Thursday 23rd November

Miami

A very happy 9th birthday to princess Jessica, we hope you have a lovely day and lots of presents!

Happy thanksgiving to all our American friends, we are celebrating with you today and yes we are thankful for you all. The turkey dinner is just about to go in the oven, as neither of us are keen on pumpkin pie we’ve made our favourite dessert – chocolate mousse. It was the best thing being stuck in Miami for thanksgiving!
We plan on taking the boat out of the marina and down to No Name harbour tomorrow and anchoring there for a few nights.

Wednesday 22nd November

Miami

I can’t believe how cold it’s gotten, it even snowed in Orlando last night. It is a bit warmer where we are in Miami but not much! We had a day of being “off” the boat and walked into Coconut Grove where we went to the Library, Starbucks and The Cheesecake Factory. After picking up a few groceries we headed back to the boat for the rest of the evening.

Tuesday 21st November

Miami

This waiting for a weather window is getting a bit monotonous. At least I managed to do all the laundry today, it was an excuse to leave Gerry on the boat where he was “fixing” the forward toilet pump handle which had developed a leak. After taking it all apart and attempting to band aid it we decided to hunt out a marine parts store and see if we could buy a new replacement part. Luckily for us there was a Hopkins and Carter store within easy walking distance and even better – they had the part we needed in stock! Of course we didn’t limit our spending to just what we needed we had to buy a few other “essential” bits as well. I’m glad to say that the toilet is now back in working order.
One other thing requiring attention was the wind generator, Gerry thought it was making an odd noise so he took it apart and we all know what happens when you go looking for trouble. One of the 3 blades had a crack in it, a few phone calls found a spare set of blades in a local suppliers and parting with a few more dollars had them couriered to us at the marina. Another successful day of fixing stuff!

Monday 20th November

Miami

An overcast start to the day. We have tried to find an internet connection here but haven’t been successful. Gerry spoke with Bob this morning, there would be a space for us in the Marina where they are however there are no laundry or shower facilities there and we don’t see any point in going there so we are going to stay put for at least another day. Gerry found something else to fix this morning; the cockpit shower tap has a small leak so it has been taken apart, fiddled with and hopefully will not leak in future.
Once the fixing things came to an end we decided that I needed to learn how to operate the new outboard motor so we donned our life jackets and launched the dink. We then proceeded to roar around the bay, I managed to get us both soaked in a matter of minutes (well it was a bit choppy at the time) but at least I now know the workings of the new outboard. The weather forecast was for increasing winds over the next couple of days so Gerry decided that we should check back into the marina where we can do laundry, shopping and watch TV in comfort, so at just after midday we stowed all the gear away, donned the life jackets and hauled up the anchor. In increasing winds, which were not suitable for sailing, we motored down the bay to our next proposed staging point to check it out prior to heading into the marina. The staging point – no name harbour, is a hurricane safe hole. It’s an almost enclosed bay with a narrow entrance. Our charts showed the depth to be only 3feet so we approached it with great caution as we need 5.5 feet clearance and we were very glad to find the chart was wrong and we had at least 7feet under the keel at the important places. The harbour has limited facilities but will make an excellent jumping off point for our next passage – over to the Bahamas – when the weather improves. Having checked it out we headed back to Dinner Key marina and checked in for a couple of days. We walked to a local restaurant for dinner however it was closed so we ended up back on the boat cooking for ourselves. The good thing about being back here is that there is an internet connection so I’ll be able to up load this blog.

Sunday 19th November

Miami


Another slow start to the day due to the night interruption. Gerry decided that today was to be his ”fixing” minor irritating things whilst I was going to catch up with typing this blog – ready for when I have an internet connection and can upload it.
Bob and Kathy have taken off for a sail and then they are going into a marina for the night. We intend staying put for a day or 2 more, the weather window just isn’t happening as yet so we are again doing the hurry up and wait thing.
Gerry started off with the snubbers on the anchor, changing them out for a much bigger line with more stretch. After which he took the windlass foot switch cover off and sprayed WD40 on the switch to make it operate better (it was temperamental before)
Then it was on to the rigging system for lifting the dink up onto the davits, we had decided yesterday that it was quite a difficult system to use as one of the blocks had a ratchet which only operates one way. The fix was to remove the ratchet from the block which Gerry has now done – hopefully lifting the dink will be much easier now. The last “fix” was to try out a new bracing system for the dink. This is intended to hold the dink in place when we have it on the davits and are moving along in the Caribbean (we keep it on the foredeck when we are undertaking a sea passage); from what we can tell at the moment it should work just fine. Once all the “fixing” for the day was done we took the dink out for a blast around the shoreline. Taking it under the Rickenbacker Causeway was an interesting moment as there were loads of people fishing off the old causeway so we had to be careful not to get tangled up in any of their lines – I’m sure they would have been a bit miffed with us if they had “caught” our dink! It was a lovely day which translated to lots of people on the water operating all sorts of water craft, we got fed up of being rocked about by the speed freaks on sea-doos, etc. and headed back to the boat (where we were rocked by speed freaks in super cigar boats – they really move). Gerry stayed below deck to “watch the football on TV”, I actually found him studying the backs of his eyelids a bit later on. I spent the rest of the afternoon reading my book. Finally we managed a night without the noise from shore.

Saturday 18th November

Miami



After sleeping in a bit later today we decided to put the dink in the water and christen our new outboard motor. Along with Bob and Kathy we set off to explore the area to see if there was anywhere that we could dock the dink and use the facilities – we were after an internet connection and washing machine. We tried everywhere around us – yacht club, fuel dock, marina x 2 and the local restaurant to no avail – they simply didn’t cater for boats that were anchored out. As we zipped past the local restaurant, The Rusty Pelican, there was a couple getting married on the deck outside. Their backdrop, the city of Miami from the water, was lovely however I’m sure the noise from us zooming by as well as the planes going overhead would have been an annoyance. Our new outboard motor worked very well, which was a relief as we didn’t need that to give us any grief. In fact it worked so well that we even gave Bob a tow when his outboard conked out and wouldn’t start again ( he did get it going eventually).
We toured around the ex – marine park and I have to say it was a bit of a disgrace. The seating stand is still there but has been vandalized to the point that it is an eyesore. The area around the stand, where we assume the entrance used to be, has also been left to fall into disrepair – it looks like it has become the local dumping ground for trash. We were at a loss to understand why the local council hasn’t demolished the stand and cleared the debris away. The bay, where we understand water sport displays and shows were carried out, remains in good condition with a few boats anchored there. A local rowing club uses the bay to practice their sport and we spent the evening being entertained watching them race around the bay. I say rowing club as that is what their club house says however they were using an outrigger (or dragon boat) type of stroke rather than a rowing stroke so I’m not sure really what they would be classed as.
I spent most of the afternoon cooking as we had invited Bob and Kathy to eat with us. As soon as it was dark we had drinks, dinner and enjoyed the company of our friends accompanied in the background by fireworks which we are sure were set off in our honour! We discussed our plans for the next few days – ours are to remain here until we get a good weather window, whilst Sundancer are planning to try moving a bit further south. Bob and Kathy had phoned around the marinas further south and were horrified to find that most of them are already booked out until the new year and that the available ones are charging $32 per foot – I don’t imagine they will be staying in one of them.
Once we went to bed the party music from the shore cranked up again, at least it wasn’t quite so loud or quite as awful as last night and we did managed to sleep until Gerry got up at 04.30hrs and announced that we had dragged anchor. It was a quick scramble into track suits (it was quite cold out side!) and a mad rush to bring in the anchor, motor back to a suitable spot and re – anchor. This is how we know for certain that the party on shore was still going at 05.00hrs! Once we were happy that we weren’t going anywhere again we returned to bed to try and get a bit more sleep.

Friday 17th November

Miami



First thing today Bob and Kathy (Sundancer) decided to leave the marina to see if there was a place where they could anchor out until there is a break in the weather which will allow them to head off farther south into the Keys. After waving them off we decided to do a little grocery shopping at the local Fresh Market which is just a couple of blocks away from the marina. After a very easy walk there we filled just one basket, which was very difficult as I’m sure that anyone who has ever been to the Fresh Market would appreciate – it is full of all those wonderful things that you can’t find any place else. Gerry had to keep control of both the basket and me as I oh’d and ah’d my way around the shelves. I have to add that he gave in to buying a couple of their filets – which will feed us for 2 meals, they are so huge. Our one basket cost us $126 so you can see why we restricted ourselves a bit. We crammed everything into 2 backpacks and 2 carry bags and strolled back to the boat. After a couple of calls from Sundancer we decided to join them at a spot that they had found to anchor. We had a leisurely lunch then stowed everything away and prepared the boat to leave. The “check out” time was 1500hrs so we had plenty of time to gather in our lines and leave the dock. Our first stop on the way out was the fuel dock, we replaced the fuel we had used in getting to this point, topped up our extra Jerry cans and the dink fuel can and headed out into the intra coastal water way. There was a large fleet of “star class” sail boats from all over the world out on the water obviously competing in a race; we kept well clear of them – unlike Bob, who later told us that he got abused by one of them for getting in the way. The wind was just off the beam so it was perfect for putting up the sails and giving them an airing, we zipped along doing a pleasant 5-6 knots for a short while and then had to furl the sails away to go under the Rickenbacker Causeway. We watched a couple of micro light sea planes doing scenic flights around the place; I swear they could turn on a dime. At the Rickenbacker Causeway we turned immediately to starboard and followed the path taken by Sundancer, into what used to be a marine park, we anchored there, broke out the rum and watched the sun set over the city of Miami – quite a spectacular view with the high rise buildings all lit up. Just as the light faded an air ship floated past, I tried to get a photo of it against the skyline but unfortunately it was too dark and didn’t show up. We headed off to bed only to be kept awake for hours by the noise coming from what we think was a party on the shore – it was the worst monotonous droning sound imaginable and very loud, it stopped at about 04.30hrs and we finally got to sleep.

Thursday 16th November

Dinner Key, Miami

25 43.533 N
80 13.868 W

Here we sit in the marina at Miami doing the “hurry up and wait” thing again. The weather has turned quite nasty and isn’t expected to improve for the next few days. We elected to stay in the marina for at least today and then review our options tomorrow – once we have checked the forecast again. Our friends on Sundancer also stayed here today as the rain began early this afternoon and they didn’t want to leave when in bad weather either. So what does one do when it rains and you are stuck in the marina? Well Gerry was very glad that I noticed our auto pilot had leaked a small amount of hydraulic fluid (only a tablespoonful) during our passage to Miami and spent all day trying to figure out why it leaked. This was the second time that this has happened and just like the first time there seems to be no reason and it wasn’t possible to repeat the leak here in the dock. Frustrated by this he then spent a while looking at diagrams and web sites with the idea of replacing the cylinder, this proved to be more frustrating as he was unable to find an exact replacement without going directly to the manufacturer and as he’s not entirely convinced that a new cylinder will solve the problem he has temporarily given up worrying about it………watch this space!
Me? I spent all day trying different ways to write this blog, so that I can keep it current when we have no internet access. I had some success – I can write the text in word and then import it to the blog, as yet I haven’t found a way to import the photos to it unless I am actually online at the time. I guess there will be a few blogs that have no pictures (unless some computer nerd out there can tell me how to do it). Yes, it took me almost all day to sort that one out! I did take some time out to fiddle about with some of our photos using Adobe photo shop, not that I kept the “enhanced” pictures – it was just to amuse me but I now know what special effects I can use to make me look good! I also sent off a few emails and updated my email address book.
Exciting as it is we are now watching the T.V. (and drinking rummy things – a trip to the bottle shop is going to be needed if we are to survive this hurry up and wait stuff).
Let’s see what tomorrow brings.