IMAGE – Patti & James dingy riding in Miami


January 1 to 10th: Miami - at anchor off Sunset Harbour – near the Venetian Islands. We are in the same great anchoring position we were in 2 years ago – so central to all that happens in and around the nearby South Beach ‘hip’ location.

New Years Eve was as expected – a sky full of fireworks all around us. We had a wonderful dinner onboard. Sushi and champagne to start, steak and salad, and finally our Christmas pies and icecream.

Miami is wonderful for people watching! We have spent many afternoons sitting in various sidewalk cafes on Lincoln Road doing internet stuff and people watching – every stenotypes you can think and many more we have seen in action.

The Art Deco district is stunning. Our daily wandering of the many streets in the local South Beach area at the various facades and features of the beautiful hotels and housing blocks was very enjoyable indeed. Getting around Miami has been easy, either on foot or via the cheap local bus and trolley bus services.

A cold northerly weather front came through at the end of the 1st week of the New Year – we considering moving for a safer anchorage and whilst doing a recce of the nearby designated anchorage we came across ‘Sally Lightfoot ‘– with the Dutch couple Dick & Petra on board – last time we met up was in Green Cove Springs. It was good to meet up with then again a few times whilst we were both in Miami – they are also heading to the Keys so our paths may cross again.

On our sail down from Jacksonville we had a problem with one of our B & G display units – every day it froze after approx. 5 hours of working – so here was that place to arrange for it to be repaired before we get any further south. Wheelhouse Inc in Fort Lauderdale are THE ONLY guys to fix this specialise electronic equipment– so after some discussions with them it was decided to send it to them– and hopefully have it repaired and returned within a few days. Well that was the plan ….. Wheelhouse had a lot of work on due to the Christmas/ New Year holidays – so our piece of kit sat around and was not repaired but not returned within the agreed timescales.

Anyway thankfully we could arrange a safe delivery address with the OCC Port Officer in Marathon, and we could collect it from him on our way south through the Keys.