1/14/15
Miami Beach FL
Posted by Bill

OK. So the last few days have not been anything but our normal routine…not blog worthy to me…but several people, who shall go unnamed, still want blog. Still in Miami Beach, still highs in the low 80s, still lows in the low 70s, but it did rain like a mother yesterday. We collected about 10 gallons of rainwater and we used it to do some laundry with the plunger we bought at the Annapolis boat show. It works pretty damn good with a 5 gallon bucket and a couple of hard ciders. We have also used it to flush the toilets, as we have never used salt water with our aluminum holding tank. Lastly, I have used it to shave and wash my hair. At anchor we need to conserve the water in our fresh water tanks, so the rain helped out. We also got a rainbow:

These are the things that fill our day. In fact, we have settled into a routine at anchor. It usually goes like this: Up at dawn, make coffee, pour Tricia some juice, start the boat engine to repower the batteries, sit in the cockpit and check the weather on 3 different sites, check email, relax drinking coffee, check the stock market futures, check the weather again, shower, eat breakfast, get the dinghy ready to go ashore, go ashore – usually get some groceries because you have to get them in small enough quantities that you can carry them back to the dinghy, get gas for the generator and dinghy about every other day, do some kind of productive boat maintenance, maybe take a swim, explore some area that you haven’t yet, get ready for sundowners, drink and watch the sun go down, make and eat dinner, run the generator to repower the batteries and all of our electronic crap, go to bed.

Today on the way to get groceries, we saw a boat dragging anchor across the anchorage near the police station, close to where we tie up for going ashore.

It was eventually going to hit several boats in it’s path, so we turned the dinghy towards it and knocked on the hull…no one home. I diverted to the dock next to the police station and alerted the nice officer about the situation. He said “There is nothing we or you can do. If you board that boat, you are liable for what happens to it, so good deeds in this situation could lead to a real bad situation for you or me. Most of the boats in this anchorage live aboard all year long and will do something at the last minute if there is going to be a collision.” Alllrighty then…I hope our boat never drags while we are away from it. On our way back through, we did see that it was anchored securely and there was a dinghy at the boat, so all ended well.

After an early afternoon snack (and beverage), we decided to explore the canal that we found at the north-eastern corner of our cove. It looked like it went back to some other waterways and we figured we could maybe find something new to tie up to and explore. It was pretty much a dud.

It had some homes with interesting lawn ornaments:


And a couple of cool birds:

But, it pretty much took us in a big circle with nothing of much interest. That led us into sundowners. There were clouds over the western horizon, so we don’t even have a cool sunset to share tonight.

I also thought I would share some pictures of our neighbors here in this anchorage. A quick look on Zillow showed these homes ranged from 5 to 30 million dollars. And that is without the boats behind them. Here are some on the south side of us:






This is the northern bridge that leads into Sunset Lake. We are about 400 yards north of it:

Then we have Mt Siani medical facilities to the north of us:

Here is a pic of the step I built. We have been using it and it seems to work very well. I covered it with fire hose:

Lastly, we are still celebrating the Buckeye victory over the Ducks! What a story their season has been, and we are Buckeye proud. Here are a few different pics of Island Bound with the OSU flag flying:

Based on the weather, it looks like we will be moving on in a few more days, and heading further south in to Biscayne Bay. From here we will stage to go to the Keys when the right weather window presents itself. As much as I like it here, I am ready for some new territory to explore. It will likely be Coconut Grove on the south side of Miami.

Keep warm up there in Ohio!