Florida Gold Coast

Our return from Nassau went very smoothly.  We left Nassau around 9 a.m. and  ran slowly until about 1 a.m. at which time we anchored just off the Banks near Bimini and slept for five hours. Along the way, Tom caught another dolphin fish, so we will enjoy mahi-mahi soon.  This time no fish story, but as you can see he did measure it since we had a difference of opinion on the size of the last one!

It IS over 2 feet long!

Returning to US waters, we notified customs of our arrival and cleared without problem.  However, they informed us we had to appear in person to clear immigration.  This meant a trip to downtown Miami which proved to be a 2 bus, peoplemover, taxi expedition.  We would never have made it without Greg's directions. Having gone through this fiasco, we applied for the local boaters option which allows you to clear both customs and immigration by phone.  We should be able to use this in Canada.

The yellow quarentine flag must be flown until customs and immigration are cleared.

Since we were in downtown Miami we decided to take in the Miami boat show.  It is a monster.  We only had time to see the exhibits in the convention center.  Wish we had been able to have the time to view the in-water sites.

Lighthouse Key Biscayne

Arriving in Key Biscayne 33 hours after leaving Nassau, we anchored near the Key Biscayne Yacht Club.  That evening we dinghyed to KBYC where we were met by Bob Duthie (our slip neighbor at Kenlake Marina) and his friend, Greg Han. Greg and his wife, Susan, graciously invited us to join them for dinner that evening at their home.  All of them are gold loopers, so many stories were exchanged.

Tom, Mavis and Bob Duthie, Susan and Greg Han 

Greg was able to get us a slip at KBYC where we stayed for two nights.  It was very windy on the bay, so we were grateful to be in calm waters.  While there, Tom was cleaning the swim platform one day when this fellow came for a visit.  Apparently manatees love the fresh water!  He was so ugly that he was cute.

South Beach

Since we had become experts at public transportation, we headed off to Miami Beach- a beautiful beach with lots of people and lots of condos.  Fun place to visit.  The picture to the right shows Linda by one of the lifeguard stands.  The yellow flag is a water condition medium caution and the purple one is warning of sea critters like man-o-war.  We just walked the beach and took in the sights.  Tom especially seemed to enjoy the sights!

And now we are in the land of condos, big $$$ homes, and even bigger $$$$$ boats.  We are constantly amazed at the number and size of both.  Many of the yachts are flying Cayman Island flags.  Think maybe there is a little money hidden there??

 

After Key Biscayne, we spent two nights at Coral Ridge Yacht Club in Lauderdale.  This gave us time to go to Port Everglades to have "interviews" for the local boater option.   We never were interviewed but again we had to appear in person to hand over our passports.  We left Coral Ridge Monday, Feb. 27th and went on up the ICW to Lighthouse Point where we kept the boat at "Joe's" while we went on our dive trip to Bonaire.  We found Joe's through a contact on the AGLCA forum, Ronnie Babin, who not only found the dock, but took us to the Miami airport. Way above and beyond!  Joe is quite a story!  His home and dock were beautiful and when asked what he did, he first told us, "I steal boats."  Seeing our reaction, he clarified that he and his group of ex-military buddies "liberated" boats that had been impounded by Central and South American governments.  We didn't ask too many questions, but judging by the house and dock, the jobs must pay well.  He had a lot of security around his property so we felt Raydiance was in very good hands.  When we returned from our dive trip, we resupplied (again with Ronnie's help) and left Joe's dock on March 12th heading to Jupiter.  We stayed at Soveral Marina (actually in North Palm Beach) which I would highly recommend.  On Wednesday we took in a Cardinals' spring training game.  A beautiful day, seats in the shade behind home plate,  all good except the Cardinals lost 4-3.  It was great fun to experience the small stadium and crowd of about 6,000.

David Freese hits a single bringing in a run.