Miami Vice
30 March 2014
Wiley
It will surprise no one that a huge swinger like me would like Fort Lauderdale. Running along the beach, enjoying the huge margaritas, and best of all the “scenery.”
There is even one piece of interesting historical signage. On the beach in Fort Lauderdale, a sign indicates that this was the spot where a series of “wade-ins” occurred during the civil rights era of the 1960s. Black citizens of Fort Lauderdale had been allocated a “negro beach,” but promised beach facilities and a necessary access road were never built. This is yet another example if how, during the era of “separate but equal” the whites usually cheated – the segregated facilities allowed “colored” people were almost always unequal, especially in the South where (in most places) blacks were prevented from voting until 1965, and thus had little political power. The first “wade-in” occurred when a group of young black people, lead by their minister, went down to the all white beach after church, kicked off their shoes, and waded in. This sparked more protests; the filing of a civil rights suit, and eventually, the beach where I ran and swam when we were in Lauderdale was open for everyone.
Alas, the day came when we departed Fort Lauderdale, going down the ICW to the turning basin where the huge ships are (we counted five) big cruise ships), down the inlet and into the Atlantic Ocean. The cruise ships look like tall sky scrapers lying on the water. Small cities that take to the sea and one we noticed, with a large screened movie sized screen atop the ship. We looked like a little ant along side these giants. We got to the point where Les Miserables had forty feet of water under her keel, hoisted the mainsail and jib, shut down the engine, and by God we were sailing! The roller-furling jib is working fine now, the reefing lines are no longer tangled, we had a modest but usable 10-12 knots. The waves were little “one footers”, the boat was heeling maybe ten degrees, it was 72 degrees and sunny, and Merry’s kind of sailing day. Smooth, sailing, light winds, …relaxing – with sunshine – a perfect cruise.
Of course it didn’t last. The wind “clocked around” until we were close-hauled and sailing within 45 degrees of the direction of the wind. The wind was now from the southeast. Then the wind began to die. When the wind died down to 6 knots we started the engine – when it fell to 2 knots we took the sail in and we were once again a slow motorboat.
From Fort Lauderdale to Miami is not much more than 20 miles and soon it became time to enter the inlet for the Port of Miami. We picked a bad time to do so.
The inlet has two great vices – tidal current and traffic. If the traffic consists of a cruise ship in or out, the Coast Guard closes the inlet – at times, for a whole day. The reason is simple – they don’t want what happened to the USS Cole happening to a cruise ship loaded with thousands of people.
No cruise ship was arriving or departing the inlet when we made our turn around the entrance buoy and headed up the inlet into the Port of Miami. However, there was lots of traffic including some sailboats, but mostly powerboats of every size and description, from jet skis to huge sport-fishing boats, and loud fast powerful cigarette boats. The result was the most slaphappy collection of boat wakes we have experienced in Les Miserable. We were tossed this way and that as we were passed on both sides from behind by boats and by boats approaching. Some of the wakes were large enough to actually swamp a small boat. Of course, with her high freeboard and 3,800 pound keel, Les Miserable finds boat wakes a mere annoyance. However, any passengers on Les Miserable will find the experience living up to her namesake. One of the cruising guides advises against making passages into our out of Miami on weekends precisely because of the heavy boat traffic. Added to the incredible boat wakes was a strong current by the outgoing tide. The current must have been close to three knots, because even after the engine, “Tim McGee,” was pushed to 3200 rpms – “full speed ahead!” – we were going only 3.8 knots.
Because conditions were so unpleasant we opted to detour off the main channel into Miami and instead take a channel called the “Lummis Cut,” to the “Dodge Cut,” and then turn onto the ICW. The Port of Miami is located on Dodge Island formed by the main channel on the north, and Lummis cut on the south. It is interesting, but unattractive, with cranes and docks for large container ships, everything with a “seen better days” look to it. To someone used to the magnificent architecture of Chicago even the skyline of Miami is unimpressive. The boat traffic, the current, the mediocre visual appeal of the city snuffed out the idea of spending more time there.
By the time we reached the ICW the current was most gone and we throttled “Tim McGee” back to 2800 rpm for a comfortable 5.2 knots. South of downtown Miami we went under the big Eddie Rickenbacker Causeway Bridge, with a vertical clearance of 120 feet. After the bridge we entered Biscayne Bay, a large body of water only ten or twelve feet deep. Just before mile 1095 on the ICW – the distance Les Miserable had come since we first entered the ICW in Norfolk, Virginia in 2011 – we turned into Dinner Key Channel to take a mooring at the Coconut Grove Sailing Club.
We “skipped” Miami. Actually, quite honestly we didn’t go into Miami to explore marinas, the culture of the city, etc. We were eager to move down the coastline to get to the Keys because Sean and Tesia were meeting us in Key Largo to go scuba diving. However, we think that from now on, we may stay out in the Atlantic and pass Miami offshore. There is no compelling reason for sailors to go in, other than to dine on Cuban Chicken, black beans and rice in “Little Havana”, or to see if the Miami Vice police detectives really don’t wear socks!