Sunny Fun Florida

November-December 2021

Today seemed like the perfect day to get caught up on our blog as it was intermittently raining, but truly I could not complain about the weather. Since we arrived in Florida, especially southern FL, it had been in the 80s during the day and the 60s at night. It was pleasant to be out and about in town, and still cool enough to sleep at night without air conditioning. Perfect!

West Palm Beach

We spent several days in West Palm exploring the town, seeing old cruiser friends, and meeting new ones. Robert from SV Journey had beat us to West Palm, so we anchored next to him. As he had lived here for many years, he still had lots of friends in town. One of these friends lent him a car for the day. So he offered to take us into town to explore and then drop off Torie and Allan at the airport to fly home.

Since we were anchored in Lake Worth rather than moored at a marina, we dinghied over to the Palm Beach Sailing Club, not to be confused with the snooty Fishing Club on the east side of Lake Worth (we were told they would disconnect your fuel line if you use their dock without permission—very unsafe)!

We scrambled into the car after stowing Allan’s and Torie’s luggage and headed downtown. Our first stop was the CVS for a printer cartridge. It was crazy how small the cruising community was at times. When we entered the store, there was Cindy, a friend we had met in Cape Charles. She had hitched a ride with a cruiser who needed some crew.

As we strolled around the waterfront, we stumbled upon a cute sand sculpture exhibit at Flagler Park.

West Palm Beach was a picturesque waterfront town full of mega yachts and, from what I could tell, a lot of wealthy people. Lake worth was lined with mansions and very high-end hotels. I felt fortunate to have a floating home rather than trying to find somewhere reasonable to stay.

We had a wonderful lunch on the outdoor patio of E.R. Bradley Saloon. They had delectable food and even better pina colados. You could not beat the ambiance either!

After lunch we said goodbye to Allan and Torie at the airport. It was great having the extra crew on our way down and, even better, having friends with us over the Thanksgiving holidays.

From the airport, Robert navigated to Publix where we stocked up on provisions. Since we had a car, I bought more than usual. However, I forgot we had to put it all in the dinghy to get it back to the boat! I don’t know how we did it, but we made it in one trip—all the groceries, John, Ben and me!

Saturday morning, we went over to visit with some cruisers, Bill and Kelly, on another Catana, SV Minerva. They were from Connecticut. We only meant to visit for a short time, but 3 hours later, we said our goodbyes. They planned to stay in West Palm for a while as they could work from the boat on anchor with wifi.

Since the weather was beautiful, we decided to dinghy over and check out Peanut Island. As we motored around the island, we found an anchorage full of unusual boats.

After seeing these boats, I could more readily understand why people who owned million dollar waterfront homes did not want liveaboards disrupting the view. I couldn’t really understand the issue before I came upon these liveaboards. I thought a sailboat on the bay in front of your house would be picturesque, but no–Wow!

Peanut Island was a very popular destination for the locals on the weekend. The beaches were full of motorboats and swimmers enjoying the lovely day. There was a boardwalk where you could walk through the mangroves and observe the fish swimming close to shore.

We spent Sunday getting the boat ready for our next passage to Miami. Ben and John dinghied into town to drop off the trash and buy some ice. Of course, we completed engine checks and made sure the dinghy was well secured on the davits, because we needed to leave early in the morning as it would be a 10 hour sail.

Monday morning about 7:00 we made our way out of the calm Lake Worth inlet, after giving way to a cruise ship—big boat rule!

The Lake Worth inlet was not always calm. The folks from SV Minerva said when they arrived, the wind was blowing over 20 knots and they had 10-foot waves as they entered the Lake Worth inlet. I think I would have been shaking in my boots!

Ben, so far, had planned every inlet perfectly from Chesapeake to Florida. Only St. Augustine had been a little dicey, but we at least had the tide and current in our favor.

However, the weather and sunrise were beautiful as we said goodbye to West Palm Beach, and entered the Atlantic again.

Miami

We raised the main once we cleared the jetties expecting to have a nice sail to Miami. We needed to make about 6 knots an hour to assure we entered Government Cut at daylight with the incoming tide. We had hoped that we could sail most of the way but ended up motor sailing with one engine as the wind was lighter than expected. We also had to remain within a couple of miles from shore to stay out of the Gulf Stream as it moved north. Once or twice we stuck our nose a little too far to the east, but knew immediately to head back west when large waves began smacking our boat. Otherwise, the sea state was only 1-2 feet and the wind was around 10-15 knots. Luckily with our daggers lowered, we could sail at 40 degrees from the apparent wind.

Thus, the sail was pleasant, the weather was perfect, and we made good time. We saw dolphins but they did not stick around for long. Everyone got a nap and we entered a calm Government Cut at 1600. Robert had told us about a nice anchorage on the back side of Fisher Island. It was in a quiet cove across from the city lights of Miami. It was nice to relax and just eat left over roast.

Tuesday morning, we sailed passed downtown Miami.

To enter Biscayne Bay, we had to sail directly under the Rickenbacker Causeway. I know we had a few inches between us and the top of the bridge, but boy did it seemed closer from where I stood!

We made a fuel stop at Crandon Park Marina on the East side of Biscayne Bay before traversing across the bay over to Dinner Key Marina. They did not have a mooring ball available when we arrived. So we anchored by the mooring field to see if one opened up later in the day. Ben and John had barely returned from the office before we were notified that a ball was now available.

This would be our home for next few weeks as we started round 2 of generator repairs. I have to say it was quite frustrating that the generator worked no better today than it did on June 9. It had been almost 6 months with no resolution. We hoped that the Miami Cummins service center was better than the one at Chesapeake!

Tuesday night we decided not to cook and go into town for dinner. We ate at a wonderful Italian restaurant, where we sat outside and devoured the homemade pasta. I would recommend, Sapore di Mare to anyone wanting some authentic Italian food.

After John left on Wednesday morning, we spent the afternoon getting caught up on laundry. Luckily the Dinner Key Marina had a convenient laundry mat.

As Thursday was a gorgeous sunny day, we decided that it was about time to get out our scooters and put them together.

We could lock them up at the marina and not have to transport them back and forth in the dinghy every day.

Coconut Grove was a cute part of Miami and easily explored by scooter.

Each Saturday on Grand Street there was an organic, vegan farmers’ market. It was a little overwhelming with vendor after vendor, all excited about selling you their unique foods or products. It also was a little pricey. So after buying some fruit, broccolini and fresh bread, I had to call it quits. It was fun though talking with the vendors.

Now it was time to find a place to eat lunch. There were basically restaurants on every corner, but being a Saturday, most of them were very busy. We ended up at a picnic table outside Barracuda Bar and Grill eating a delicious fish sandwich.

Then Ben took our produce back to the boat and returned with a compressor to air up the scooter tires. We left there to check out a park on the waterfront, but as we entered the park Ben realized he didn’t have his phone. He had left it on the picnic table at the marina when he filled up the tires. Yikes!

We both rode the scooters back as fast as we could and did not believe our luck when he found his phone right where he had left it. At this point, we decided to forgo the park and buy some steaks for dinner at the Fresh Market.

Ben grilled the steaks while I steamed squash and broccolini and heated up the fresh garlic herb focaccia bread we had bought at the market. For dessert we had fresh berries with coconut cream. Wow, now that was a scrumptious dinner.

One thing I missed while sailing was fresh vegetables. My fridge would only hold so much. Thus, after the first few days of a grocery run, fresh vegetables became scarce! I would love having a Fresh Market only a short scooter ride away.

We enjoyed scootering so much yesterday, we decided to check out the park we had missed. It was a little oasis in the middle of the town. There were several parks in the city with outdoor workout equipment and this was one of them. In Coconut Grove there were people walking and bicycling everywhere. The town also was extremely dog friendly as many folks seemed to take their dogs with them to eat at sidewalk cafes and while running errands.

We ate lunch at Harry’s Pizza and Ben finally got to have his ice cream fix at Salt and Straw. After refreshing showers at the marina, we headed back to the boat. Since we had a late lunch, we were too full for dinner. So just ate some more fresh berries, sat outside, and watched the sunset. They never get old!