to the ambulance undetected by either me or navy guards (she reasoned to me later that he didn't examine her bag and she wasn't told not to bring electronics on land - I wasn't sure about this theory but by then it was already too late).

Upon our return, Pedro the ambulance driver, after receiving his cash from us, went straight to the guard to inform them about the presence of the mysterious laptop in the dental office waiting room, where Tobi had happily written up some updates while I was getting my teeth blasted clean. The guard had a minor fit, demanding to know if we had any more laptops onboard and if we really took one onshore. I, oblivious to the fact that in the waiting room Tobi was polishing her literary skills, assured the guard that laptops were left on the boat the whole time. We hurriedly left the navy base and a somewhat dumbfounded and more-than-slightly annoyed chief guard behind. When later on I realized what really happened with Tobi's laptop I thought I felt a bit of a bad taste in my mouth, but surely it was my new fillings.

(M)