Miami Bound

We moved the boat to the anchorage next to the Lake Worth Inlet so we could get underway early on Wed.

Restless night knowing we wanted to be up and underway around 4:00 A.M. When we got up the skies were still overcast but we decided to go anyway.  On the way to the Inlet as Joe tied everything down and got sails ready to put up Helen noticed flashing to the south and Joe agreed it was lightening.  At that point we were in the inlet so made the decision to keep going.

Not too bad going out against the current and wind and we knew once we cleared the inlet we could get out of the swell and then motor/sail close to shore.  The squall clouds were all around us with some rain but not too bad.

We stay within 1/2 mile of the shoreline in order to stay out of the Gulf Stream that flows north along the coast of Florida and which can run as fast as 5 knots and considering we we’re motor sailing at 7 knots we wouldn’t be making much headway.  It was nice to see the sun come through the clouds.

Not a bad motor sail but we were glad to come in near South Beach at the Port of Miami at 2:30.  Exciting seeing all of the cruise ships and container ships being unloaded there with the Miami skyscrapers in the background.

When we were in Lake Worth, we passed by a container ship that had lost a couple of their containers offshore.  Later we saw on the news that people were picking up some of the cargo on the northern beaches - containers of Joe’s favourite coffee “cafe bistro”.

Continued in the ICW to Dinner Key and found a spot to anchor. Looking forward to spending a couple of days here so we can re-connect with our old friends Don & Olga.  We met them in 1977 when we first cruised in the Bahamas onboard the original DejaVu, a 30’ Trimaran.  Since then our paths have crossed a few times and we have always kept in touch.

The next day we took the dinghy to the dock at the Coconut Grove sailing club that Don & Olga belong to and they met us at the dock.  So good to see them and it’s just amazing how we all look just the way we remembered.

Spent a wonderful day with them-did laundry at their condo, enjoyed a delicious  lunch at Versailles a world famous cuban restaurant.

We took them out to DejaVu and continued sharing our stories until Olga totally lost her voice and they had to go home.

The next day we saw some of our other cruising friends coming into the harbour. Everyone is staging to head over to the Bahamas.

All of the captains listen to the weather guru, Chris Parker, on the SSB radio at 6:30 A.M. and he tells everyone when they could expect the best wind and weather to cross to the Bahamas.  In order to make this 24 hour trip across the Gulf Stream and the Bahama Banks in relatively comfortable conditions we would like to have light wind out of the south.

On Sunday we’ll get the boat and crew ready and hope to head out early on Monday.