| Leaving Key West, we sailed northeast to Miami with brief overnight stops in Marathon,
Rodriguez and Biscayne Keys. It's summer, of course, so it rains every day at about 3:30 p.m.. A boat that we met in Panama called us on
the VHF radio and told us about Dinner Key anchorage in Coconut Grove, so we headed in that direction. The depth sounder read 0 to 1 foot
most of the time while in this area, and we did go aground as we made a wrong turn to get into the anchorage area. Luckily we we able to
back down and get free easily. After setting the anchor and cleaning up, we went into town to check it out. Coconut Grove is a little like
Lido Village in Newport Beach, but much larger. There is a free shuttle bus that will take you all over town, so we rode it for a while to
get an idea of what was available. Lots of expensive shops, high-rise condos and restaurants line each street in the downtown area, while the outlying area
is very low-middle class. Lunch will cost you 30 to 40 dollars, plus tip. Slips for your boat here are higher than So. Cal. prices even in the off season.
Since the anchorage in Coconut Grove was exposed to weather and crowded with abandoned or "derelict" boats, we only stayed 4 days before heading up to Fort
Lauderdale. We took the Intercoastal Waterway (ICW) up to Lauderdale, which many people told us not to do unless the weather was bad. Well, it was raining hard when we weighed anchor, and we enjoyed the ICW despite the bridges. There were several bridges that are too low to pass under, so you call the bridgetender and tell him/her to raise it. We were also warned that there would be heavy traffic because it was a Sunday (also Fathers' Day), but it was no worse than a busy summer weekend day in Newport. The ICW from Miami to Fort Lauderdale is crammed with high rise condos and luxury homes. If you have seen Newport Harbor, you know what luxury homes look like, right? Those are shacks compared to some of these villas. Ostentatious wealth abounds. And many are unoccupied because they are only used during the winter months. And there are hundreds of these estates, many have multimillion dollar yachts tied to their docks. Ft. Lauderedale is like Newport, but 10 times bigger. One hundred foot yachts are common. We stopped listening to the VHF radio chanel 16 because it is so busy. Radio checks, stranded vessels, securite calls, Coast Guard calls and other traffic are constant and sometimes amusing, but after a while become bothersome. Getting repairs/services in Lauderdale was frustrating. Nothing was done right, and everything was way expensive. Incompetence rules here. A company called Inflatable Experts is to be avoided. Just before leaving Lauderdale, a friend asked me and Doug on Limerence to help put his boat on a freighter bound for Vancouver, B.C.. This was a very interesting experience. The freighter sinks down, opens its stern and lets the boats motor right in. There were about thirty boats on this freighter. Time to head north! |