The weather patterns in 2016 have made it a challenging year so far for sailors. To us west coasters, the idea that El Niño would have more apparent impact over here than in California or Oregon seems crazy. But impact us it has, resulting in much cooler than normal temperatures, complete with cold fronts coming through about every six days. The normal steady easterly trade winds are nowhere in sight, and rapidly shifting winds conditions have made it difficult to plan passages. We heard that Boot Key Harbor down in Marathon (near Key West) has a record number of boats - as many as 49 - waiting for mooring balls as the several hundred remain occupied with sailors who've decided to stay put until conditions change.
For our own part, the uncertainty has caused us to slow things down, and to decide against making the 700 mile trek next month over to New Orleans from the gulf coast. Instead, we plan to spend our spring exploring Florida's west side. Right now we're in Biscayne Bay, heading further south tomorrow (weather permitting, of course!). This seems like the perfect time to recap our experiences on the east side of this state, where we've now been cruising nearly six weeks.
St. Augustine
The lovely St. Augustine waterfront, as seen from our mooring aboard Thalia.
We had originally intended to spend Christmas in this lovely city - the oldest in the United States and one of our favorite destinations - but didn't end up arriving until January 8. As with most things, once we let go of our disappointment over thwarted plans, it turned out just fine. Ironically, my concern over having missed the gorgeous Christmas lights was unfounded - we had a front row seat from our mooring ball just off the city wall, minus the Christmas crowds in the city.
Thalia peacefully moored in St. Augustine harbor.
Following the sailor's Murphy's Law, we no sooner arrived than our dinghy outboard's carburetor died, causing Captain Enzo to spend a couple of frustrating days attempting to repair it and ultimately having to order a new one. We felt very lucky the marina provided a free launch for the mooring field, allowing us to go ashore. For $5, there's also a convenient shuttle van for cruisers, run by a very gregarious woman named Sandy. She cheerfully drove a van full of folks to two grocery stores, a fish market, a produce market, West Marine, the Sailor's Exchange (a funky emporium of used boat accessories, tools, etc.), and a wonderful food cart.
A view of part of the harbor from the top of the Castillo de San Marcos fortress.
In addition to provisioning and repairing the outboard, we spent our eight days there walking and riding bikes all over town, exploring the 17th century Castillo de San Marcos, touring the Whetstone Chocolate Factory, and visiting the Lightner Museum in the gorgeous historic Alcazar Hotel (shown above). We also caught up with cruising friends Candace and Kenny, who were enroute to Marathon, and Diane and Bob, who like us were heading further south to try to escape the very chilly weather.
Best of all, on our last night there, we were able to connect with Dan, an old Marin friend and the younger brother of one of my closest friends. I hadn't seen him since Ilana and I graduated from high school - nearly 40 years ago! He's living in St. Augustine and working in Jacksonville. We dined at a local Cuban café and caught up on decades of life.
We spent a couple of nights moored outside of Titusville so we could connect with old friends Bob and Connie, who live there, as well as Perry and Irene, friends we met in Bimini last year who were getting some boat work done before heading back to the Bahamas.
Setting out the next morning, we stayed in the Intracoastal Waterway (ICW) rather than exiting the inlet at St. Augustine, due to very rough conditions in the ocean. It was plenty windy and quite cold (in the low 40s) even "inside" as we motored south toward Daytona Beach. We had the considerable current with us as we and several other boats approached a bascule bridge in 30-plus knot winds. We hailed the bridge tender, who told us we'd have to wait 45 minutes or so for an opening so a bunch of marathon runners heading his way could clear the bridge. So the captain got to practice his boat idling skills in a narrow channel, with strong current pushing us toward the bridge, and winds now gusting to 40 knots. The sailboat crews were all delighted when that bridge finally opened and we could move on.
From our anchorage in Daytona Beach, we were able to coordinate meeting up with Oregon friends Libby and Joe, who have been spending the winter in central Florida with their RV and sailboat. We met for lunch, then took them back to Thalia in our dinghy so they could see her in person.
By this point we were starting to realize that we have a lot of friends in Florida, those who live here as well as those who pass through along with us.
Framed by mangroves, the Vero Beach mooring field at seen at sunset.
Vero Beach
Situated just north of Fort Pierce - our favorite channel to exit the ICW in heading down to Fort Lauderdale - is this charming seaside town. We'd never visited before, but had heard it referred to as "Velcro Beach" for its allure to cruisers, so we motored down in time to snag the last mooring ball in the crowded harbor. Most mooring balls had more than one boat on them - rafting up is mandatory here, to accommodate more boats. Perry and Irene arrived a couple of days later and rafted up to us, making it very convenient to continue the party.
The harbor may be crowded, but it's very picturesque and the facilities are wonderful. In addition to the usual cruiser's lounge, laundry room, and showers, there are several outdoor areas to congregate, and the free city bus stops right outside the lounge. We rode it one day to the local farmers market, which was disappointingly small and more oriented toward crafts than local produce. And we took the bus another time to run some errands. But otherwise, we rode our bikes - the marina is only a few miles from downtown, and it's more bike friendly than a lot of Florida towns.
Downtown Vero Beach is a shopper's paradise - Irene, who loves shopping and antiquing - was in heaven. Larry and I aren't shoppers, so there was not much of interest to us there. We did enjoy walking along the boardwalk that fronts the beach for about half a mile on the north end of town, but found when we cycled several miles further north that any views of the beach were almost completely blocked by high rise condos and the walls and hedges of luxury homes.
An individual Grand Marnier soufflé stood in for the Captain's birthday cake.
We celebrated Larry's 64th birthday onboard with a quiet dinner of homemade ricotta and prosciutto tortellini in tomato cream sauce, salad, and individual Grand Marnier soufflés.
Before we left we visited the local art museum, which is very small but had a couple of fascinating exhibits, one by painter Oscar Bluemner and the other a collection of American Roadside photos by painter and photographer John Bader. There's also a nice sculpture garden on the premises.
Fort Lauderdale
It was only 20 miles the next afternoon down to Fort Pierce, where we anchored overnight so we could leave at first light for Fort Lauderdale. Timing in Fort Pierce is important; the currents are extremely strong, and it's much easier to exit on an ebb tide if possible. We ended up having a really nice sailing day, still quite chilly but with good wind and pods of friendly dolphins to keep us company.
The clarity and the color of the water from this latitude south are indefinable, and almost as difficult to capture on film as are the many dolphins. But we keep trying!
Fort Lauderdale is starting to feel like a homecoming to us, given how many times we've sailed in and out of there. It's around here that the ocean water turns that unbelievable turquoise blue, and the weather (normally) is deliciously warm in winter. Even though we arrived on a Saturday afternoon, there was far less traffic in the harbor than usual, other than six (!) cruise ships docked there. This was probably because it had gotten quite windy by then, gusting into the 30s as we rounded the corner to wait for the 17th Avenue bridge opening.
In the past, we've always stayed on a mooring ball at the Las Olas Marina, but this time we took our friend Kenny's advice and motored past the Las Olas Bridge and up into a small anchorage in Middle River. We'd never considered staying there because the charts show depths of only three or four feet in the center of the anchorage. Kenny assured us it was closer to 20 feet, and he was absolutely right. Good thing, too, because there were no mooring balls in any event at Las Olas, and we got one of the last spots at the anchorage. Many boats were there longer than anticipated, again waiting for elusive weather windows for crossing to the Bahamas or heading down to the Keys.
It turned out to be a very social week indeed, with a visit from our good friend Curt, who lives in the DC area but was in Florida for some Naval Reserve training. Curt spent part of his childhood being homeschooled on a sailboat with his parents and brothers, cruising the waters of Hawaii and the South Pacific, so he's kind of the perfect guest to have onboard. He was kind enough to drive us to Whole Foods and West Marine for some provisioning, and then we had a wonderful meal at a local Greek restaurant.
While there, we also spent a couple of evenings with our dear friend Lyza, cooking dinner at her house one night and then going out for a movie and a casual dinner another night. Lyza, as it turns out, had an extra sewing machine she was thinking of getting rid of, as she'd bought a larger one. I was really excited when she gave it to me! It's compact and perfect for the boat, and will mean I don't have to do all my canvas and other repairs by hand.
And finally, we were able to connect with Stephen and Estelle, friends who were our first sailing instructors and are now yacht brokers with a focus on catamarans. They were our brokers when we bought Thalia, and we've remained close. We had brunch together, and considered ourselves lucky to be able to see them, with the big Miami boat show looming.
Miami
Other than as a departure point for Bahamas crossings, we'd never visited Miami. We sailed down from Fort Lauderdale about ten days ago to a new-to-us marina at Dinner Key in Coconut Grove. We tied up to a mooring ball, which seems to be the norm here in Florida if you want shore access. We didn't know what to expect of Miami, but it turns out, we had a wonderful time. And the weather finally started warming up, gifting us with several lovely, sunny days in the low 80s. The water here is so clear, when we get into our dinghy, we can see our boat's entire keel and rudder. The bottom of the bay is only about 7 or 8 feet deep.
When the Dinner Key Marina maintenance crews harvest the trees - to keep the coconuts from falling on people or cars - they leave them heaped in maintenance vehicles for anyone to take.
Coconut Grove is a suburb of Miami, a really cute town in its own right, with very nice parks and a lively restaurant scene. As we have no television on board, we were happy to be able to watch the Super Bowl in a local sports bar. The Miami boat show was also going on while we were there, and Stephen and Estelle got us free tickets. So on Friday, we took the water taxi across Biscayne Bay to the show and spent the day wandering around ogling a mind-boggling display of yachts and accessories on which one could spend a very large fortune.
The west side of Domino Park on Calle 8 in Little Havana is bordered by this long, colorful tile wall.
The highlight of our Miami visit was Saturday, when we took a city bus up to the famed Calle 8 (8th Street) in Little Havana to meet up with a small group for a culinary walking tour of the area. This was our third such tour - we've done them in Greenwich Village and in Fells Point in Baltimore - and it was wonderful.
A visit to an authentic Cuban cigar factory was part of our tour. Although the cigars are made here by several generations of a Cuban family, the tobacco - from Cuban seed - is grown in Central America and imported here.
It included stops to watch old Cuban men playing dominoes in the shade of black olive trees in Domino park, utterly delicious empanadas and "media de noche" (midnight) sandwiches at a traditional Cuban café, a visit to a tiny cigar factory, and an amazing mojito at the recently renovated Ball & Chain nightclub, where the likes of Billy Holiday, Louie Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, and Duke Ellington once played.
Exuberant colors and wonderfully funky signage reflect the personalities of the neighborhood.
Tiny, sweet, intensely strong Cuban coffee is a delicious pick-me-up, at only 75¢ a cup.
Arguably the best part of our tour was the wonderful mojito we were served while listening to live jazz music at the historic Ball & Chain club.
We're now anchored across Biscayne Bay on the east side, near No Name Harbor, waiting for the latest cold front (which isn't all that cold at all - just very windy and showery) to blow through. Tomorrow we'll head down to Key Largo for a couple of nights to do some provisioning, and then thread our way through the Keys toward the west coast of Florida. Neither of us has ever sailed there before beyond Marathon, so we're looking forward to new adventures, more visits with friends, and hoping to see a glimpse of Old Florida while it's still around.