Where the Fugawi?

Miami

Sitting at anchor near the old Marine Stadium watching the world go by. We have a nice view of Miami and we have a little island next to us that appears to be very popular with the locals. The water is a nice blue and fish are all around, Dolphins drop by for a visit once in a while and something with a big head, possibly a turtle, popped up recently while I was scrubbing the ICW stache off the boat. I hope thats what it was.

We had a nice motor sail from Lake Worth to Government Cut. We left at sunrise with a few other boats. Eventually there were about fifteen boats behind us and it looked like a race to Miami. By the time we made it to the entrance we were one of two boats heading in. Where the hell did everyone go? I have no idea. We didn't see anyone go into Fort Lauderdale so who knows where they all went. They couldn't all have been day sailing. Many times it's just a mystery to me where people go. When we are anchored off the ICW we would see boats go by with about a half hour of daylight left and about five miles to the next anchorage. I dunno.

We caught a nice breeze for a few hours that took us up over seven knots over ground else we would have been lucky to make it after dark. We looked over some anchorages and settled on Virginia Key south of the bridge as it was the easiest to get to and we were dead tired. Our friends on Kintala, Deb and Tim, were anchored on the other side of the causeway at the Marine Stadium. We didn't feel like navigating shallows so late in the day so we opted for the other side with some mega yachts filled with the rich and famous. One thing mega yachts do is attract other boaters. There was plenty of water based activity going on all night. The two yachts have a love affair with LED lights of all colors and it drew people like moths. Unfortunately those moths drove by us all damn night and we rocked and rolled to sleep.

We bailed the next day to the Marine Stadium anchorage with Deb and Tim. It's nice having friends in town. We hopped aboard Kintala for happy hour and snacked out. Good times. Kintala is a pretty nice boat and in great shape. They both do a great job maintaining her and it shows.

This anchorage has a tiny island in it that is quite popular with the locals. I mentioned to Deb on Kintala that we ought to claim it as ours at the first opportunity. Drinks on the Island sounded good. Eventually the place cleared out for a few hours and we claimed it. We sat and chat about life while we watched seaplanes take off . Eventually some kids motored up and blasted some Latino dance music while coming ashore. I guess they figured Grandma and Gramps would run away when they saw and heard them coming. We did. Not so much because of them but from the sand gnats that just came out. About an hour later the kids were gone. Latino dance music has no affect on sand gnats.

Kintala moved on to a better anchorage for the upcoming wind. We decided to stick it out one more night as we were undecided on what we were doing. Do we head to Marathon or not? Our friends there say it is seventy percent full already. What the hell. Do we secure a mooring for the holidays here before they are gone? Our decision was made by mother nature as she threw some really ugly weather our way. For almost a week now it has been blowing stink and then the rain came and has not stopped. Been pretty miserable. Not as miserable as the folks in Buffalo NY though. Friends and family have been buried in all that white stuff. Buffalo now holds the record for the most snow in a twenty four hour period in the US. Damn Lake Effect. I really don't miss all that white stuff falling from the sky. I just hope everyone stays safe. Memories of shoveling snow are not pleasant, though one night I remember as being completely beautiful as I sat on the roof of the house, taking a breather from shoveling the snow off of it before it got too heavy. A crisp star filled night with all the snow a bright white blanket covering the trees and houses was an awesome sight. I had a Molson Canadian Lager stuffed in my jacket pocket for just such an occasion. I must have made quite the shadowy figure to my neighbor across the street.

So here we are bouncing around Biscayne Bay not sure of our immediate future. Christmas is coming and we need to park the boat somewhere so we can spend the holiday with the kids. Relatively speaking it's not a bad situation to be in. We are south where it's supposed to be warm and are in a good position for a jump to the Bahamas when we are ready. If we miss out on Marathon it's not a huge disappointment as we were going to cross as soon as we got back from seeing the kids anyway. This is a good crossing point and a good place to prepare. I wouldn't mind seeing some of Miami either. No complaints. Life is good.

Wait! I do have one complaint. It's about our engine. The Yanmar 4JH gave us an alarm for low oil pressure as we throttled down to drop the main. It was just a few chirps and the gauge was bouncing all over the scale. Deb throttled up and it went away. We then eased the throttle down to idle and it never returned. This happened once before but I found the oil filter had come loose. This time I see nothing wrong. Not sure what this means. I have plenty of oil and it's only 20 hrs old. It's the correct viscosity as well. Weird. Only after running all day does this happen. Oil too hot? Plugged cooler? Looks like I have some investigating to do.

Cheers!

P

Is this the last of our ICW days for the foreseeable future? Only time will tell.

Beer tongs!
Finally found some with grip.
Perfect for that deep dive into the fridge.
Beer me!