Well that ended up being more involved than expected. When we last blogged, we stated that we decided to go straight to Miami and Monday was going to be the day. I probably don’t need to tell you any longer that the weather wasn’t exactly as predicted…that can be expected at this point. Actually the day started out beautifully, we screamed out of the channel at 8 knots and started south broad reaching in nice 15-20 knot winds. We knew the wind would start to come right from behind us, which it did, but it was also supposed to weaken, which it didn’t. We were a bit disappointed because we really wanted to use the new spinnaker some more…okay, we did anyway, and later on in the afternoon an unruly wave and an unexpected gust practically laid us down on our port side. Of course at that point we had other problems...we were sailing 5 miles off the coast and couldn’t believe we were into the Gulf Stream already. The Gulf Stream flows north and we were trying to sail south and the big sloppy Stream was winning. The boat speed was over 6 knots but we were only making 2.5 knots against it. We started talking about how much faster (and warmer) it would have been to take the ICW…and then lo and behold, there was the Lake Worth Inlet, so we just sailed our butts into Palm Beach and threw out an anchor at 8pm (N26 45.928 W80 02.821).
We decided it would be best if we just headed down the bridge-laden ICW to Ft. Lauderdale on Tuesday and anchor there, and continue the trip to Miami on the outside on Wednesday. So we got up bright and early (no-so-bright and way-too-early) on Tuesday morning and headed south on the ICW. Reinhart insisted on putting up the Spinnaker after the first 2 bridges. Although the wind was perfect, we were having to go through a bridge every 15 minutes and we weren’t allowed to have a sail up, so I thought it was a bad idea. Boy, was I wrong, and I do believe I’ve fallen head over heals in love with the sail…bridge tenders remarked on how beautiful it looked coming down the ICW; they wowed at the sail being doused the last minute and then raised as soon as we passed the bridge; people took pictures as we passed their balconies. We were our own little pageant, and I loved every minute of it. Unfortunately, the winds ceased about noon, we stowed the spinnaker and we turned into a regular ol’ pumpkin again. We enjoyed our tour of the ICW mansions and their beautiful landscaping and unique outdoor sculpture, but after 20 bridges, it was starting to get a little old. I was so happy when we came through that last bridge and could see our planned anchorage, but it had been filled up with mooring balls and anchoring was no longer allowed. We couldn’t find another acceptable anchorage in the area so we decided in frustration we’d just keep going to Miami. We went out the Port Everglades inlet and motor-sailed our way another 30 miles to Miami. If we were in the Gulf Stream, it was being a kitten, because we made excellent time and arrived at the Miami inlet (Government Cut) at 7:30pm. Miami was surprising easy to enter at night and we anchored near the Dinner Key Marina in Miami (or South Miami, or Coconut Grove, there seems to be an identity problem here) at 9:30 Tuesday night at N25 43.130 W80 13.725. We headed over to visit our friend, Tim, on Wednesday and then toured the area around the marina. We are a little bummed that we can’t find an internet signal from our anchorage or the immediate shoreline, but I’m sure we’ll find something on Thursday. There’s also this little event called the Super Bowl taking place here this weekend so things are already a bit crazy around here; we’ll fill you in on the sights and sounds of Miami the next time.
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