Miami Beach

    
     We are in Miami Beach at a new (to us) anchorage. Just south of the Venesian Causeway near Belle Island. It's reasonably protected but it's in a high traffic area. This means are lots of rocking due to big wakes.

     We left Marathon last Wednesday and had a somewhat rough but fast sail to the Channel 5 passage under the Overseas Highway. We exited Boot Key Harbor via Sister's Creek for the first time. It's a shallow short cut to Hawk Channel, open ocean except for the well offshore reef. Then it was back to the ICW with a stop at Key Largo.

We then went to No Name Harbor again. This is a great (but small) anchorage in Baggs State Park on the south end of Key Biscayne, just inside Cape Florida. We spent three nights there but one of those nights was a Saturday, which meant crowding and multiple boats playing very loud 'music'. Each boat plays different 'music' but it's all the same type:Cuban. Loud Cuban.

While we were there we took Cleo on a couple of dinghy rides to look at some very expensive homes in the next harbor north. She's kinda getting use to the dinghy but hated when we were going fast on plane.

     It was less than two hours to Miami Beach from No Name (actually Key Biscayne is part of Miami) and we went there on Sunday to spend two nights. We went on a dinghy cruise up the Collins Canal to the waterway just east of Collins Ave. Very interesting. We also got our bikes ashore for a tour of Miami Beach. We went all the way out to the Government Cut inlet. I had never been this far south in the South Beach area. Carol has worked in the area and we both have been to USPS Conferences at the Fountainbleu a few decades ago.

     So a new anchorage has worked out pretty good. Could be better if there was a (enforced) speed limit. Oh well.

     Next extended stop is at Ft Pierce with en route stops in Ft Lauderdale and West Palm Beach.

     Up the road is a stop at Daytona to watch the Daytona 500 in person. First NASCAR race for us. Tickets for two races (for each of us) are costing us near $700. We could go cheaper but this is likely a one-time thing so we got just under 'top of the line' seats.

     Can't wait.