Monday, March 4, 2012. 

Well, as might be expected, the winds do not die down for us to head north to Miami.  So, we are here another day.  Today is our son James birthday, so we call and wake him up and Lisa, Jeff and I sing Happy Birthday” to him.  Later in the day, he called to say several people had stopped by and some brought birthday cakes. For dinner, Lisa, Susan (Autumn Borne), Ruth (Nite Cap II), and others organize a cook out at the tiki-hut.  Everyone brought something to put on the grill, as well as a side dish and drinks.  It was very nice.  The wind from the north made it uncomfortable shortly after dark, so the get together did not last long.

Notes on Marathon (aka Boot Key Harbor, aka Vaca Key).  Marathon has several marinas as well as a huge, well protected mooring field (260 moorings) and anchored boats as well.  This population has a “cruisers net” on VHF channel 68 every morning where new arrivals are greeted, departing boats are wished bon voyage, announcements are made the upcoming activities and events, items are announced for sale, and anyone needing help is able to ask for it.  There is even a morning trivia.  On Wednesday evenings, there is a “meet and greet” at the tiki-hut for new arrivals.  The City Marina has showers and laundry facilities, 2 large dingy docks, wifi, library, TVs, a large work room for projects, and another used for crafts or other activities.  Many people have called Marathon “camp for adults”.  There is always something going on (crafts, classes, games (Mexican train, cards, board games).  There are many restaurants nearby, the Turtle Hospital, a Dolphin Research Center, grocery stores, drug stores, a K-Mart, West Marine, Home Depot, etc. All in all a nice place to visit. 

Tuesday, March 5, we leave the mooring at 8AM.  Darrel and Ruth Richards leave with us, but shortly thereafter develop an issue with their charging system.  It seem to correct itself and we both proceed north to Rodriguez Key.  The wind has been SE all day and built to 15+ knots, but dies down at night.  We are anchored in the lee of the small key at 6pm and the night is peaceful. 25° 03.52' N  080° 26.90' W.  Mile Marker 1145.

Wednesday, March 6, we head north at 7AM towards Angel Fish Creek , where we will cross over into Biscayne Bay.  The creek is shallow and we want to traverse it on a rising tide (which begins at 9:37am.  It is 10:30 when we get to the entrance of the creek and we have no issues going through (although the depth sounders on both boats found some spots that sounded the alarm).  Once inside Biscayne Bay, we had a nice run north under sail.  Biscayne Bay is also shallow, so we had to make sure we stayed in the channels as marked.

As we approach Dinner Key in Miami, there are many sail boat races going on.  It seems the Bacardi Cup Regatta is this week.  It is neat to see some of these (relatively) small boats getting up on plane in these 20 knot winds!

We tie up at Grove Harbor Marina in Dinner Key, Mile Marker 1094. 25° 43.81' N  080° 13.96' W. Lots of expensive boats here, but not many transients (like us).  Very nice dock facilities, but there are no showers, laundry, or other items folks traveling by boat normally expect.  The electricity for our dock does not work.  Apparently, it is “out of phase” and our boat does not like it one bit.  After finally figuring out that it is the marina, not the boat, we manage to hook up to another electric post across the dock.  We have dinner at Scotty’s on the waterfront.  Burgers and Beer.  Good.

Nite Cap wound up being tied up too close to the main dock and their anchor platform got caught under the dock (cement) when the tide came in.  The platform now has a pretty good bend in it.  The dock hand who helped tie them up should have known what would happen, but, then, the captain is always ultimately responsible for his own lines (and gets to pay for the damage).  The staff at the marina was mostly not helpful with our issues and the office staff and the dock master were pretty surly.  Pretty sure we won’t go back there. 

After two days, on Friday, March 8, 2013, we move over to the Dinner Key Mooring Field.  In addition to laundry and showers, they also have a launch service, so you do not have to use your dingy all the time.  Lisa makes a nice dinner on on board and Darrell and Ruth come.  Ruth brings key lime pie ice cream.  Very interesting flavor.  It is all gone at the end of the night.

Saturday, March 9, 2013, is spent doing boat chores and projects.  Lisa and Ruth go shopping.  We met Darrell and Ruth for dinner ashore.  Jeff picked the restaurant – Bambay Dar Bar in Coconut Grove.  Very highly rated in Yelp.  There was a 20 minute wait for a table, the place is not very big.  The food was terrific.  If you arte ever in Coconut Grove, try it!

Sunday, March 10, we spend preparing to depart for Fort Lauderdale.  The window to cross to the Abacos is Tuesday, but it is not looking like a very long window.  There is a storm way up north that is throwing large seas all the way down here.  We talked to a couple today who crossed over from Bimini to Miami and they had 10+ foot seas all the way – absolutely no fun.

We had dinner aboard Nite Cap.  They have pretty much decided to forego the crossing to the Abacos for this season.  Maybe next year.  The window for the coming week has pretty much disappeared.  Jeff has a flight home on March 26^th, so we are now worried that we will not be able to get to Marsh Harbor in the Abacos in time for his flight.  We check options and find an inexpensive flight out of Fort Lauderdale on the same date.  Doesn’t look like we will make it across either.  If we have to wait another week for weather, then that would be our last option to get over before Jeff has to fly home.

Monday, March 11, 2013.  Talked to Renee and Dave on Lunar Sea.  They are friends of Dean and Sue (Autumn Borne) and are here also waiting on weather to cross to the Bahamas.  They are seriously considering strating the trip north as they are running out of time for this season and the weather continues to be unco-operative.

We have dinner aboard and are at the Coconut Grove Bookstore doing internet stuff.  Click this link for newest pictures.  http://imgur.com/a/gE85Z

Tuesday, March 12, 2013.  Today is boat chores (cleaning the bilges that are starting to stink) and checking sink drains.  Showers ashore and maybe some ice cream later.  Tomorrow, Wednesday, we plan to head over to Crandon Park Marina for fuel and water fill-ups and then on to South Beach until the week-end and the winds calm down.  At that point we will begin to make our way up to Fort Lauderdale.

Wednesday, March 13, 2013.  Enough already with the north winds and lumpy mooring area.  We headed in to Dinner Key Marina for at least a couple of nights.  A/C power on the dock to charge batteries, run refrigeration and air conditioning.  Fresh water to wash down the boat and we can walk to town without getting soaked in the dingy!  Dinner tonight with Darrell and Ruth at Atchana's East West Kitchen (in the Hotel Mutiny) - on the patio - lovely - Thai food - very good!  Gelato in the village (Coconut Grove) for dessert - mmmmmmm.

Stay tuned.