Around Key Biscayne

We are hoping to get to the Bahamas tomorrow. We will not be available by cell phone but we will have intermitten email at marinas. We are hoping "spot" will work too, so you can keep track of us.

What a colorful shuttle launch--the sun was reflecting off the contrail left by the shuttle
We were lucky to be in a position that we could see the northeast sky and the shuttle launch

Took a walk in the morning

Ed in front of the yacht club

In case you can't tell, it's me

Dolphin came out to play behind our boat

This is Greg Han working on his boat Allegria

Both Sat and Sun lots of boats gathered in beautiful weather to enjoy water sports. It turned out to be Spring Break for the local colleges. It was an experience seeing the kids taking Mom and Dad's boat out of the yacht club loaded with kids and returning the in evening not able to stand. One unfortunate young person had to be transported to the hospital--too much alcohol.

Sunday mornings are sailing school.

Trip to the fuel barge

Closer picture of Miami

The cruise ships lined up, five in this morning
Just a few of the many boats in the harbor

Getting fuel from a barge in the middle of the water near downtown Miami was not the most pleasant experience. I told Ed the next time we will pay the extra price and get fuel in a more controlled environment. There was so much boat traffic the waves were putting our rail almost into the barge. Thank goodness we had good fenders out!!!

Anchorage Biscayne Bay Yacht Club

We left our anchorage at Anglefish Cut in Card Sound and moved up to Biscayne Bay. We had put out an email on our looper network asking if anyone was crossing to the Bahamas soon. We got three answers. One from Greg Han who had done the loop in 2007 saying that if we needed anything in the area of Key Biscayne that he would be able to help us out. It was great--Sue and Greg are wonderful people and really helped us out. Greg got us a Guest Pass to the Key Biscayne Yacht Club, drove us for groceries and gave us a great history of the Key. We really enjoyed meeting them and maybe we will see them in the Abaco this Spring. We thank them very much.

The second answer to our email was someone who was heading to the Abaco from Palm Beach. We will probably head over at the same time but we will be far apart in our destination. The third answer were from Silver Boots, Pam and Jim Shipp, and they are going pretty much where we intend to go. They have made the trip before and it is always nice to hear what to expect. They are wonderful people and we look forward to traveling with them.

We had originally thought we would go to Bimini but it sounds like it is a ghost town now. Not sure what the reason is--the $300 cash the Bahamian Gov't charges to get into the country or just the economic times.

Below view of Miami in the distance from our anchorage

25 41.932W

80 10.288N

Card Sound Anchorage

25 19.786W

80 17.167N

Those of you who know us--we were underway a half hour before sunrise!! Ed was looking at the way the engines were charging the batteries through the inverter and he did not like it. We anchored out in the Ocean for awhile but by the time the problem was fixed it was too late to leave for the Bahamas. Oh, well, we will just have to wait for another window.

Anchorage Card Sound near Angelfish Cut

25 20.410W
80 16.775N

Charting for the Bahamas--Bimini is our destination

Something about an S curve to accommodate the Gulf Stream. I'll leave it for the engineer!

Every day a new adventure!

Ocean side of Angelfish Cut we were just checking it out for a morning departure.

Channel is a little narrow!

Anchorage Bush Pt, Blackwater Sound

25 08.850N
80 26.227W

After preparations for leaving Bonefish Marina we finally departed our home for a month and a half at 10:30 am. We spent our first night on anchor and it really felt good. It was a beautiful sunny day and we ran outside (Hawks Channel, Ocean) for about half the trip. We came under Rout 1 at Channel Five near Plantation Key. On their way to fish in the ICW

Birds sitting on poles mark our turn in the ICW

Saying goodbye to Bonefish Marina

View of Dick & Diane's condo as seen from our boat.

We have been here over a month and have not done half the things we thought we would. One of the major problems was the wind and too many things to do! But aside from that we have had a wonderful time.

The last week we have been preparing to leave. We had to have some canvas resewn and some minor mechanical things done by Ed. We are hoping to take Shore Thing for a sea trial on Monday to try to determine if we got rid of the vibration.

Currently planning to leavve on Tuesday.