We finally made it!

It was suppose to be a downwind sail to Sunrise Resort and Marina but when you have to steer 95-110 degrees to go 65 you suddenly have a beat in big "A" waves.

BUT we are here and it's great.......97 miles and still 30 minutes till sunset......thank you Grey Hound!!!!!!

GREY HOUND IS IN THE BAHAMAS!!!!

Hurry back Anne........it's getting expensive down here!

It is a good thing that Anne is back here on Thursday so we can get out of Dodge....I mean Miami! Every time I set foot on land another boat buck goes out the door.

Our (or should I say Grey Hound's) purchase.............."Mr Engel" I presume!!!!

Miami Boat Show 2011

With Anne in Sewercuse for another few days I decided to hit the "boat show" circuit a couple of times to pick up a few items for GH. You know she is just a "shopper"! Well, for spending the big bucks to buy the best anchors I was awarded a Spade t-shirt.......not bad, huh?! All you have to do is spend lots of money. And you can see the two little ones on the top of the pix...They aren't too bad either.

Also, if we ever need to replace GHP then I think this truck may do the trick. That is unless BobO beats us to it!!!!!

Danny Wegman.....time to step it up a notch or two!

Can't say that we have seen a super market looking anything like this before!!

Just your typical building in South Beach.........that just happens to have all the essentials for life..

Welcome to MIAMI!!

The weather gods reminded us who was in charge so on Thursday we heeded to them and headed back to our next anchorage for the next couple of weeks, out in front of Miami Yacht Club. The holding is in nice gooey mud and we have all the chain and big anchor out. Now we get to see this character 4 -5 times per day. We almost know the talk they give for each ride.

When they are within hearing distance it usually starts "about how nice it is to play with your dink in the bay but they also serve a use........yes, it's basically like the family car. When you see a dinghy at a boat, that means the people are home. And does any one know how much it costs them to anchor in this beautiful area? Nothing! It's free!"

Needless to say we are going to be on a lot of peoples slide shows when they get back to the snowy white.......

Sand Key

We know we will have to be in Miami for a while but the weather let us go back down Biscayne Bay for a night at a new anchorage, Sand Key. It's just a short distance from Elliott Key but a little more protected from the south winds that were forecast and we wanted to check out a hurricane hole that the cruising guides talk about. Well, the anchorage will be one of our favorites in the future. Very picturesque, good swimming and the holding is in sand. The hurricane hole will not be an option though. The cut into the 4-5 acre bay was only 30 feet wide, cut through solid coral so the sides were mean looking (note GH needs 24' so that would only leave 3 feet on each side) and once we got Nu-It inside the bay was all silted in with less than a foot of water. We couldn't even motor the dink in there.....

But we did get another beauty sunset!!

Can you see "David" among the Goliaths?

While inside No Name Harbor we were able to be among some very big boats. The cat is a Grainger 48, the Fleming is at least 55 and the blue power cat (besides being steel) is all of 50! If you look real hard there is "David" right in the middle of the harbor! That grey and yellow boat is about a 27 footer from Manhattan.

Another nice sunset from the harbor also......

And when you think you have seen it all!!!!

Round and round they go......6+ complete circumnavigations of the anchor!

Meanwhile ....back at No Name Harbor

After Super Bowl Sunday we made plans to meet up with our Lake Ontario friends, Les & Anne (Cadenza II) for dinner. Thanks for the refreshments you guys! They are spending the month in Florida so we had a great dinner at The Boaters Grill. One jumbo hog snapper filled the four of us and you can see that not much remained. It was one of the best pieces of fish we have ever had!

Green Bay kicks butt at Diner Key!

For the Super Bowl we decided to meet up with our "Cheesehead" friends, Phil & Cathy over at Diner Key Marina. We dragged Kismet along too and they ended up with the best mooring in the area. We had a morring in the choppy marina mooring field, "Buddy" (Phil & Cathy) ended up at the Diner Key dock ($$$) and Kismet was able to secure a mooring at the Coconut Grove Sailing Club inside the spoils area and they had a nice comfortable weekend.

BUT........the important thing is that GREEN BAY won and Phil & Cathy were happy campers! To celebrate we stopped at Buddy to toast to the Packers.......

Bill Baggs State Park

No Name Harbor is part of Bill Baggs State Park and it is the last piece of Key Biscayne that is undeveloped. 100 acres of beach, trees and shrubs, over 100 different butterflies and other critters. The lighthouse was first built in 1825 and is one of the oldest structures in the area.

Another flutter-by for Teagan!

Remember.......don't touch it!

We have seen many of these Portuguese Man-of-war in Key Biscayne. You do not want to mess around with them.

Sailing north in no wind??!!

What do call a harbor with no name???

What else...."No Name Harbor"!

After a few days in Elliott Key the winds were going to switch so we decided to make a further run north and visit this cool harbor on Key Biscayne. It was our first trip there but it won't be the last. It does cost $ to anchor but there is a good "free" pump out, a laundry over looking Stiltsville, ice and a nice restaurant. Just don't plan on being there on the weekend since all of Miami shows up!

Kismet did show up and we had another boring evening sitting around on Kismet reciting poetry......NOT!!!

Elliott Key

We had a nice sail up to Elliott Key the other day but because we couldn't get Internet out there we had to wait until we made it up to Miami to update the posts.

The water is almost crystal clear at the anchorage and since we were in 4 feet of water we got a chance to wipe down the bottom and water line. Yea....swimming! Also Pete, Jan and of course their dog, Ebony (on board m/v Norseman) told us about a Cuban raft that washed up on the island so we got a chance to see our first vessel.....it's unbelievable that people could make it 200 miles up the Gulf Stream in something like this.

This anchorage is one of our favorites so long as we have east/SE winds.......and enough breeze to keep the bugs away!