Month: January 2018

We’ve been anchored off Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park in Key Biscayne for the past week waiting for parts to be delivered to Ft Lauderdale. It’s been a great anchorage, for the most part quiet and a short dinghy ride to the park. Beautiful sunsets and rainbows thanks to the daily afternoon rain showers will be missed when we leave tomorrow.

We had lunch the other day at the Lighthouse Cafe in the park and shared a patio with a baby raccoon. Apparently he’s been there since he was a tiny thing and gets regular meals compliments of the staff.

Missed a picture of the huge lizard on the golf course yesterday. He must have been a good 2-3 feet long and was orange and yellow. Quite the sight and he can keep my ball if he wants it.

Then there was the first fish I’ve caught from the boat. Unfortunately it was a 6 inch sand perch and looked so pitiful I threw him back. If you look close you’ll see Isabella at the bottom of the photo hoping it was her dinner.

Traveling with a cat has it’s moments. Bahamas requires animals to have a current rabies shot “not less than 30 days prior or more than 10 months” prior to entering the country. Our layup waiting for parts meant that we missed the window on Isabella’s shot from March of last year. So she got another vaccination this week here at Key Biscayne and from Ft Lauderdale we’ll head to Fort Pierce for a few weeks and then finally head to the Bahamas. The good news is that this means Gary will get to go to the 24 Hours of Daytona (an annual pilgrimage for him) and we’ll be able to drive over to Sebring to watch friends race in the Porsche Club event. But I have to admit when we realized there would be yet another delay to us heading further south the margarita maker was fired up and we drowned our frustrations.

Something really cool we discovered here on Key Biscayne is LimeBikes. Download the application to your phone and then use it to unlock a bike and ride wherever you want. When you’re done just leave the bike anywhere, lock it and you’re done. $1 a ride. It’s good that Florida is such a flat state. 😎

It’s a beautiful evening anchored just outside of No Name Harbor in Biscayne Bay. Gary and I are sitting on the back of the boat enjoying “sundowners”. Someone on a boat just off our port side decides to treat everyone to a clarinet version of Over The Rainbow as the sun sets. And he was Kenny G good. Definitely a wonderful life.

It’s been a busy few weeks. We left Ft Lauderdale on December 20th and anchored for a couple nights in Biscayne Bay across from Miami. The skyline at night was beautiful and reminded me of Shanghai or Hong Kong. It was also finally warm enough to jump in the water. Finally!

We picked up family on the 22nd and leisurely headed to Key West. Along the way we swam and snorkled. The devastation from Irma was sobering. Big Pine Key doesn’t have trees any more, just sticks. Lots of buildings are boarded up and there are signs of cleanup still underway everywhere. Key West seems to have the least amount of damage and things are fairly normal. The cruise ships still come in and there are people everywhere.

 

Key West is a unique place and if you’ve never been there I highly recommend it. The people are friendly, the amenities plentiful and entertainment is 24/7. I mean where else can you find a live pirate dropped from a sailing mast at midnight NYE and a few streets over a drag queen descend in a huge red evening pump? No not wearing it, sitting inside the shoe.  We were told the crowds were not as big as in years past attributed to the aftermath of Irma but it was still impressive.

A 9 foot manatee kept visiting us at the marina dock where we were tied up. Gary was standing on the swim plarform one day when the manatee decided to swim out from under our boat. Let’s just say Gary was a wee bit surprised and leave it at that.

Several friends flew into Key West to visit for NYE. Unfortunately they brought the cold with them and after two weeks of glorious warm weather it got downright chilly. This morning it was 57 degrees and we decided enough was enough. We’re enroute back to Ft Lauderdale for the final fix on our stabilizer fin (they had to order parts) and then we’re headed for the Bahamas. There has to be warmer weather there!