Hoping everyone had a yummy Thanksgiving spent with those you love and in a place you love. Ours was special as we spent it with daughter and fiance', Courtney and Paolo. We enjoyed sharing the cooking duties with Chef Lu, Paolo's uncle, and Chef Nubia, Paolo's mom, as well as the cleaning up duties with Lu's wife, Selma, and Paolo's Grandmother, Natalice. There was a heap of leftovers - the best part!
 |
Chef Lu (personal chef to the Lauder family while in Florida)
and an all around really nice guy! Don't forget to click on the pictures to enlarge them. |
 |
| Lu's butterflied turkey - wow! |
 |
| Paolo and his beautiful family - sister to his right, brother sitting in front next to his Mom |
The day after Thanksgiving, we took advantage of a free day and the availability of a car and headed north to Stuart, Florida to share a bit of time with friends on
Island Spirit, Hayden and Radeen. It was so great to share time, see the cool upgrades they have done on the boat and share a wonderful meal at
Sailor's Return. Thanks to Hayden and Radeen for your hospitality. Always a pleasure to see you and share time!
 |
| Hayden (King of Selfies), Sharon, Radeen and Greg |
We had a nice respite at the
Lighthouse Point Yacht and Racquet Club. This would be a great home for
Dream Catcher if we ever decide to stay in one place for the winter. Nestled in a lovely neighborhood threaded with canals behind each home heading to the waterway, it offers two restaurants, tennis courts, Olympic size swimming pool and fitness center. It was a nice place to hang for a week, only twenty minutes to Courtney. But, we decided to move on after the holiday and made our way south along the waterway. Sunday on the ICW in Ft. Lauderdale and Miami is crazy!! We had 19 opening bridges to navigate - traveling from one to the next with openings on the quarter, half, three-quarter and hour - each about the right distance apart to make it on schedule. Of course, along the way, we deal with motor boaters with no concept of a "No Wake" zone. One guy came flying by and literally shook us up - the boat took a 45 degree angle heel after he went by and stuff went flying belowdecks. Another guy did the same while Sharon was sitting on the cockpit combing and she got totally drenched! Greg pulled out the airhorn and let the guy know he was not happy and the guy immediately slowed down - after the damage was done - but kept his speed down the rest of the way through the No Wake zone. Whew! Wish there was a way we could have these guys fined!
 |
This was party central Sunday afternoon along the waterway in North Miami
- a sandbar that attracts all the motorboats; they even had food boats! |
By mid-afternoon, we crossed Government Cut (the major shipping inlet for Miami), with six cruise ships at dock, and made our way south into Biscayne Bay. It is always a treat to sail into the Bay. The water is clearer, the sailing is great and there's lots of room to roam. We enjoyed a couple nights on the hook off Key Biscayne, but weather was forecast to turn very wet and windy. So, we made our way over to
Coconut Grove Sailing Club where we were able to snag a mooring for several days. This is a true sailing club where they do lots of sail and race training. We saw classes on the water as we entered the harbor. There are always races on weekends. Another local yacht club, just a mile away, is home to some world class sailors. One member won this year's Star Worlds. The
Star is an old olympic three-man sailboat, about 18 feet long and has lots of sail, so very fast. The local guy beat luminaries from around the world. How cool is that!
The Club is walkable to downtown Coconut Grove, a sweet village in South Miami with restaurants, cinemas and shops. While there, we took in a movie (Dr. Strange - which we thought was really good), enjoyed a couple lovely eateries and accomplished some boat chores.
The downside of CGSC is the crows at this time of year. They are awful. All the neighboring boats that had no owners aboard had birds sitting in the cockpit and on the spreaders making a mess of their boats. The birds eat berries from local bushes, then their droppings soil the boat decks in purple! We ended up tying green ribbons (Christmas color!) to a halyard that we hoisted to the top of the mast to try to keep them from lighting. Then Greg went up the mast and secured several bird spikes to the horizontal surfaces and wire ties to vertical shrouds. It was an endless battle! There's more! As our mooring was 50 yards across a channel from a long line of fishing boats, we were awakened at 3:30AM when the owners revved up their engines to log engine hours in order to comply with the local ordinances to keep their slips - all on the sly!
During the day, local motor boaters turn on the music and cruise the harbor before making their way out of the marina. We didn't get a good night's sleep for a week. We finally gave up and headed out on Monday. Back to a quiet and lovely anchorage off Key Biscayne where we enjoyed our first swim and some peace and quiet.
 |
| First swim in Biscayne Bay and bottom cleaning |
The Miami scene is interesting. It is definitely not Boston! People love their loud music. It is just the way it is. At a local restaurant in Coconut Grove,
Monty's, they have salt shakers with peel off/stick on tops to combat what happens to salt in humid weather. We went to
Glass and Vine, a lovely restaurant just up the street from the sailing club and watched while every bartender flipped easily from Spanish to English depending on the customer they were dealing with - so jealous! We wish we had better language skills. We also had a nice breakfast at
Bouchon, a French Bistro downtown. It was heavenly!
We found the
Wynnwood Art District in downtown Miami. Wynwood is an old warehouse area that has been totally rehabbed into an art area including galleries, restaurants and shops. High end artistic graffiti is one of its hallmarks. The buildings are used as blank canvases by up and coming artists. It is so cool!
 |
| This was taken from the street looking up at the ceilings of each floor. |
With dicey weather coming in again, we were on the search for a protected area. Marinas in Miami are many, but most are full and will not take reservations. Several city owned marinas are doing construction right now and so the time they let you stay is limited. We were able to get a slip at
Crandon Park Marina on Key Biscayne for a few nights. The 20 knot winds and constant rain made it worth the money to be plugged in with air conditioning and battery charger working. The park has walking paths and nature trails through the mangroves. A good place to walk, run or cycle. Greg ran in the rain one day - and his wet shoes had to be dried at Courtney's house.
 |
| Crandon Park trails and views |
Greg has taken a couple trips up the mast. The cell antenna was pretty rusty and he replaced it with a new better version. He also added more bird spikes and monofilament to areas where the birds like to perch. As mentioned in the past, the mast climber we invested in a few years ago makes the task considerably more tolerable. He was up there for two hours each time!
 |
Some random guy came by in a small motor boat
and sent us this photo he took - nice!
 |
| Greg working above |
|
 |
| The rusty cell antenna |
With bad weather continuing to be predicted and knowing we wanted to travel back and forth to Boca during December, we kept bugging the dock master at
Dinner Key Marina and she finally found a slip for us. So, we braved the wind one morning (fortunately behind us) and motored the five miles back across the Bay to settle into a nicely protected slip here in Coconut Grove (right next to the CG Sailing Club - but far enough from the noise to make it comfortable). This marina has enjoyed a huge upgrade over the past year with a new three story building offering beautiful new bathrooms and showers, laundry facilities, wifi lounge with TV and lots of parking, as well as a new and electronic pass-protected dock system. We have enjoyed having Sharon's car available to us since mid-November. So basically, we are land-living, we just live in a tiny house that happens to float. We will be here until early January when the plan is to move south through the Keys, then travel up the West Coast of Florida to explore new areas.
'Til then, we wish you all a blessed Christmas and Happy New Year!
