Sampson Boat Covideo
Sailing into Cuba with half a ton of humanitarian supplies
June 15, 2026 · 19 min · 335K views · Santiago de Cuba, Cuba
Sailboat Tally Ho docked in Cuban harbor, crew smiling
What this video covers
Leo Goolden sails Tally Ho into Santiago de Cuba carrying roughly half a ton of humanitarian supplies — over $7,000 worth of food and medical goods loaded in Panama — and successfully offloads them to Caritas Cuba, the Catholic Church's independent aid organization.▶ 9:04 Customs and immigration at Santiago de Cuba take a couple of hours; officials inspect the boat, the supplies, and all communications equipment including drones, but raise no objections.▶ 2:13 Securing permission to hand the goods to an independent charity rather than a government body requires an additional day of negotiations with port officials.▶ 2:41 The supplies — dried beans, chickpeas, canned tuna, canned chicken, toothbrushes, toothpaste, baby wipes, tampons, sanitary pads, paracetamol, cough syrup, bandages, powdered milk, and children's multivitamins — are loaded into two van runs under customs supervision.▶ 12:40 The operation is coordinated with US-based charity Give to Cuba and Australian tour operator Cuban Adventure.▶ 9:57 Leo notes that US guidelines explicitly permit delivering aid to the Cuban people, and that routing through Santiago rather than Havana reaches communities most aid never reaches.▶ 11:21 On the ground, locals describe wages of $6–$20 per month, food prices comparable to the US or Europe, black-market gasoline at roughly $20 per liter, and electricity available only one to two hours daily.▶ 17:30
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