Miami a port with a cause

After our great sail from Ft Lauderdale and anchoring out for the night on Monday December 14 we found a suitable slip available at Crandon Park Marina on Key Biscayne. We really didn't plan to go into a slip on Monday but the slip was available on a first-come first-served basis so if we didn't take it we could lose it. The cost of the slip was half what it would have been on the other side of the Bay so we took it.

Our goals for being in port were provisioning with our familiar stores like Whole Foods and Trader Joe's; visiting friends and family; and picking up our life raft that was being serviced. As a side benefit we would have the opportunity to get some exercise on shore.

Crandon Park is part of the Miami-Dade marina and park system so although it was very nice it lacked some facilities and easy access to support. Pretty much everything we needed was on the other shore so we needed a rental car but we did find some a few interesting restaurants to explore.

When we arrived at the slip there was nobody to help us with our lines and the wind was blowing in the mid-teens across the slip. After scoping out the slip and developing a strategy we were able to get into the slip but at one point the wind pinned us against a piling and as I worked to get off it I went forward instead of back and caught the solar panel array and broke 2 of the panels.  So now when we get to Marathon I have a new project to take the array apart and rebuild it with new panels. It won't take long but I will need to take the the 2 main support tubes to a metal fabricator to get straightened.

The highlights of the week were visiting with Linda's cousin Randy Selesnick and her husband Harlan. We mt with them at the Greenstreet Cafe in Coconut Grove.

The next night we met Michelle Niemeyer who is a sailor and the daughter of one of my college acquaintances at the Bombay Darbar also in Coconut Grove. We always enjoy getting together with family and friends and meeting new friends.

As time seems to do, the week slipped by quickly and it was time to go. The weather forecast for the days we planned to travel was not good. Winds from the NNE between 25-30 kts with seas anywhere above 6 ft. While this was not bad for sailing we would have to anchor one night and then try to get in our slip in Marathon so we pondered our options and decided that going on south was the best choice so we left our slip Friday and began our odyssey to Marathon.