Good News for Cruisers: Top Expert Declares Cuba Hurricane-Free – Loose Cannon
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Good News for Cruisers: Top Expert Declares Cuba Hurricane-Free
Idiocy? Or Could There Be a Grain of Truth in the Latest Presidential Poop Sandwich?
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“I think Cuba, in its own way, tourism and everything else, it’s a beautiful island, great weather. They’re not in a hurricane zone, which is nice for a change, you know? They won’t be asking us for money for hurricanes every week. I do believe I’ll have the honor of taking Cuba.” —President Donald Trump, March 16, 2026
Introduction: Yes, the hapless guy with the hurricane Sharpie says Cuba—one of the most hurricane-hit places on earth—is not in a hurricane zone. This man also happens to live in Florida and yet is somehow unaware that many hurricanes that hit his state got there by crossing the Florida Straits from Cuba.
Havana, at the center of this historical NOAA track map below, is like ground zero for cyclonic mayhem.
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Yet, having said that, we owe our leaders the benefit of a doubt. Maybe the Commander-in-Chief was channeling a Loose Cannon story written a couple years ago that described a section of Cuba’s North Coast as having been historically free from direct hits, while blessed with several sheltered bays. Enjoy.
The Hurricane-Hole Row That’s a No-Go
Now would be a good time to talk about how government stupidity on both sides of the Florida Straits is keeping us away from some historically proven hurricane holes, which happen to be in Cuba.
Most cruisers have heard of Luperon Bay in the Dominican Republic. Geography has made Luperon a great hurricane hole for several reasons—some obvious and some not.
A narrow entrance opens into two basins, both of which are surrounded by hills and have deep sticky muck for holding. But it has a climatological advantage as well. The best shelter in the world isn’t much good if the location itself is a hurricane magnet. The opposite is demonstrably true in the case of Luperon, which has not had a direct hit since hurricane tracking began in 1851.
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Luperon: Irma at Her Worst, 45-Knots
Luperon’s cruisers fretted at the approach of Irma and Maria in 2017, but the eye of each came no closer than 65 miles as they passed to the north—as usual.
Cruiser weather consultant Chris Parker noted that being on the left-hand quadrant of a hurricane is fortuitous in its own right,¹that being the orientation of Luperon vis-a-vis Irma and Maria. Then he explained the role of topography:
No location in the western North Atlantic is completely safe from hurricanes, but if we were looking for a relatively safe spot, it would lie on the north coast of a large, mountainous landmass. Almost all hurricanes move in a general westerly direction during most of their time in the tropics. Later they turn north, then northeast or east-northeast. There are exceptions, but this is the usual pattern.
If a west-moving hurricane passes along or just north of the north coast of our large mountainous landmass, then harbors along the north coast will experience the less-strong south side (left-front-quadrant) of the hurricane.
If a west-moving hurricane passes over our large mountainous landmass, dry air and tall mountains disrupt the hurricane’s structure causing rapid weakening of the entire system. If a west-moving hurricane passes south of our large mountainous landmass, then it is so far from the north coast that conditions on the north coast are mild…
In order for a west-or northwest-moving hurricane to affect Luperon, it would pass over 100-200 miles of the mountainous Dominican Republic, including several 10,000-foot-plus peaks located south of Luperon. This would severely weaken the hurricane, minimizing damage in Luperon.
In his analysis, Parker also mentioned Puerto Vita in Cuba, which happens to be the easternmost port of entry on that country’s North Coast—same phenomenon. What he didn’t say is that—unlike the D.R.’s one-of-a-kind Luperon—Vita is just one of seven pocket bays on a 100-mile stretch of coast fronting on the Old Bahama Channel.
From West to East, they are Nuevitas Bay, Puerto Manati, Puerto Padre, Puerto Vita, Naranjo, Banes Bay and Nipe Bay. And these are just the bodies of water with marked entrance channels.
All Hurricane Tracks Since 1851
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Off Limits
But even during Obama’s second term—when we were allowed to take our boats to Cuba—we wouldn’t have been welcome at any of the places mentioned here except Puerto Vita, which is a port of entry and has a marina operated by a company that is a subsidiary of the Cuban military.
In fact, unless you were seeking refuge from a storm or experiencing a medical or mechanical emergency, there’s a high likelihood that a foreign boat arriving at the other six bays would be told to leave immediately or first thing the next morning.
No point going through all the trouble of maintaining a police state, if you’re going to let folks wander around wherever they please.
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There’s not a whole lot in any of these places for the cruising crowd anyway, except maybe Puerto Padre. I have not been there, but descriptions make it seem like a nice place.
Ports like Nuevitas and Manati feature crumbling commercial facilities. Some like Vita are bordered by thick mangroves. Naranjo is a base for excursion boats serving guests at a nearby resort. Nipe, a huge bay, is surrounded mostly by forest and pasture, the view dominated by a power plant at the small bayside village of Felton.
Nope, Vita aside, nobody wants us in the Cuban hurricane holes—not at the moment. But the potential…ahh, the potential.
Bay Charts, East to West, from Varied Sources (Just for Fun)
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LOOSE CANNON covers hard news, technical issues and nautical history. Every so often he tries to be funny. Subscribe for free to support the work. If you’ve been reading for a while—and you like it—consider upgrading to paid.
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“Prudent mariners know the right-front-quadrant (relative to its forward motion) of a hurricane is typically the most dangerous part. In the right-front-quadrant, not only do winds blow toward the path of the hurricane, but strength of wind increases by the forward speed of the hurricane, and we typically find about 90 percent of tornadoes and waterspouts and most destructive microbursts in this quadrant.
“Conversely, left-quadrant (relative to its forward motion) of a hurricane is its “navigable semicircle”. In the left-quadrant, wind blows away from the path of the hurricane, we subtract two times its forward speed from the “max sustained wind” (usually found in the right-front-quadrant), and we typically see fewer severe weather events. Let’s illustrate the difference in wind speed due simply to storm motion.
“Let’s examine a stationary Category 2 hurricane with 90 knot sustained winds. Now put the hurricane in motion at 10 knots of forward speed. The moving hurricane will support 100 knots (Category 3) winds in its right-front-quadrant, but only 80 knots (Category 1) winds in its left-front-quadrant. In addition, although hurricane structure varies, with most west-moving hurricanes along he latitude of the Northern Caribbean, the bulk of inbound tropical moisture feeds from the south into the right-front-quadrant while air feeding into the left-front-quadrant is pulled from the north (less-moist mid-latitudes).”
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