The Keys and Miami - Camera Dump

Pictures from the Keys and Miami.





Mallory Park in Key West has activities every evening at Sunset with lots of street performers and vendors.













Even performances from pigs!

This was right beside us at our anchorage beside Fleming Key. I thought to myself "this family has it all together!"  As it turns out this float belonged to one of the many party boats that you pay to get out on the water for fun!

 

We saw as many as 3 cruise ships in the harbor at one time.

The water in the Keys is absolutely the most beautiful and clearest water I have ever seen.  This picture shows sea grass 5' below the boat.  AMAZING! 

 

The Coast Guard stands at guard to the entrance of the harbor at Key West and sail boats abound as we departed via Hawks Channel in the Atlantic Ocean.

This is a military satellite that obviously has a protective cover.  It looks like an egg hatching.

This picture shows the never ending line of people waiting their turn to have their picture made at the southern most point of the United States.  We decided not to wait in line and I was disappointed not to have my picture taken here but...we did get a picture of the bouy as we were leaving Key West ... but from the ocean side!  It works for me.

This was a house on an island out in the Atlantic Ocean just off the coast of Key West.

Boaters must watch for crab pots so as not to get the lines tangled in the prop and/or rudder.  That could be disastrous.

 Saw this guy at Big Pine Key. Ouch!  Low tide.

Leaving Big Pine Key

I love this picture.  I think I could spend a couple of days here in Big Pine Key.

This happens to us a lot!  We have to be one of the most photographed boats out on the ICW!

Boot Key Harbor, Marathon

Sunset at Marathon

A picnic table set up at the end of a man made jetty out from a home at Grassy Key.

Just around the corner from this nice picnic setup we found this poor pelican!  This is the danger of not properly disposing of fishing line.  

While anchored in Dolphin Cove, I was below in the salon when all of a sudden I heard something hitting the side of the boat under the water!  What on earth???  I ran upstairs and saw hundreds of fish attacking the the boat!

It turns out that certain kinds of fish like to hang out in the shadow of your boat which entices Amber Jacks (we think) to come for a feast!  It was a wild experience.

Sunset at Long Bight Key

Don't you hate it when this happens?

 Spotted this scene as we were arriving at Islamarada.

What a mess when the owner returns!

 Beautiful Lorilei Yacht Club

Home of the Nautilimo!

As we were leaving Islamarada, we saw this ultralight racing some jet skis.  You can't see the jet skis but, they're there.

Upon arriving at John Pennakamp State Park we met up with the Spirit of John Pennakamp  heading out with a boat load of folks to view the coral reefs through the glass bottom of the boat.

Birds find a spot to rest just outside the channel into the park.














The water is still clear as evidenced by this sponge approximately 6' under the water.

Beautiful!

On our way to the grocery store we ran across this house.
Mmmmm  A dream house for sure.

The red flag is the USMC flag.
Semper Fi!

Next along this mangrove canal we came up on the KOA campground in Key Largo!
Nice!

Park your trailer just behind these tiki huts and launch your boat and enjoy this wonderland of water sports.

KOA pincic area

Picture post card pretty.

Yet another example of the pure water quality in the Keys.  In the picture below you can see the grass on the bottom of this mangrove canal along side a reflection of the mangroves above.  How cool is that?

 Can you distinguish the reflection in the water from the trees itself?

This is where I met Rocky Raccoon.  He was just as surprised to me as I was him.

Somewhere between Islamarada and Key Largo we ran across these toilet seats.  We would have liked to have met up with some locals to inquire as to the history.  I'm sure it would have been an interesting story.

Enough said!

And now for Miami...

We passed under the bridge after crossing Biscayne Bay...

and immediately turned right to get to the anchorage at Marine Stadium.  Carter actually attended a concert back in the early 70's here.  There was a floating stage and boats would raft up together in the harbor while landlubbers filled the stadium.  That place needs to be brought back to life.

This is a busy harbor/anchorage.

The Miami Sea Plane school used the entrance for take off and landing practice.

 Folks practiced their boating skills.

And kids learned the art of crewing.

Yes...some of my photos are a little crooked but keep in mind that I take pictures from a moving, rocking, rolling ship.  I'm lucky to get anything in focus...much less straight.

Ha!  A Pirate Ship!  

It seems that every large city has one!

This is the last picture I took the night before leaving and I think it turned out the be the best night shot I was able to get during the entire 2 weeks were in Miami.

Miami - Workshops and Tours

We were very busy from the time we first arrived in Miami.  With our busy schedule we ended up criss-crossing Miami for about a week before finally settling next to Hibiscus Island near the Miami Yacht Club.  We were anchored directly across the causeway from Governor's Cut where all the Cruise Ships dock and at times there were 7 ships at dock.

(You can only see 6 ships in this picture because the 7th was over in Fisherman's Channel by the shipping  docks. You can see the Norwegian Getaway pulling out and headed toward the turning basin where we were at the the time)

With our new partner ReThink Energy Florida, we had set up a press conference at Gibbs Park...

A couple of workshops, one at No Name Harbor in Key Biscayne and the 2nd in Sunset Harbor in downtown Miami...









And presentation/tours of the Archimedes to high school students at the MAST Academy located in the Harbor at Marine Stadium, all in a 5 day timeframe.  With the exception of the press conference, all were a success and we were very encouraged that the workshops were so successful.  There will be more workshops in the future.


















As soon as the last workshop was completed we set out to finish the necessary household duties and that was to empty the holding tank and fill the water tanks.  We had been low on water for longer than we care to go and we actually ran completely OUT of water on the very day we finally found a marina with a functioning pump out.  After calling 6 marinas, Pelican Harbor Marina located 5 miles north, had operating facilities and we were able to fill our water tanks.


I was guarding the whaler while Carter ran into the canal side Publix, when I met a couple named Rudolf and Elisa who were doing the same thing. Rudolf had some extra complimentary tickets to the Miami Boat Show that he generously offered and we gladly accepted! (a $70 value) Since the next day was the last day of the show, we spent the whole day seeing as much as possible.








Houseboats sure have come a LONG way!  Don't you agree?



Finally on the Miami agenda, Carter had registered to attend the Mia Green Energy Expo on the 27-28th. While he was gone all day, I spent my time doing a little sewing, some sunbathing, and just soaking up the last of Miami. Carter attended several energy workshops and was very excited about some of the things he learned from OutBack Power Systems presentations. He learned a lot about how to optimize our energy system on the boat and is very anxious to get to work on making some significant improvements in our system. But that will take some serious effort and have to wait until later as it was time to get back on the trail and continue northward up the east coast continuing on with the Little Cruise Aid for a Sustainable Florida.

 

 Another awesome Miami Skyline view, and again, the picture simply doesn't do it justice.

Jewfish Creek to Miami - February 10th - 12th

Monday, February 10th

We departed our anchorage at Jewfish Creek early in the morning heading for Biscayne Bay.  The temperature was a very pleasant 74 degrees with light winds of 5-10 mph.  Great for cruising!  Wrong.  We just happened to be heading directly into a very strong current which our limited capacity with the solar electric drive has difficulty overpowering.


















Between the strong currents pushing back and the mostly cloudy skies with little to no sun, it was a slow go of it and finally at 1:50 pm our reserve battery was mostly spent and we pulled over and dropped anchor to give the panels time to catch them up.  As is our normal procedure when given lemons...make lemonade!  Carter went lobster diving.  He found a haven of lobsters close by but unfortunately absolutely none of them were of legal size and he came home empty handed but he and Radar had a good time trying. Seems Radar is quite the lobster hound.  After a couple hours we continued on to a nearby cove and dropped anchor in Card Sound within site of Turkey Point Nuclear Plant.


Tuesday, February 11th

While waiting for the batteries to charge up in the morning we decided to go on the hunt for lobster again since we will soon be heading into the ditch where there will not be any more opportunity for lobster diving.  While Carter was diving, I snorkeled and sunbathed.  Life is good. But unfortunately, still nothing but shorts when it came to the lobsters that day.



We got back on the trail at about 11:30 with 80 degrees and light wind of about 10 mph at our stern.  It was a beautiful day.   We dropped anchor at Sand Key pretty early, 4:40 pm, giving us a couple hours to recharge the batteries before sunset.  This location gets us into position to cross Biscayne Bay tomorrow.

Wednesday, February 12th

We've been working on getting the boat all cleaned up in preparation for our upcoming press conference with ReThink Energy Florida in Miami.  This morning, since the weather was so nice, we decided to get an early start and clean the exterior of the boat and do some maintenance we had been putting off.  While Carter was replacing the shaft zinc on the propeller, he noticed the bottom of the Arc was getting pretty fuzzy so he decided to do some scraping while in the water to keep it under control. While he was doing that, I scrubbed the top deck and walkways.  The Arc was lookin good!

At 11:15 am we weighed anchor and began our crossing of Biscayne Bay.  The temperature started out 74 degrees with southerly winds of 10-15 mph and a strong following seas pushing us along nicely.  We kept a nice brisk pace for most of the day when suddenly, at about 2:00 pm we hear an awful sound coming from the engine room.  This could be bad.  Carter immediately shut everything down and went down to investigate.  Good news, sort of,  the master link on the chain had worked had broken. Carter said he noticed the chain had been getting stretched and was thinking about taking out a link anyway so this was his punishment for procrastinating. Apparently it had actually become loose enough to jump the idler pulley and in so doing the master link must have been strained to the breaking point. Not a big problem,  Carter stocks lots of parts and the chain components are definitely on his critical spares list and was able to replace it, removing a half link at the same time to tightening up the chain, and  getting us moving again in a matter of 30 minutes or so. We didn't even drop the anchor and actually drifted another half mile toward our destination.

We continued with Miami in our sites but now, suddenly,  a thunderstorm was looming and closing fast. So much for our leisurely passage, we were about to get pummeled by a gale with our anchorage literally in sight. Things got pretty hectic for about an hour and as our batteries where depleting fast we where contemplating an emergency switch to diesel power but the storm blew through and the sun came back out.

We coasted into our anchorage by Marine Stadium with the batteries nearly depleted and our nerves a little frazzled, dropping anchor about 5:00 pm and settled down for the night.

The view from our anchorage.

After a nice sunset we went below to relax before dinner and get things ready to bar-b-que and when we came up back up on deck after dark we were greeted by a breathtaking Miami skyline.  This picture hardly does it justice but it was fabulous!