Time flies in Miami South Beach

Well I am writing this having already spent 4 weeks anchored in Miami South Beach.  We are back in the same spot we spent 3 weeks in during December, funny that originally when transiting Florida we had no plans of visiting Miami but we really like it here.

So why do we like it so much? It is great that we do not have to pay to anchor, we do not have to pay to dock our dingy to get ashore, we can get free water from the Police dock but mostly because SOBE is a really cool place.  There is a colourful community here ranging from some of the mega rich people living in plush houses around Venetian causeway, millionaire row and other private islands, mixed with a vibrant gay community along with a large central/south American + Cuban population, and not forgetting the tourists who pile in from all over the world including lots of Americans.

What are we been doing in SOBE?  We have been taking in the local art, we visited the Wynwood Wall which is an area of Midtown where there is some great street art, we cycled there on a Saturday morning after reading that some of surrounding areas are a little dodgy.  It wasn’t the best time to take in the overall ambience as bars, clubs, etc were closed but we still enjoyed.  

We also visited the Wolfsonian Museum which has various collections of both international and local designers and artists, we spent an interesting couple of hours here and made sure we visited on a Friday evening when it is free.  We also popped into the Freedom Tower/Miami Art school which has a really nice gallery a few international pieces but mainly lots of Americans or Cubans who now live in America.  This again was free and was a great place to visit to get out of the baking heat.  To round off our art tour we spent an afternoon at the Perez Art Museum, it was a little busy on a free Saturday afternoon but a great place with lot of interesting Modern Art.

Sorry can't remember artist but this was part of a much larger design and very sparkly

I think we have walked every street in SOBE we often just wandering the streets to spend some time off the boat but it is a pleasant place to explore, there is the beautiful often busy beach, the canal with a selection of wild life, the art deco houses and the sites of Ocean Drive.  It is surprising how much wildlife you see in such a large urban area, huge iguanas sunbath near the canal, dolphins fish in the anchorage, a whole array of sea birds including pelicans, storks, ibis, we even saw a manatee in the busy harbour in downtown and was also a little odd seeing an spotted eagle ray gliding up the canal, we have only ever see one of these whilst snorkelling and diving so was odd to see it in this setting.

Ibis by the side of the road

Iguna sunbathing just off road on Venetian Causeway - Magnum at anchor in the distance

Huge Heron posing for a photo at the marina - in the background is the main road bridge over to South Beach

On our previous visit to Miami we never visited downtown but we have cycled across on several occasions, initially we had to head that was to check in with customs but we have also visited the galleries and just soaked up the atmosphere at the sea front.  Bayside offers waterfront shopping/entertainment bit like Port Solent at home but larger and with bigger brands including Hard Rock Café, it is also the marina to catch one of the many tourists boats that visit Venetian Causeway whether this is a pirate boat, a super speedboat or huge powerboat.

Waterfront in downtown

Mark relaxing in waterfront park in downtown

The weather has been surprising to us, we never realised that it would rain sooooo much, we are now experiencing thunderstorms almost every afternoon which is sometimes a relief as it manages to cool it down a little but often it just means we have to shut all the hatches and it is just too hot.  The temperature is almost always 35+ with humidity over 75% and it does not cool very much at night so one of us often has to sleep in the main cabin.

We often walk to the beach or harbour entrance although have only been actually sat on the beach and been in the sea once!  We were at the lower class end of the beach without all the pirate beach paraphernalia that is by all the fancy hotels and with all the private brollies, beach chairs and cool boxes – the American love their cool boxes.

Beautiful but busy Miami beach 

The channel is always being dredged at Miami due to the vast number of cruise liners arriving and departing on almost a daily basis, on a Friday/Saturday evening you often see 4 ships heading out.  A more exciting site was the US Coastguard ship leaving the harbour, great to see a working sailboat on such a large scale.

Our entertainment budget is very limited so Amanda enjoys a walk along Ocean drive on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon, The Palace Bar has live entertainment with the best Drag Queens in town.  These amazing women perform out in the street and literally stop traffic with their show, the have such presence and provide an amazingly energetic performance in the unbearable heat, it is great entertainment and the bar is always packed with people.

Also much to Marks frustration we did have a trip to Saw Grass Mills which they promote as the biggest discount mall in the US and yes it is huge, we spent way to long there but did pick up a few bargains and Mark was pleased with the upgrade we received on the hire car.

What a colour!

Overall we have been trying to keep ourselves entertained, make the most of this cool location whilst trying to prepare ourselves for the transition back to landlife in the UK.  It may all seem idyllic but unfortunately we still have hanging over us the stress that the shipping date has slipped, the 20^th June has come and gone, we currently have no alternative.