Biscayne Bay, Homestead, Hollywood, Boynton Beach and West Palm - Loop Trip Days 87 - 94

Tuesday morning came with the usual sunshine and wind. It seems like everyday winds are 16-20 mph mostly from the east (that part isn’t too bad) and don’t let up. At least we’re on the ICW (inside) side of the Keys. The ocean side reports have shown 4-6 foot seas for the last week and our side is moderate chop which is around a foot. The trip to Homestead was going to be about 3 hours so we got moving. This last section leaving the Keys has some really unusual features. The channel cuts through islands, thickets of mangrove and narrow areas where the water goes forever, but is only a foot deep just feet away from our track. One of these areas separates Card Sound from the Biscayne Bay marking the beginning of the east coast part of the trip. Irma wiped out the marina at Dinner Key in Coconut Grove where I wanted to go requiring some re-planning. A friend/former client, Jeremy, suggested Black Point in Homestead and I was able to get in here. Be sure to look at the photos in the track link - both in and out. The approach into here was very different from anything I’ve ever seen! Both beautiful and requiring close attention at the same time. We squeezed the boat into the smallest slip ever - all of 4.5” to spare on each side! So it’s wash off the salt coating, chill a bit and then to dinner at the restaurant right here. Track and photos - www.ramblr.com/web/mymap/trip/273527/959096

Last sunset in Key Largo

Another view of the channel into Black Point

Very tight fit!!

Wednesday was Valentines Day so I thought we should just stay at Black Point and relax. The winds are finally starting to calm down so that is making Thursday look like a really good day to head to Miami. The marina restaurant had a special menu and entertainment for the evening so our plan was to get there about 4 and beat the crowd, which proved to be a good idea. We had salads and stone crab claws. Those things are something else to get apart, but so good to eat!

Black Point at sunset

Would you believe they had two of these at Black Point

The next morning was just as hoped, sunny, warm and very light winds. This is perfect for the last leg up the Biscayne Bay to Miami. The boat show opens today so we’re thinking that it could get a little crazy going through the downtown area. To make us feel sure that we’re right, just as we get to the Rickenbacker Bridge, four smaller boats and a tour boat all come out of the show area! Three of them went under the bridge in the opposite direction as I’m trying to adjust speed for everything to clear. One small boat headed in another direction and the tour boat turned north to give me a large target to follow. After that, the rest of trip up to Hollywood had only light traffic. We hit the Venetian bridge right on the opening schedule and zipped through, but couldn’t time the Broad Causeway bridge as well and had about a 20 minute wait. The boats, houses and condo towers along the way are something to see. The huge yachts found in South Florida make you feel pretty small - just incredible!! Suntex marina where we stayed for the next few days is tucked into the middle of a really nice, gated, residential area and totally invisible from the ICW. We got settled in and went to Le Tub for dinner. This is a unique restaurant with quite a history - check it out www.theletub.com. Track and photos - www.ramblr.com/web/mymap/trip/273527/959881

Boat show water taxi

Guess you will recognize this

A few of the little boats in Miami

Venetian Causeway Bridge

This wading pool is right beside the main channel

Le Tub accessories

A few more

Sunset across Hollywood Bay

Friday was a day that we’ve been waiting over six months to get here. The forward windows in our boat salon are covered with fixed curtains blocking out all the light. I had ordered blinds to be made for them from a company here in Ft Lauderdale. Since they are custom fit, we had to wait until we got here for the installation to be done. The two blinds took three hours to complete, but what a great improvement the change made. Jeremy and his girlfriend came by later to pick us up for dinner. We had a great time visiting and catching up on everything that’s happened since we were last together a year ago.

Forward blinds are the new ones

Our last day here was grocery shopping day. Our last trip was done by bicycle. The store today was too far to do that and we needed more than could fit in our baskets so this became an Uber ride. Our driver who brought us back not only drove but also helped load and unload all our goodies. Uber is a real lifesaver for traveling the way we are. It so much easier than trying to get a taxi and the cars are much nicer!

Suntex Marina at Hollywood

We left early for the fairly long trip up to Boynton Beach. One reason for starting early is to be ahead of some of the weekend traffic. It's turned into what we would call summer weather so people are out on the water. Of course, that also means manatee season and slow speed traveling. Most of the trip had to be made at idle or minimum wake so I don't think we ever got over about 9 mph. Scenery along this section is pretty amazing. I have no idea where all of the wealth comes from to be able to purchase the homes and yachts we saw. Just incredible! So along we went, enjoying the day while navigating in the traffic and counting bridges. We had to go under 19 bridges and 10 of those had to be opened for us to get by. Only one of the ten opened "on demand" which basically means when you ask if nothing else is going on. All of the others had a specific schedule so you had to be there at the right time or wait until the next published time. We finally reached our destination about 2 PM only to find our slip was not open. Fortunately, they got boats moved so we were able to get in and secured. The City Marina is right next to Two George's Waterfront Grille, which is a very well known location for food and entertainment. The place has been here for 50 years and is still a popular place! We went there to get some food and heard from Fred and Carol, friends from Maryland, who were in the area. They joined us and we visited a bit before they had to get back to Stuart. Fun times!  Track and photos - www.ramblr.com/web/mymap/trip/273527/963881

Le Tub from the ICW

Michael, Alex and I came to a conference here about ten years ago

Us with Freddy

Monday we went to a local cafe for breakfast. It was close so we just walked. The little place was nice and food seemed fine, but Regina has not been feeling well ever since we got back. One sad thing we saw along our walk was at the rail crossing. This was the site of one of the Brightline train accidents. A couple of the trains passed while we were there and it was obvious that these are not like the ones you've seen your whole life. The bells ring, arms come down and not long afterward the 70 mph train zooms past. People are apparently trying to beat them like an old freight train and there's no time for that to work out. Very sad, but sure looks like cases of extremely bad judgement.

Our spot in Boynton

Really cool tree on our walk to breakfast

Tuesday I finally got my crown glued back on that came off the night we were anchored at Little Shark River. It was so nice to get my tooth back so I could chew normally again! My dentist, Casey, back in Marietta tracked down a guy through his buddy network to get me in. I can't thank him enough for all his help, but I have to tell him that Axel has massaging dental chairs which are really nice! Just sayin'! I spent the rest of the day working on reservations as we move on north. The flexibility theory continues to be a part of the trip, but hopefully we are getting more into a time of year and areas where I can look further ahead and get things set up.

Sunset over the Boynton bridge

With the dentist thing done, we can now move on to West Palm.  Today's trip is only about 15 miles so this will be fairly short by comparison.  Before leaving, I took time to top off the fuel tanks since we were only about 100 feet from the pumps.  Then off to the north toward West Palm Beach.  There are only four bridges between here and the destination with only one that must be opened to get past.  I hope that this is the beginning of a trend of higher bridges.  One wasn't bad, but we had to slow down and then wait for the scheduled which added about half an hour to the trip.  We got into the slip at about 12:45 and went to check in.  My friend, Bobby, suggested this location as he had been here several times and I must say this is probably the nicest marina we have ever visited!  Everything is first class and professional from the first contact to the person who met us on the dock.  The office was beautiful with a full deli and gift shop!  They presented us a gift tote bag that included bottles of water and two ball caps!  After washing off the boat and cleaning up, we went into town for dinner at a burger saloon called Grease.  It was very good and had nothing to do with grease as far as the food went.  Track and photos - www.ramblr.com/web/mymap/trip/273527/963881

Palm Harbor Marina

A very cool custom yacht at the marina

More Marathon, Islamorada and Key Largo - Loop Trip Days 79 - 86

One of my teaser photos was Fort Jefferson in the Dry Tortuga’s. This was another place that I really wanted to visit, but this winter has just been cruel. The forecast didn’t have more than two days where seas were less than 4-6 feet or worse so there’s no way we’re going out in that. Guess this means we have to do it again - just not in the winter!! Since I can’t add pictures of the fort, wiki will have to fill you in - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Jefferson_(Florida)

Fort Jefferson - Dry Tortuga's

Marathon has quite a few locations to visit and learn about Keys history. Our first venture was to Pigeon Key. I noticed an island under the old Seven Mile Bridge when we were driving to Key West. There were a bunch of buildings there and a ramp down from the old roadway. After a bit of Googling, I found that it was a historical site from the early 1900’s that housed the workers constructing the bridge. We took a small boat out to do the tour and visit the museum. It was amazing to learn about out Henry Flagler literally developed the east coast of Florida from Jacksonville to Key West. All of the old bridges were built for his railroad which was extended from Biscayne Bay to Key West at a cost of $60-80M. Completed in 1912, it operated until the Labor Day Hurricane of 1935 destroyed a portion of it shutting down the railroad. The State of Florida later bought the remaining bridges and ROW for $640,000 to convert them for auto traffic. Henry probably rolled in his grave that day!

Our island ferry

Here we go

The original bridge did not include the top deck, that was added to make it a roadway.

The museum

This would have been a barracks or dining hall buildin

For our last day in Marathon, we did our Publix run to stock up on supplies and then went to the Dolphin Research Center. This place has been around for over 35 years and had the original Flipper as part of the exhibit. Now there are grandchildren of Flipper who are still there. The center also has four sea lions and quite a few very loud, colorful parrots. It was really cool to see how the staff interacts and communicates with the animals. These huge mammals can weigh 600 pounds and jump 15 feet out of the water! One of the wildest facts about dolphin is that the outer surface of their skin completely regenerates every two days!! From there, based on recommendations of my friend and former client, Wayne and his wife Karen, we went to the S. S. Wreck & Galley Grill for appetizers followed by the Island Fish Company for dinner. Both very fun places with great food. When dinner was done, it was time to return our rental car and get a taxi back to the marina.

Had to come all the way to the Keys to find BBQ Fritos!!

These guys are all over the place down here

Sea Lions playing

This is The Wreck

The sign says it all

Marathon Marina

So our stay here has come to an end. The forecast called for maybe 2 foot seas leaving the marina to the point where we would pass under Seven Mile Bridge, but this was probably off by a foot and the first part of the trip was a little rough. After getting back to the Florida Bay/Gulf side, the waves calmed down to the light chop as forecast and, except for the usual sea of crab pots, we had a pleasant ride to an anchorage at Islamorada. We stopped in the bay behind the Lorelei Restaurant & Cabana Bar. This place gets rave reviews for food, daily music, beach area and sunset views. We took our dingy in from the boat - our first time using it since last summer. The place was packed and the band was playing by the time we got there. Everything was just as good as advertised. After dinner, we did our first dingy ride in the dark which turned out to be quite easy. We’re spending two days here just to chill a bit and work the timing to get past the Miami Boat Show. That’s a huge event and marinas are full especially since there are still several in the area that have not reopened since Irma. Got to soak up as much of this warm weather as possible!! Track and photos - www.ramblr.com/web/mymap/trip/273527/956322

First dingy trip of the Loop!

Cheers!!

Look past the singer and you will see the boat in the background

Lorelei sunset

 We returned to the Lorelei for late lunch Thursday. It was another beautiful sunny day so we arrived about 3 PM to sit at one of tables in the sand. The music didn’t start until 5, but this place is crazy busy so entertainment was abundant.  We took the dingy back to the boat right after sunset so no trip in the dark tonight.

Yes - we're doing a selfie with the boat in the background

Key lime pie in a cup!  Yummo

Lorelei deck

Sunset looks like an explosion today

Friday started as a partly cloudy day with showers and a pretty good wind. The showers ended at about 10, but winds are forecast at 18 - 20 mph for the rest of the day. Our plan had been to go about 8 miles to another anchorage so we are just going to stay here before moving to a marina in Key Largo on Saturday.  So it was a dingy ride back to Lorelei for dinner and music, windy but the ride in and back was really not bad at all. The rest of the night was a lot of swinging on the anchor as the wind picked up after the sun went down.

Saturday morning arrived as a sunny, warm and still windy day. We left the anchorage at about 10:30 AM with the wind on the starboard side going out to the channel. This made the ride a little rough until we made the turn into the channel and directly into the wind. It was a relatively short trip to the marina and the spray from wind and chop was over the bow and on the windshield all the way. There were a couple of narrow channels until making the turn into the bay outside Mangrove Marina, but that was where the shallow water was waiting. I think the least under the boat was about 9 inches. The swim platform was covered with sand when we got to the fuel dock which was unlike any thing I’ve ever done before. This was a narrow, dead end approach that, once in, backing out was the only option and there were two boats sticking out of slips behind me. All I will say is I got out without hitting anything and I’d rather not do that again! After washing off several days of salt buildup, we went to Marker 88 for dinner. Cool place that has one of the few Keys beaches. Good food and great atmosphere, but a pricey place! Track and photos - www.ramblr.com/web/mymap/trip/273527/956667

Patio at Marker 88

The singer and the sunset

Sunday was a day to do chores so after watching our favorite show - CBS Sunday Morning - I first went to work on sand that was stuck in the cockpit floor coverings. After some experimenting, it was a nylon bristle brush that got it out! Adding lines the fender boards I made with my buddy Tom last summer was next. I have a feeling that we may be using those soon. Then it was laundry time. Even though we have a washer/dryer combo on-board, it takes 3 hours to do one load so a marina laundry is much quicker when available and they usually have several machines. After all this, we cooked on-board and watched the Olympics. Tomorrow we’re moving to an anchorage a bit closer to Biscayne Bay on the south side of Miami.

Monday morning started early as the goal was to get out of this shallow harbor as close to high tide as possible. It was much better than coming in and I got all the way out to the channel before finding the low area and dredging up more sand and mud. The rest of the trip was nice. The morning was sunny and wind wasn’t bad. We were only going about 15 miles to Blackwater Sound anchoring in front of Sundowners restaurant. We stopped in there for a fried olive appetizer before going next door to Jimmy Johnson’s Big Chill. You can’t turn around in Florida without hitting a happy hour and the best part is you can get dinner at great prices! So that’s just what we did! Afterward we went back to Sundowners for desert and hopped back in the dingy to return to the boat. The water looked really clear when we came in today so just for giggles I turned on the underwater lights to see if there were any fish around. Much to my surprise, fish didn’t appear but a bunch of blue crabs started swimming around in the light!! Now that was just crazy. Track and photos - www.ramblr.com/web/mymap/trip/273527/958114

Blackwater Bay looking at Key Largo

Sundowners' fish collection

Blackwater Bay

Always nice to look out and see it's still there

Time to go before dark

Tomorrow will be the trip up to Homestead and the beginning of the journey up the east coast.