Susan and I returned to Ft. Lauderdale the first week in December. On Monday Dec 3 we took off for Miami, leaving Port Everglades in the morning in breezy conditions, with winds around 20-25 kts and gusts to 30, with squalls all around us but mostly astern.
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| "We're not getting wet. Are they?" |
We entered Fisherman's Channel around noon, passed downtown Miami picking up the ICW to go under the Rickenbacker Bridge and headed south towards No Name Harbor at the southern end of Key Biscayne.
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| Fisherman's Channel |
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| Passing the mouth of the Miami River |
One of the strangest communities you'll ever encounter is "Stiltsville," just south of Miami.
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Stiltsville
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These 7 houses on stilts were built in the 1930's and 40's as private clubs, and were frequented by "well connected Miamians who came to drink, relax and kick back." Today they are preserved by the Stiltsville Trust and the Parks Service.
Passing around the southwest side of Key Biscayne leads to No Name Harbor. You can anchor inside or outside the harbor. We chose to anchor outside, and dinghy in.
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| No Name Harbor |
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| Florida Lighthouse |
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| Sunset off No Name Harbor |
Next day, we continued south through the dredged cut through Featherbed Bank, then turned east to our next stop, Elliott Key. Unfortunately, since hurricane Sandy, the harbor has been closed. So we anchored a half-mile north, off Coon Point.
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| All alone anchored off Elliott Key |
Exploring Elliott Key
Elliott Key helped us learn about anchoring in shallow water with a draft of 6 1/2 feet. We figured our keel was pretty close to the sandy bottom that night, so we decided to play it safe and leave the anchorage before low tide which was at 0830. At 0700 we weighed anchor and started slowly motoring out. It wasn't more than a minute that we buried the keel in the sand! That gave me an excuse to get out the fins, mask and snorkel and scrape barnacles off the prop, and to have a nice, long breakfast. At 1050 we noticed the boat had started to free itself on the rising tide, so once again we began the slow motor to deeper water. Later that week we learned that, unbenounced to us, our margin of error for shallow water as measured by the depth sounder had changed the month before, when the boat's electronics were tuned. Instead of reading depth from the transducer to the bottom, it now reads from the boat's waterline! In essence the depth tolerance we got used to since May had changed! Better now than on Little Bahama Bank!
Next stop was Dinner Key and Coconut Grove. The city run mooring field is well run and convenient, and Coconut Grove is a fun place to explore and dine in.
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| Dinner Key mooring field |
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Miami night skyline
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| Caution: Shallow water! |
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Crew team out on the bay
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On Thursday we decided to get back to Ft. Lauderdale ahead of potential weather and finish the tour of downtown Miami and South Beach using the other mode of transportation--the rental car! Before leaving we cleaned and polished Pratique and flew back to CT for yet another prolonged work stint!
more later!
