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After another quiet night we prepare to depart. We hear about manatee S of Gilberts dock and walk over with binoculars to look. One is 300 yards out and seems to be feeding in the same spot. I go back to the boat and row out in the dingy. I pick up Jill at the end of the dock and we row out in search of the great white manatee. After a few minutes we get close to him, he is in an area of grass about 5’ deep. Once we pass right over him and get a great picture of him or at least his snout above water. We return to the boat and cast off and while waiting for the bridge to open we see another manatee right in front of us in the middle of the channel. We only have a short way to go to anchor off Pumpkin Key. It is an easy sail with a 10 Kt SE breeze. 2 power boats and another sailboat anchor after us. The wind dies away completely during the night but comes back from the NW in the morning.
Up early and saw a manatee! Leaving for Key Biscayne.
We don’t have far to go to get to Elliot Key but the wind keeps getting stronger from the N as we get closer and creates quite a steep chop. We motor into it for about 3 hours and finally reach the anchorage. At anchorage it is quite nice with only a little rolling and plunging, just right to rock us to sleep. About 6 other boats are already there. There are swim type buoys all around the docks and going N quite a ways. One small power boat appears to be anchored inside this zone but everybody else is outside.
We stay at Elliot Key for several days waiting out a front that is supposed to be powerful but all the bad weather goes N of us and we only get some windy days of 25-35 Kt. The wind starts N and moves NE, then E, SE and finally S. We remove the bimini and tie it to the life lines, wrap extra lines around the mainsail cover and put out a second anchor but the weather passes us by and we only get a few drops of rain.
After brunch, off to Elliot Key. Watching Olympics on TV. Brunch of French toast and potatoes. Snuggled and read all AM. The wind is blowing.
Presidents Day. Frond after front - so windy. Unstable weather - 75°ish. No rain though.
Sun! Warm 70+°F Yet very windy.
We sleep late and after putting the bimini top back on and straightening the
boat we pull up the anchors and head for No Name Harbor. The wind starts NW at
10 Kt. but shortly dies away to nothing as we power up Biscayne Bay. We meet a
few other boats going S. Approaching the harbor there was a 40’ power boat
anchored just off the entrance. As we got closer we saw a bunch of trucks on
shore and then a camera on a crane/boom. The dock master later told us that they
were filming a Lipton tea commercial and that the location has been used many
times for various commercials. There were about 6 other boats in the anchorage
but still plenty of room for us. The last time we had the harbor all to
ourselves except for a catamaran that seems to be permanently anchored there. It
was still there. When we saw it after Columbus Day it had a strange construction
of 2x4s around the cockpit. Now it is a square cabin perched on the back of the
catamaran. We walk around for a while and walk to the ocean side and walk along
the beach. A couple anchored near us asked if we were going across tonight. They
left in the night and another boat left around 4 AM. As the sun went down we
were attacked by small biting flies and as the sun went down the mosquitoes came
out in force and we retreated below.
2/19/98 ThursdayThe wind was completely dead during the night and we were bothered by a few mosquitoes that found their way inside and did not succumb to the Pic. After a slow start we rowed ashore and walked around the park. The lighthouse was closed but we had a great lunch at the restaurant. After lunch we walked into town and purchased a new water hose and a few food items, some magazines and 2 newspapers including a Wall Street Journal. We were very tired after returning to the boat and I was hot and dusty so after resting for a few minutes I rowed back to the seawall and walked to the bathroom/shower on the S side of the park. The shower was just a pipe with a cap with 3 holes drilled in it and a valve with a 3’ pull cord mounted on the outside wall of the building. Everything was welded to prevent someone disassembling it. The first burst of water was not bad but that was the end of the hot water and everything else was quite cold. But the shower was not too cold since it was in direct sunlight and the day was warm. We spent the rest of the day reading our papers in the cockpit. About 5 boats came in during the afternoon. First a 30’ powerboat came in and tried to anchor right in front of us. It had an electric windlass, no chain and the anchor hung straight down as he backed up across the harbor. He tried this several times and finally anchored behind us. He swam for a while and left. A 38’ sailboat flying the British flag came in and also tried anchoring very close to us. They also had an electric windless and backed across the harbor a few times before finally coming to rest close to us but acceptably far away. Several other boats came in and things were getting pretty crowded. During the night 2 boats left.
We managed to exterminate all the mosquitoes and had a very quiet night. Most of the boats left in the morning and there was only one sailboat left other than the trimaran and another sailboat that seemed to be in storage. The sky was overcast and the wind was blowing 25 Kt from the WSW. A few small showers swept over us as we powered our way across Biscayne Bay to Dinner Key. When we got to the harbor the wind dropped to 10 Kt, perhaps just the shelter of the shore. It took quite a while to raise the dockmaster and several other boats were also calling in but we finally got thru and were assigned slip 49 on pier 4. Fortunately the wind was very light and the rain stopped while we were docking so everything went well although it took a while to get the dock lines around the pilings which were about 4’ over Jill’s head while she was standing in the dingy trying to toss a loop over them. But her Texas roots showed thru. The dock fee is only $1/ft but there is no fuel or ice. I call my parents and they want to drive over in the morning to drop off the tax paperwork and a bunch of magazines. We were planning to rent a car for shopping but they said they would drive us around. We walked around to Cocowalk and some of the stores a few blocks away. After taking showers we walked to Scotties restaurant for dinner and picked up 3 bags of ice. The temperature is cool and a slight breeze is blowing so we sit in the cockpit watching TV and the stars. A band is playing at Scotties and continues most of the night but we sleep soundly anyway.
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