South Florida Trip

[jimyoung]

                                                                                                                                            Day Five; Feb. 22

                                                 No Name Harbor to Dinner Key

Bret and I wake up to the sound of boats leaving and find out from the park ranger on our trip ashore that the one hundred and eighth annual Commodore Munroe Regatta Kickoff Party is going to be going on today and all the regular cruising crowd was busy leaving for parts elsewhere. The park ranger went on to explain that boats would begin showing up around ten o'clock, and shortly after eleven Commodore Munroe's grandson would drive the "official" stake into the ground and the drinking would begin. At that point a bunch of very rich "white folk" would get stumbling drunk and retreat back into their very expensive boats, and their hired captains would take them home. Scratching his head and walking away he looks back over his shoulder and adds, "Just don't make no sense at all. You gentlemen have a good day."

     
Google Map of No Name Harbor

We decide that we still had some time before things got over crowded so we take the short dingy ride to the Tiki Bar/Restaurant for breakfast. After following the broken English instructions to circle the items on the paper menus that we wanted, we enjoyed a wonderful, but totally different than we ordered breakfast and watched the boating "elite" arrive for their party.



Off to Breakfast ashore

           Miss B. at Anchor

We ready the boat for a day of sailing as the party gets into full swing with all the required photographs that important people command. There was even a live "Dixie-Land" style jazz band playing for the rapidly growing crowd. We make our escape before getting hijacked by the music, drinks, and boat people. Close escape.


The Commodore's Party

There is a wonderful ten to twelve knot wind with frequent gusts to fourteen blowing in from the east and we are able to give Miss B. an adequate shakedown sail. Taking the wind from all points of sail we were occasionally accompanied by racing skiffs from a variety of countries training for, we find out later, this year's Olympic qualifications.


Olympic Qualification practice

After a full day of sailing we call ahead for a berth at Dinner Key marina where we will spend the night. Tomorrow we will be joined by Chelsea, Kathleen, Steve and Laura (friends of Bret and Kathleen) and Kyle. Kyle will be taking over the crewing duties for the next couple of days.


Miami Skyline

[jimyoung]

                                                                                                                                     Day Seven; Feb. 24

                                                           Dinner Key to Boca Chita

We (Chelsea, Kyle and I) all wake up and take a trip to the near-by Fresh Market before departing for Boca Chita Key. We were a little taken aback at the prices but the merchandise was fresh and of top quality.  Kyle later, is further surprised when he opens his twelve pack of Coronas and finds one of them has been drank and the bottle put back empty with the cap pressed back on! Chelsea bids us a safe trip and we are off in search of the Lighthouse of Boca Chita Key.
The sail today is strong to weather in winds of ten to fifteen knots making it necessary for us to tack back and forth across Biscayne Bay for most of the day.


Crossing Paths with the Heratige of Miami

Our tacking exersize takes us by what is left of the city of Stiltsville. Once a community of homes built on stilts above the bay, Stiltsville now consists of a handfull of structures in various stages of disrepair.


One of the few remaining houses of Stiltsville

The first to build on the mud bottom flats was "Crawfish" Eddie Walker. He came to Miami from Key West in 1907 and took up fishing after 39 years in federal lighthouse services. Boating parties frequently came to his place in the evening to enjoy the cool isolation of the Biscayne flats and to eat chilau and fried Shrimp.
It wasn't long before Miami business men Thomas E. Grady, a traffic consultant, L. L. Lee, the Miami Beach city manager and Leo Edwards, an automobile dealer and boat owner, realized that they could build a retreat with breezes so cool that blankets were required at night, and so quiet that only the sound was that of fish asking to be caught just outside the back door. Only a 30 minute boat ride from the heart of the city, the trio leased 100 acres of the bay bottom for 10 years at $100 a year from the state internal improvement board and became Eddie's first neighbor. Then Councilman Baron de Hirsch-Meyer of Miami Beach, Edward Romth a Miami banker, and Joseph Weintraub, a Miami attorney, were quick to join them and an affluent neighborhood sprang up until the leases were not renewed and the buildings no longer allowed to be maintained.


Google Map of Boca Chita Key

We drop anchor just southwest of Boca Chita Key around six forty-five that afternoon. Well worn out from a full day of sailing exercises we fire up the Bar-B-Q and enjoy a wonderful dinner of rib-eye steaks and enjoy a beautifl sunset.


Sunset off Boca Chita Key

The sky tonight is beautiful with the stars out just above us and a magnificent lightening show in the clouds way off to our north east. The night's real entertainment comes later when we follow on the marine radio a search and rescue adventure, complete with helicopters and search boats for survivors of what starts out as a capsized boat that turns into a grounded vessel and then morphs into a boatload of refugee Cubans landing on Elliott Key just to the south of us not sure if they were "dry foot" yet.