12/30/13 Southern Florida Coast

I love this picture of us so I had to include it....somewhere!  As we were out for a day sail we noticed something floating in Charleston Harbor. At closer inspection we discovered it was a deck chair! We immediately slowed down, turned around, grabbed the boat hook, and removed the danger to navigational aid. Amazingly enough it was a wooded chair in great condition. As you can imagine, we had fun relaxing in it throughout the afternoon and Chris and Rose were happy to take it home with them for their front porch relaxation.

This is us in Charleston when we met friends Chris and his girlfriend Rose who drove to visit us from Sumter, S.C. We had a fabulous visit with them and they we so helpful in getting us organized and reprovisioned.

Ok, now back to the Florida ICW. We have spent two peaceful days traveling south on  the Indian River portion of the ICW. We spent night in Mosquito Lagoon, a huge 6 foot deep bay where we swam. We saw many cannonball jelly fish swimming by Kuivato and felt we had to do some internet research before taking the plunge. We learned that not only is their sting minor,but they are apparently a delicacy in Asia.  There are only 5 boats in Georgia that are licensed to net them for fear of upsetting the ecobalance and they are the 3rd greatest export tonnage from Georgia behind shrimp and oysters. 

We have arrived in W. Palm Beach at the Old Port Cove Marina and I am quite sure we are the smallest vessel here. There are lots of cleaning crew scurrying around to prepare huge sport fishing vessels for their owners arrival. We celebrated New Years Eve with Leela and did quite a bit of final grocery store provisioning, West Marine, and  Home Depot visits. After a night at the marina we anchored nearby in Lake Worth which is a large fairly well protected harbor. We also had a bundle of mail to pick up at the West Palm Sailing Club which was a lovely older facility that had a great local small boat sailing feel; quite the opposite of the Oldport Cove marine with its mega yachts. 

We have identified a potential weather window for our departure across the Gulf Stream to Memory Rock in the Abacos and on to Great Sale Cay and possibly Green Turtle Cay for customs clearing in. This adventure should take us about 25 hours. However, after speaking to many seasoned local sailors, the Kuivato/Leela team gathered for a strategy meeting and decided to change our itinerary. We have learned that the weather in the Bahamas has been very windy this winter, particularly the more north you are where the cold fronts are stronger. Additionally, the farther south you go the water temps are warmer and the cold fronts tend to have a harder time penetrating into the easterly trade winds. We are now planning to motorsail in the ICW to Miami Beach and wait for a good Weather window with southerly winds to cross the Gulf Stream from a point far enough south to not have to fight the Gulf Stream. From the Miami area It's 50 miles to Bimini and  then another 80  on to the Berry Islands where we will clear customs. Hopefully we will then find an idealic anchorage to stay for a few days to relax. We have thoroughly enjoyed the journey, but it has been far from relaxing pressing on each day, navigating, provisioning, and working on the boat. Tim has been working non stop on projects including final connection of the solar panels, rerouting the auto helm compass wiring, and upgrading the engine alternator regulator. That's in addition to the dozens of other projects and repairs that have been continuously happening. I have been keeping myself quite busy and we are both longing to relax in the warmth and sunshine in the days to come.

To get far enough south to take advantage of the northerly Gulf Stream current while crossing to Bimini and onto the Great Bahama Bank, we need to go through  26 bridges between West Palm and Miami, most with restricted opening times, either on the hour and half hour, or quarter hours. If you don't make it to a bridge on time you then have to circle around until the next opening. At one point we  made an impromptu to stop for fuel and water at the  Hollywood City Marina, while Leela decided to press on south. After we fueled up and re-entered the ICW, while waiting for the next bridge opening we noticed a bakery and restaurants with docks right on the ICW so we made a quick pitstop for some baked treats.  Since it was predicted to blow 30-40 knots overnight, we chose to duck into a beautiful, well protected basin at Oleta State Park, 2 bascule bridges and 1 high fixed bridge north of Miami. Entering the park was quite a challenge as the entrance was a 75 foot wide cut through dredge spoils with depths of 2-3 feet on either side. It was interesting being at the helm and relying on an aerial photo image on the IPad so heavily to navigate. Without the several navigation apps we are using, we would likely not enter anchorages with such challenging entrances. 

We then got a very depressing call from Leela stating they just learned  the last fixed bridge only had 55 feet of clearance at low tide! Their mast height is 55 feet without considering the two feet of antenna, lights and windex. Kuivato's mast is also the same height. The question we have is why did this bridge get built in 1962  with 55 foot clearance when virtually every fixed bridge in the ICW from Cape May NJ to this point has 65 foot clearance, the design clearance for the ICW? Seems like someone screwed up or got paid off. Since they could no longer proceed south, Leela turned around and came north to join us in the park anchorage for the night. We would now have to motor back north to Port Everglades and head offshore the 25 miles down to Miami. 

We were anchored next to a liveaboard who poked his head out upon our arrival. Tim asked him how long he has been anchored here and to our surprise he said 6 years! He explained how he had an annual membership to all of the Florida State parks which allowed him access to go through the park landslide entrance where there is a $3 daily fee. However, in Active Captain we read there have been problems in the past with livaboards landing in the park and using the bathroom facilities at the nearby Florida International University, so the Park only allows kayaks and canoes to land on shore. As such, we wondered how our neighbor gets around that rule. We soon learned the answer......what a sight it was in the morning to see this 300+ pound man laying on his back on an air mattress paddling to shore. Apparently landing on the beach with an air mattress is not prohibited. It is interesting to see how differently we all get around in this life.

We hardly felt the blow overnight the anchorage was so well protected and we decided to stay another night until the wind died down. The next day as we began our ritual of Tim hauling up the 100+ pounds of anchor and chain, the sticky mud we've been anchoring in most of the trip seemed a bit more sticky today. When the anchor started to come up there was also a lot of resistance. Having experienced this before,  (The boulder in Rockport MA, first night out) my first thought was to grab the camera to capture whatever it was we caught. Indeed, this time it was a 1-1/2 inch diameter braided steel cable, possibly left behind after the basin was dredged or mined. Being experienced in in problem, it only took us minutes to set us free. At least we now knew we weren't going to drag in the previous nights blow!

This is becoming quite a photo journal of anchor treasures!

Begrudgingly, we traveled north again through many of the same bascule bridges we had traveled through south two days earlier. Something about retracing your steps that just doesn't seem right. We were delighted that none of the bridge tenders commented on our revisit! The weather was predicted to be rainy with 20 to 30 knot winds from the north so we knew it would be a fast furious ride south.

We donned our foul weather gear, secured the safety jacklines on deck, put on out life vest,and prepared for a very bumpy sleigh ride. Departing Port Everglades was quite difficult with the waves that stacked up in the entrance and we were moving so slow I wasn't sure we would make it out. Indeed we did and as soon as we turned south, we were flying along.

 White water, blue water, green water, we saw it all! Unfortunately, I didn't have the foresight  to make sandwiches in the AM before departing so I was scrambling around the cabin slapping together peanut butter and jelly, our new favorite meal while sailing in winds greater than 20 kts. At one point Tim saw me fly across that cabin into the head door where hip landed on the door handle. The bruise is quite a sight still one week later. We arrived in Miami harbor early in the afternoon and anchored off the west side of Miami Beach. We took a little nap, got up for a bite to eat and crashed for the night.

Miami is quite a town, the night lights were fantastic! Images projected on the sides of skyscraper buildings, all the fabulous lights from the various bridges and still some holiday color spattered around. 

We took the dinghy  to explore Sunset Lake as we had read some interesting entries from Active Captain. We meandered along the canals of the "Venice of Miami", until we came to the lake. Much to our amazement we saw no less that 26 Lasers hulls on moorings surrounding a 200 foot area directly in front of a high end home. It is reported that the owner of the home doesn't like boaters to anchor near his home so he shines floodlights on anchored boats and plays loud music in an attempt to deter passing vessels from enjoying "his" lake. Then he came up,with the idea of anchoring these laser hulls to prevent anyone from anchoring. How so very sad. Indeed, there are mean spirited individuals who have nothing better to do with their days than harass cruisers. 

From our anchorage you follow a canal to the grocery store which even constructed a dock for dinghies. It was truly refreshing to visit a place that  knows how to cater to cruisers.

As we dinghied around, I kept an eye out for fellow cruisers Michelle and Joe on "Simple Life". They are seasoned cruisers who been traveling from R.I. and whose blog we have been following since their departure in September. In one of their blog entries she proudly showed off her home made elaborate dinghy cover. It was this dinghy cover that tipped me off to their identity. What a treat to finally meet up.  It  was unfortunate that we were unable to spend more time than drifting in our dinghies but it looked like a nice weather window to cross to the Bahamas was approaching and we needed to really do FINAL provisioning for the BIG departure across the Gulf Stream. 

As you can see, Janaki and Diane traveled "Miami style" in the the fire engine red Mustang convertible from Enterprise while making the final mail drop pickup in Islamorada, yet another adventure.

With Janaki at the helm, we all cruised Miami Beach that night picking up the "boys " jaws the entire evening! What a hoot of a town. We look forward to returning to get the full experience some day.

Friday evening the 10th we sailed to south to Biscayne Key to stage for the big morning departure. Sunset on the Miami skyline was spectacular. I couldn't help but envision Don Johnson at the helm of his cigarette boat going a 90 miles per hour in the massive Biscayne Bay, what a sight it is!

Saturday morning we awoke at 0600 for a 0700 departure. Tim listened on the single side band receiver to Chris Parker, the weather forecaster many cruisers retain for weather routing in Florida , the Bahamas and Caribbean. Chris predicted "horrendous" conditions in the morning with winds to 20+ kts and confusing seas until afternoon when he recommended departure from Miami. We had our own, very local onboard forecasters, Tim and Graham, who felt the winds and waters would be fine for a swift ride to Bimini. Departing Key Biscayne was an adventure and passing remaining Stiltsville was a pleasant surprise. Apparently, the  homes were built on stilts in the middle of the Bay entrance on shoals by squarters in the early 1900s.  The fact that they that still exist after decades of storms is truly remarkable. We understand they may now be going on the National Historic Landmark List. 

Leaving the Biscayne Bay entrance was rough but once offshore it was a  fabulous ride, a bit more bumpy than we expected, but certainly not horrendous. We have come to realize for good reason forecasters like Chris play it rather conservative since many cruisers are not well prepared for, or capable of handling, heavy conditions .

As soon as we cleared the harbor, we set the sails for a due east course and dlet the Gulf Stream carry us north to,where we would enter the Grand Bahamas Bank north of Bimini. The morning consisted of many discussions regarding sailing the "S-curve" theory of crossing the Gulf Stream and today I am finally able to laugh at yesterday's convictions, ah, the vast self knowledge this adventure has availed me is stunning. The west wall of the Gulf is about 10 miles from Miami. The winds were SE at 15-25 kts and we were able to sail at an average of 6.6 kts. We had half of the jib up and 3 reefs in the main. What a wonderful ride mostly keeping to the rumb line the entire journey. We were delightfully pleased to arrive at North Rock on Moselle Bank just north of North Bimini late in the afternoon. It was awesome to see water depths of 2500 ft during the crossing and then sail into 10 foot depths on the Bahamas Bank. We decided to drop anchor along the northeast shore of North Bimini to rest for a few hours before continuing on to the Berry Islands. Tim and I had a toast and our first swim in the Bahamas at sunset in the most gloriously green waters thus far. The water temp was 79, same as the air temp for the evening. The dip was quick as we need to do more research about whether there is any truth to more shark activity at sunrise and sunset. We rowed over to Leela to celebrate our arrival after our 2 1/2 month journey. Based upon the wind prediction we decided to continue the second leg of the crossing at 0300. Sunday morning we were sailing again in the warm Bahama breezes with tee shirts

I began my morning with a lengthy sunrise yoga session on the bow while Tim prepared French toast along with the last do our Christmas ham which had served us well with over 20 meals! We arrived at Great Island Cay Marina in the Berry Islands at 1600hrs after another rip roaring sail. The marina staff arranged for the customs officer to come to the marina and an hour later we were cleared in with our cruising and fishing permits in hand.  Here we are, our first landing on Bahama soil having cleared through customs! The yellow quarantine flag comes down and our Bahama courtesy flag flying high! It's been a long amazing journey.