Catching up from Key Largo.

What a difference a day makes!  We awoke on Friday morning in Boca Chita to some very Tired looking coconut and palm trees.  They blew, and blew, and blew for 36 hours straight.  We could hear a pin drop.  The universe was still, finally.  The Catamaran (Dues Paid) headed off to stage for their crossing to the Bahamas at about 8:30.  They hosted two evenings for the 3 boats tied up alongside the dock, giving us some pleasant company and diversion while riding out the storm.  Another pleasant storm diversion was in the form of a 22 foot "yacht" with 4 friends from cradle to their 28 years aboard.    Ready to have fun in a wholesome, 28 year old male sort of way, weather be damned.  Nice kids, good humor!

We left Boca Chita about an hour after the Cat, headed "on the inside" to see the Keys rather than just their outline.  We passed through open sounds, with skinny water off the channel, but no worries.  We meandered through a few mangrove 'cuts' feeling more like the Tunnel of Love than a major waterway.     We passed some "classic" Keysian getaways (Gilbert's Resort!  He may have seen better days in his youth, just saying')  We took a peek at Pumpkin Key (a private island with no dinghy access) and continued on to our target for tonight's anchorage, Tarpon Basin.  We settled in and dropped the bikes to be greeted at the Government Dock (County Complex) by a Keysie liveaboard who provided a wealth of information on what to do, see and get in Key Largo.  Hardware store.  West Marine.  Publix.  K-Mart.  $2.00 ice!!  40 Cent wings and $1.25 beers during Happy Hour at Hobo's (where you can get the same fish sandwich for $4.25 that sells for $15.00 up the street).

Well,… we did the hardware store, Publix, K-mart and Hobo wings and beer.  Sat at the bar at Hobo's with a nice 85 year old couple from Philly (another Keysie experience).  They were eating dinner before their party this evening….gave us lots of happy vibes about sunsets and happy hours….hmmm, the Keys may be all about moving from one Happy Hour to the next.  

So, we are actually in the Keys.  The Upper Keys, but clearly the Keys.  When construction is completed on Route 1 the land area may be a beautiful place.  But I guess you can say that about anywhere on Route 1….  Key Largo (our current land mass) was originally named Rock Harbor until the 1948 Bogart/Bacall movie named "Key Largo" was such a hit.  Again, thank you US Post Office for allowing the name change and the real estate boom!

The anchorage here in Tarpon Basin is gorgeous, though.  And the moon rise, and the sunset.  And, the happy hour at Hobo's was quite nice, too!

Four boys from the Berkshires

enjoying an overnight at Boca Chita on "The Yat".

A traveling companion we met up with heading South in Biscayne Bay.

Gil Slater's famous pancakes available here.

Could have cut this guy's tow line with our mast;

 luckily the driver had the presence of mind to turn out of the way.

Tarpon Basin: as pretty as Maine, with 71 degree water, no chop, no snow…no lobster thermidor either, but who's complaining?

Boca Chita Pictures

Mark Honeywell's Lighthouse.

Our first underwater excursion.

Plenty of Reef Fish!

View to the Ragged Keys.

Miami in the middle.  Coconut Grove to the left.  Key Biscayne to the Right.

Installing that zinc.

Let's hope it stays on this time.

Support for Plan Pinardville.

View from our home.

Another sunset.

Off to Key Largo.

Coconut Grove Pictures

View from the deck at Coconut Grove Sailing Club.

Melges Racing this week!

Dinner Key - Home of Pan Am's Flying Boats.

Coconut Grove Bike Tour.

Peacocks on Residential Streets.

Flying Peacock.

Home of William Jennings Bryant.

Important coral formation.  

Why?  Not really sure.  But interesting, nevertheless.

Italian Butcher's Tree.

Endurance with Downtown Miami in the background.  

From Dinner Key Mooring Facility Mooring #125.

CGSC Dinghy Racing right into the Channel.

Rainbows...

…and Sunsets.

Who said, it couldn’t be done?!

Despite the claims of many naysayers (about half of the cruisers consulted), as well as NOAA’s outdated 1988 datum, it can be done.  And, quite easily – well mostly.

What, you ask?  Well, get a cruising sailboat with a five foot draft into Boca Chita Harbor.  It’s a small place with an outside anchorage (exposed from all sides – Biscayne Bay to the South, West and North; the Atlantic Ocean to the East), showing 7 and 8 feet of depth on the chart.  There is also a narrow looking channel that NOAA shows as 5.9 feet at mean low water.  The channel though stops at land and the harbor itself is not even seen on the chart.  But it’s there.  About an acre and a half of calm water surrounded all around with a wooden and concrete bulkhead and plenty of cleats to tie the boat.

We came in on Tuesday about an hour before low tide (in New England, moving at low tide lets you see where the rocks are).  The channel was mostly 7 feet, sometimes just over six.  The last turn though showed 5.6 but once into the harbor it was 8 to 10 feet throughout.  We tied up on the East side in front of the trawler “Liberty” just in from the West Coast of Florida (but originating out of Quebec).  The Ocean Reef Yacht Club (la-di-da) was having a picnic at the pavilion on the West side of the harbor with about 10 or 12 small boats in attendance (no doubt tenders to some monster motor yachts of the rich and famous).

A pretty little place.  The entire Key is only 32 acres.  Once owned by Mark Honeywell of Honeywell fame, he built a sixty foot lighthouse (which the Coast Guard never let him light – damn the permitting process).  Honeywell built an estate here, dug the harbor to park his 110 foot motor launch and entertained the Committee of 100 (I think they were the precursors to the Tri-Lateral Commission – definitely, the 1930s version of the Military Industrial Complex).  Unfortunately, Mrs. Honeywell was fatally injured on the property and the Honeywells never came back.  Most everything is gone now, except the refurbished, still unlit, lighthouse, thanks to Hurricane Andrew.

The reef on the Atlantic side is full of fish and the tiny key to the North (part of the Ragged Keys) is a Bird Sanctuary.  It’s all part of Biscayne National Park.  No electricity.  No water.  No services.  But, for a $20 per night docking fee, we also get a “campsite”, with grill and picnic table.  A great day spot for a family reunion or other festivities.

Though we only planned an overnight or two, a big Cold Front came through on Wednesday night as predicted.  That morning we moved the boat from the East bulkhead to the West bulkhead since we expected the storm to be its heaviest out of the Southwest.  By moving to the other side we were more likely to be pushed off the dock by the wind, rather than into it.  Good thinking!  Good move.

Though Wednesday was a quite pleasant and calm day (nicely cool due to developing clouds – replaced a missing shaft zinc when the sun broke through – and Tess spent the entire day scraping varnish off the toe rail), the rain started slowly about 4:00 PM as we headed over to the sailing catamaran “Dues Paid” for sundowners.  At about 10:00 that night, the front arrived.  Blasting at a consistent 42 to 43 knots, we saw gusts up to 52.5!  After about 45 minutes the wind abated into the high 30s and it kept up all night.  Not only were we pushed off the dock, but we were heeled about 20 degrees during the worst of it. 

The sun is up this morning and it is pleasantly warm, but it’s still blowing 20 to 25 and gusting to 30 plus.  It’s a giant step from the boat onto the land.  Big, big chop and whitecaps in Biscayne Bay.  And we are thus very glad to have tucked into this great, well protected harbor.  Friends at No Name Harbor in Key Biscayne were up all night fending off swinging and dragging boats at anchor.  Maybe we are learning the best spots in the Florida Keys, after all (though technically, we are still in Biscayne Bay and not yet in the Upper Keys).  Well, maybe on Friday.

At least its not snowing here….

Living in Coconut Grove.

We arrived at Dinner Key in Coconut Grove (the southernmost part of Miami) on Friday.  We took a mooring in the City’s mooring field among some 200 plus other boats.  Pretty well fully booked with so many boats here for the entire season and others either waiting to cross to the Bahamas or waiting for the Miami Boat Show next weekend. 

We hoped to be gone by Sunday morning, but as Tess says: We had planned on going to Boca Chita tomorrow, but had so much fun today we decided to leave the bikes ashore and spend another night. Can't say I like the roll here, but the bike tour this morning gave such a nice sense of place.

Saturday’s bike tour sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce was great.  Around 30 riders from as far away as Boca Raton.  We had the “north” Coconut Grove tour by Frank Schena, owner of Royal Palm Tours of Miami (www.royalpalmtoursofmiami.com).   It was great.  First, to ride around town without having to worry about where we were, where we were going and how we would get back (it would be nice if we could do that while sailing).  Secondly, Frank (who is originally from Haverhill, Massachusetts) is in love with this place and enthusiastic about everything he knows and can share.  From the City’s history, to its geography, flora and fauna.   The US has something like 694 species of trees – Miami and tropical Florida is home to over a third of these.  Seattle has a mere 47 or so!  Peacocks roam wild in some neighborhoods (and can really startle bikers!); the Post Office is the reason this area is named Coconut Grove; the highest elevation is 21 feet and hence is considered the high land!  The guy never paused to breathe for 3 hours careening from the history of the native population to the colors of the limestone!

Included in his overview was William Jennings Bryant home on Bricknell Ave.  A beautiful estate on the National Register, nestled among Millionaire’s Row, Frank added an abbreviated history of the Scopes Monkey Trial, reminding us that Bryant actually won the case to prohibit the teaching of evolution…and that decision was subsequently overturned.  Bryant did not live to see the appeal, he died while in transit home to Coconut Grove at the close of the trial.  MORE interesting though, William Jennings Bryant is reputed to have been the inspiration for Bert Lahr’s portrayal of the Cowardly Lion in the Wizard of Oz as the most famous bag of wind of his time!

We met Sonia Quintero from Colombia on a self-made bamboo bike.  Sorry, no picture. (she was beautiful in personality and appearance!) She rode a prototype bike for a youth industry project in Colombia.  Check it out at http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/bambooco-bikes-by-colombian-youth .  Neat stuff.

After such a pleasant “day off”, we expected to devote 2 hours to boat chores and try to do South Coconut Grove on our own.  The road to exhaustion is paved with 2 hour expectations.  Finding a leaking water hose clamp turned “bleaching our lines” into bail, assess, dry, de-mildew, do lines (BLEACH them), check all other water connections, replace filters, jerry-jug more water (because we think it’s fun), get dinghy fuel, retrieve unused bikes from shore and gulp Advil.  All in a mooring field that’s a half mile from shore and rolls like a Salisbury Park amusement ride.

Thank goodness Monday was a work day!  Office time, laundry, groceries, all well delegated and completed, topped off with sundowners with new cruising friends Dean and Susan from Autumn Borne (aka “Buffalo”).

Tomorrow,…Boca Chita.  Perhaps.

[NOTE:  In Boca Chita with poor cell reception. can talk, but can't upload pictures.  We will be out of here on Friday after Thursday's cold front moves through.  lots of pictures then.  Stay tuned.]

Last post? Somewhere in Miami?

Sailing toward Miami.

Wing on Wing on a beautiful Atlantic afternoon.

Well, after a splendid week at Sunset Lake in Miami Beach (biking, walking, dining, seeing how the beautiful people live so beautifully), we finally left about two days ago and headed back to No Name Harbor.  The purpose of the move was to avoid thinking about where we should go next.  Basically, we decided that we should go to No Name (where we know what to expect) and then use a few days to decide the question of where to go and what to see in the rest of Biscayne Bay.

Michael left for Patagonia (it would be good my friend, if you actually told us that you safely arrived!)

Mike headed to Miami.  Next stop… big trout in Argentina.

and we had a work (road) trip to Ft. Lauderdale to do chores…  We retrieved priority mail.  We bought essential “stuff”.  Did laundry.  Had pho at a nice Vietnamese restaurant (you see, Jeanne & Gil, that you do not have to travel 4,000 miles around the world for good pho – not that the 4,000 miles wasn’t worth it in its own right).  And, most importantly, bought $99 bicycles at Walmart.  24” girls “LaJolla” models.  Single speed.  Old fashioned pedal brakes.  Cute little faux wicker baskets at the front.  We rode them around Walmart and decided, “good enough”.  Very light weight, so we can lift them into and out of the dinghy as needed.  Cheap enough to not worry about the abuse they take on deck.

We had a couple great days riding the South Beach Miami boardwalk.  The things you see!!  Transvestite singers.  Barely clad marchers.  And the bathers!!!  As I have told a number of friends back home – the view is good coming and going.  Love Miami Beach!

George came down to Miami to deliver a critical Cruising Guide to the Keys that we had delivered to his house.  The men did a bit of fishing on the Julia Tuttle Causeway (I did catch a small barracuda – so I am still four for four with these fish – sorry George – Mr. Strikeout - again).  And we ended the evening with dinner at Sardinia on Purdy Street.  Like being in Sardinia!  A great Miami Beach restaurant and a real treat since there are few people willing to eat as I do.  George will.  Grilled Octopus.  Sicilian wine.  Fresh mozzarella with broccoli rabe.  (Tess had a simple pasta…no tentacles!)

No Name has been fairly empty.  Our new friends from Buffalo (Autumn Borne) and Strafford, NH (Dalmatian) arrived the following day. Dalmatian is owned by Tom and MaryLou Stanho, of Strafford OM Fame.  MaryLou’s son Brandon worked OM day camps back in the day.  He’s now teaching in Baltimore!  Small, small world!

We had great excitement in meeting Charlie and Melanie’s grandson and family for the first time, having missed them on our last trip out to the Bahamas.  Katie and TiAre and Dio arrived on Wednesday afternoon for a few hours at the beach, a bit of time aboard (with Dio climbing over everything and taking possession of the boat as any almost four year old would – he even drove the dinghy back to shore by himself – sort of) and ending the day with a great dinner at the Boater’s Grill.  We hope to see them and all the Florida relations again when we go to Dinner Key,  Coconut Grove (which is close to Katie’s Miami neighborhood) and down further into the Keys.

In short, we are another great relocation.  Life goes on.  Work.  Play.  Sun and sand.  Do we miss the 14” of snow that fell on Goffstown yesterday?  No.  We have seen the pictures. 

Craig.  With Miami in sight.

Without his bottom paint work we would not have gotten this far.