Location: Miami, FL
When you live aboard a boat and are anchored somewhere warm and beautiful like southern Florida, it can be difficult to arrange some time off. Every once in a while we just have to take a break from the hectic cycle of reading, relaxing in the sun, walking and shopping ashore, doing the occasional boat job, and almost nightly happy hours with friends. It's a tough life and we've found the only way we can make time for some R&R is by being both patient and persistent.
When you live aboard a boat and are anchored somewhere warm and beautiful like southern Florida, it can be difficult to arrange some time off. Every once in a while we just have to take a break from the hectic cycle of reading, relaxing in the sun, walking and shopping ashore, doing the occasional boat job, and almost nightly happy hours with friends. It's a tough life and we've found the only way we can make time for some R&R is by being both patient and persistent.
On Monday, with the wind predicted to be easterly and relatively light, we decided it was time. It's only about 4 miles to the top of Biscayne Bay, so we headed down there to go sailing for a few days. The warm weather, clear blue skies, and 9 – 15 knots on the beam all conspired to give us a beautiful sail down the bay. Several other cruising sailboats and the Rolex Miami OCR regatta gave us lots to look at.
The Miami OCR has “529 sailors from 41 countries on 354 boats competing in 10 Olympic classes and 3 Paralympic classes”. We had to tack around a couple of the race courses (there were a lot of them out there) giving us the opportunity for some real close-up views of the action. Very exciting and really, really cool. Here's a link to more info about the regatta: http://rmocr.ussailing.org/
By 3pm we had dropped the anchor 2/3 of a mile east of Elliot Key, part of the Biscayne National Park system. The wind had died down to almost nothing so the anchorage was comfortable even though we were so far out. The day ended with a refreshing swim in the clear water and a romantic dinner in the cockpit watching the glorious sun setting with the tall buildings of Miami just peeking up over the horizon.
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| Rachel's waaaay out there |
The second day (Tuesday) we were up and at 'em fairly early, taking the dinghy ashore to Elliot Key. We love parks as the trails we usually find are a great way for us to get some much needed exercise. The Elliot Key trails took us out to the ocean side and a lovely boardwalk, then back through the forest to the Bay side in a big circle. We were the only visitors on the island the entire time we were there and saw many zebra longwing butterflies, dragonflies, lizards and a tiny snake. There was some trash along the trail so we volunteered to go around again and pick it up as we went along. The rangers really seemed to appreciate our help.
We got back to the boat in time for lunch then hauled anchor for another perfect sail back up the Bay. We took turns reading and driving the boat, having another relaxing, sunny, and engine-less day.
Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park (wow that's a mouthful) is at the southern end of Key Biscayne. There's a very protected basin named No Name Harbor where many sailors anchor while awaiting a weather window to the Bahamas. We cruised slowly through the anchorage but decided it was a bit crowded for our taste. So we dropped the hook just outside the harbor and enjoyed another perfect evening with a beautiful sunset.
We had a more leisurely morning on Wednesday, then dinghied ashore for more walking. The state park has several trails and a big lighthouse so off we went exploring. Unfortunately, the lighthouse was closed for tours but we wandered around the grounds and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. Apparently Key Biscayne was a major jumping off point for the Underground Railway during the civil war with escaped slaves making their way to the Bahamas. We decided to come back again on a day when we CAN tour the lighthouse.
After lunch we sailed back up to Miami, once again dodging the races. We got to see some close-up action with the 49er fleet. These high performance boats have two crew, trapezes, lots of high-tech sail area, and are very exciting to watch. Here's a link to a photo: http://www.sailing.org/images/galleries/10_MOCR_49er_Burling.jpg., better than any phote we would take!! All that excitement made us even more glad that we were on vacation on Rachel, not racing, taking it easy, and letting them pass us.
We're feeling rested and relaxed after our 3 days off, and are ready to dive back into laundry and boat jobs and more reading and …
Until next time...
