Rain Storm approaching Miami as seen from the Miami Beach anchorage north of the Venetian Causeway

The previous blog written about a week ago had us moored in the Dinner Key Mooring Field. After a couple of days reorienting ourselves to the good life in Coconut Grove (Enterprise, Supercuts, Starbucks, Home Depot, Publix supermarket, etc), we motored for about an hour over to an anchorage on the west side of South Miami Beach next to the Venetian Causeway. Our goal was to see the fancy shopping district in South Beach known as Lincoln Road Mall and the famous beach.

We anchored on the north side of the Venetian Causeway just off Belle Island for the first two of the four nights we spent at South Beach. Because of a wind shift to the north, we moved the boat over to the south side of the Causeway for the second two nights. This afforded us a much calmer anchorage as far as the wind and waves went but exposed us to much more boat and jet-ski traffic. My advice is to avoid both these anchorages on a weekend.

South Beach can be accessed from either anchorage. It's an easy dinghy ride over to the Collins Canal which runs nearly all the way across Miami Beach. About midway up the canal is a dinghy dock from which it is only about a four block or so walk over to Lincoln Road. There is also a Publix across the street from the dock making this an excellent place to provision.

Lincoln Road Mall consists of several blocks that have been closed off for pedestrian traffic only. It looked like a good place to shop if you are related to Donald Trump.

The beach can be accessed a block or so past the end of the Mall. As near as we could tell it deserves its accolades. The sand was soft and white and every amenity required for a happy day at the beach appeared to be there.

Coming back from the south end of the beach we walked along Ocean Drive which consists of wall to wall restaurants, all assuring that they are the best ever seen. This area really rocks at night but just before noon not much was happening.

We had intended to stay out another day or two, anchoring at the Marine Stadium and possibly No Name Harbor, but a malfunctioning dinghy engine forced us to head back to Dinner Key and an engine mechanic. He quickly found the carburetor plugged up with grit, source unknown.

Coming in early was probably a good thing because as usual, getting the boat ready to go out again has taken longer than expected. Carol and Elliott arrive tomorrow and we are just now ready to go. We plan to give Carol and Elliott an easygoing tour of the Biscayne Bay area and the upper Keys. We're all looking forward to kayaking in the mangroves at the Pennekamp Park.