Florida Keys - Rodriquez Key and Boot Key Harbour – More generous people

Another first as we went sailing on Boxing Day, we crept out of Venetian Causeway in the dark with fingers crossed that when we reached the entrance we would be met by favourable winds and seas, we really needed to be moving south.  Our luck was in as there was not one Cruiseship docked meaning we could sneak through Government Cut and save ourselves time on our journey, I assume all the Cruiseships were out at some other exotic location.

We were pleasantly surprised with the sea state and after a little bit of bumpy start through the shallows we turned and had 15-20 knots of wind from behind, sails up, sun out and were bobbing along.  We had a fantastic day with wind all day, there is limited navigation as the seas are still are still shallow as you are in behind the reef.  There were a couple of other sail boats, a few fishing boats and some packed diving boats all making the most of the weather.  We sailed around 55 miles to Rodriguez Key which is a very small uninhabited island where we were able to get a limited amount of shelter, would have preferred more but this was our only option and we were not alone so we dropped anchor and kept our fingers crossed that the wind did not come up in he night.

Rodriquez Key - not much to see but a lump of land

Again up with the sun, sails up and off we set for another fantastic day sailing, 15-20 knots wind from behind, calm blue seas and the sun shinning. 

 

Beautiful water

Up with the sun

We were flying along over 6 knots all day.

About an hour out we had called in to the marina to ask if there were any mooring buoys, yes there were but they couldn’t guarantee there would be when we arrived but thankfully there was a buoy for us. 

Boot Key is bizarre, there are over 300 boats crammed into a sheltered harbour, it has a reputation as having a large liveaboard cruising community.  It is well set up for cruisers with lots of laid buoys, a large communal area with internet, tv’s, book swap, a good laundry, extensive dingy docks and lots of surrounding amenities.  But you walk out of the marina onto the main highway which runs the length of the Keys and it could be anywhere in America with all those big stores, fastfood places and general busyness, great for us to finish any provisioning but not the idyllic and quaint islands you might hope to get in the Keys.  Also there is no privacy on your boat as you can almost reach out and touch your neighbours

The best part of the visit to Boot Key for us was we met some more OCC members, Harry and Melinda are the OCC Port Officers and had kindly taken deliver of a oil seal for us.  We had a nice evening out with them to Dockside a local bar which Amanda had wanted to visit as it had photos of Macaws on their magazine advert unfortunately no Macaws at the bar.  We had a few drinks, some cheap dodgy bar food and shouted over the load live music.

Mark and Harry having a drink at Dockside

We were very grateful that Melinda took us in her car to do some final bits of shopping, wonderful to met such lovely and interesting people again, love it when people have so many stories to share.

Miami South Beach

When we arrived in Miami we had not really planned to stop there and thought we might spend a day of 2 as we were passing but were keen to get to the Florida Keys, funny that we ended up spending almost 3 weeks there! 

What changed our mind? Well we liked South Beach, the anchorage was good and protected, it was easy to dingy ashore, there are lots of amenities in easy walking distance and we didn’t have the weather to move on. 

Magnum at anchor with downtown Miami and cruiseships in the background

During our first day ashore we ventured along Lincoln Avenue which is the main shopping street, we headed out to the beach and along Ocean Drive to admire the Art Deco district and tried to see as much as possible, as we still thought we would only have a day or 2 there, during our stay we visited these areas on many occasions. 

Miami Beach

Amanda with Ocean Drive in background

Highlights of our stay were:

We hired a convertible Mustang, it seemed like the thing to do and was pretty cheap so we just had to.  We drove out to the Everglades and jumped on an airboat, this was great fun, it almost like and an amusement park ride he went so fast through the very shallow water.  I was a bit dubious as to whether we would see Alligators but we did and they came up really close to the boat, obviously as intrigued as we were.

Alligator over to say hello

They were big!

Mark in the Everglades

 We also lots of different birds which were also just as keen to see us.

Birdy sat next to us on boat

Great Egret hiding in bushes

Terrapin on treetruck

Vulture looming over us

Pretty birdy

We even got to hold an alligator.

Mark and his mate the alligator

Amanda liking her new friend

Then with the wind in our hair we drove out towards the Keys and although we really enjoyed the drive we were a bit disappointed with the Keys, we had expected them to be palm fridge islands joined by great bridges but in reality for the first 80+ miles the main road is lined with hotels, restaurants and other tourist traps, you do hop between islands but the scenery is not very pretty.  We did reach Boot Key and crossed over the 7 miles bridge which was quite cool but as we were still hoping to spend a few weeks in the Keys and we were running out of time we didn’t drive to Key West.

Mark driving in the Keys

Amanda with the windswept look

Cool car and cool dude - as they would say in the States

Our disappointment also influenced our decision to stay in Miami, we enjoyed just exploring.  The Britto gallery/shop on Lincoln Avenue was cool to visit, Romero Britto is a Brazilian artist who is based out of Miami, he had commissioned artwork all over the world and been involved is some amazing events like the Olympics and the World Cup, with portraits of many famous people including Princess Di, Prince William and Kate, Madonna. - http://www.britto.com/

Running and walking South beach, we had a few morning runs out to the beach or along the Venetian causeway.  The Venetian Causeway is a string of small islands that run from downtown Miami across to Miami Beach, they are joined by a string of ornate bridges and are residential areas that overlook the Bay on either wide.

Venetian causeway bridge - opening for the boat traffic

 Along south beach there is a walkway that stretches all the way to north beach and down along Ocean drive to the south, it is filled with runners and walkers in the morning.

The beautiful South Beach

Amanda on the windy beach

The sunset over Miami downtown were also quite amazing, we liked to settle down with a glass dark and stormy and watch the sun go down and the lights appear, our favourite entertainment after dark was the dancing lady that appeared in lights on the InterContinental building.

Sun setting over downtown Miami

Magnum just as the sun goes down

One of the best things about Miami Beach is the people watching, there are some amazing sights, whether this is Mark admiring the women in the shortest of short shorts you can imagine, or a man almost old enough to be our dad roller blading along south beach, or a blacked out Hummer cruising along Ocean drive with its music pumping or the guys working out in the park on Ocean Drive or one of the many beautiful Ferraris we saw everyday  or a drag queen singing here heart and stopping traffic on Ocean Drive, it all kept you amused.  We said we had never seen as many Ferraris and boob jobs anywhere else on our travels.

One of the many Ferraris 

We almost moved on just before Christmas when we thought we might have a small weather window, we left the anchorage at the crack of dawn made it out to the Governors channel which is the main exit from Miami, we had a slight detour due to the excessive security around the cruiseship and not being able to use this route but we still managed to poke or noses out of the harbour with the wind howling in towards u.  We knew it might be a little windy but had hoped it would not be on the nose, with a 50 mile sail a head we decided to turn around and head back.  Exhausted and deflated we anchored for a couple of hours to see if the wind would swing or drop but it didn’t, so we headed back to the anchorage, which was full of the what were now the usual depth and bridge challenges, with the added excitement of a flying boat landing just in front of us!

Plane had just landed on the water just in front of us

Although a significant time in Miami doing ordinary things, going to the supermarket, going to the laundry, Amanda hunting down yet another random hairdressers, going to the library, watching the little parakeets flying noisily around the town and searching high and low for decent internet so we can call home but it was a great place to do this.

Mark at the custom made dingy dock just outside the supermarket

Little parakeets

Our final day in Miami was Christmas Day and we had a lovely time.  Very odd as nowhere seemed Christmasy, the main shopping street was packed with people going about there normal everyday shopping. All the bars and restaurants were open and packed with people, we managed to find a restaurant on Ocean Drive at the Victory Hotel and had a lovely meal, if a little odd.  Not ever had Mahi Mahi for Christmas but it was delicious and we followed it with Key Lime Pie, yummy, it seemed a fitting meal for the location.

Christmas Day - even managed to wear a dress

Mark made a special effort and put on a shirt for our Christmas dinner, but it was novel to still be wearing shorts