Starfish

We are out on the Atlantic today sailing north in the Gulf Stream outside Miami sailing towards Ft. Lauderdale.  It is sunny and 80 winds are about 5 to 10, we could use a little more.  Joe just informed me that our depth is 875 feet.  We have been in Miami and Key Biscayne for the last three weeks enjoying the wonderful weather and spending time with our sailing friends on Spindrift.  They left Monday to go back to Virginia Beach where they both live.  We miss seeing them in the mornings. Did I mention they had a runaway dinghy too.  Yes it ran away from their boat.  After that they could not tease us about rescuing ours after it ran away.  Had some good times with Rick and Sandy we plan on getting with them next fall and heading out to the big blue yonder.

Spent most of our anchored time in No Name Harbor, a popular cruisers stop going to and from the Bahamas. It was a nice calm anchorage but there was always one boat partying and playing their bang bang music way toooooo loud!  Last night was no exception. The beach in the park here is nice there is a shelter here, restrooms, a washer and dryer and an outdoor shower ( cold water, activated by a pull chain) refreshing after snorkeling or hiking. Park contains the original Cape Florida lighthouse, which we got to go up inside and get a birds eye view from the top.  Quite an amazing sight from 90 feet in the air.  It was 109 steps to the top,  good work out.  We did some snorkeling and found some conch and giant starfish, I will include pictures.  Mostly sea grass beds not too much coral but some small pieces and some sponges.  We did spend 2 and 1/2 days at Dinner Key Marina where we had the awesome experience (sarcasm) of being on a mooring ball there,  it was like being on a 36 foot rocking horse on springs.  Key Biscayne is not very protected on that side of the bay from any direction.  We endured only because our mail was being sent to the marina, and we were off the boat as much as possible.  Dinghy rides in were wet and rocky.  We will not stay there again.

 Internet has been non consistent here so it is hard to post my blog.  

We began to replace the starboard stern cleat but due to limited space to get our drill in the lazzarette we have put that on hold until we can get a smaller drill.  So we are without a starboard cleat right now.   All other boat project are on hold until we get electric to run power tools. 

The other morning we were sitting in the cockpit reading and our boat neighbor on their Beneteau 48, Buoyant, Lee and Heidi from New Jersey, Lee was tring to get his motor on his dinghy we were not paying too much attention but we heard a splash.  Joe looks up and says is that what I think it sounded like.  And yep Lee dropped his dinghy motor in the water and it sinks to Davey Jones locker.  Lee went and sat down didn't say a word.  About 10 minutes later Joe goes over and offers to dive down and recover the motor.  He gladly accepted help and Joe was successful in recovering the motor about 1/2 an hour later.  They offered to take us to lunch which we accepted and had a wonderful time over wine, beers and good food.   We have decided to put a lifting bridle on our own dinghy motor so this does not happen to us.  

TTFN