An Interesting Day

Usually  one or two things stand out each day, and they become the subject of our blog post.  Today we might go a little long because of the diversity of expericnces and images of the day.

First the basics: we left Key Biscayne at 8:30 and cruised mostly at 8 knots for 9 hours, covering 68 nautical miles, a new record for us in this boat.  We have anchored out again, in Matecumbe Bight. If you double click on the photo above you’ll see the blue dot to the left of Highway 1, which is us.

If you enlarge the photo above of southern Florida and the Keys, you can pretty well figure out our route, passing through a series of Sounds to the north and west of the Keys. 

The morning began with idyllic conditions: warm weather, mild breezes and only a light chop on the water.  There were sailboats, light houses and Miami skyscrapers in the distance.

Next we detoured past a classic of Americana: Stiltsville. These days there only about a dozen of these structures left in the shallows just a mile or two south of Key Biscayne.  Until a  series of hurricanes wiped them out 10 years ago, there were apparently many more, and there was quite a diverse group of individuals who lived here.  It reminded us a bit of Slab City out in California near the Salton Sea.  Both Stiltsville and Slab City are worth Googling.

An hour later as we cruised down Biscayne Bay we were suddenly passed by a cigarette boat being chased by a helicopter, both going about 70 miles an hour.  Now that was interesting!  Only that was just the start.

Soon literally dozens of them were roaring by. Bob, in usual male fashion, was fascinated by the rumbling cacophony. Cathryn, on the other hand, was just annoyed by their noise and the fact they invariably roared by us so closely we could see their teeth.

A couple hours later we were passing through a narrow cut and who did we encounter?  Yep, the boys (about 80% of the participants were male) who had stopped for lunch and probably refreshments. Interestingly they felt it was reasonable to yell at us to SLOW DOWN. It appears that our wake at 8 knots disturbed them!

So we cruised on, discussing what a weird thing these fast boats are, given that each one must cost several hundred thousand dollars and use unimaginable quantities of fuel. Soon after, as we passed through a narrow channel, guess who showed up?

You guessed it, the boys, yet again!  They roared through this channel at about 50 mph. Since there were wildlife agents everywhere and none seemed to be concerned about it, we assume there are no environmental restrictions on their activities.

Finally at 5:30 we found our way into our anchorage, dodging our way through hundreds of crab pots, and after a simple dinner, watched the sunset.  The sun is now down, the water is absolutely flat and we’re enjoying our evening under the stars on the rear deck.

Tomorrow we go to Marathon where we hope to get a mooring ball in Boot Key Harbor, and then spend a week enjoying some landside activities interspersed with doing nothing on the boat.