1/10/15
Miami Beach FL
Posted by Bill

First, happy birthday to our grandson Oskar! He is 2 today and it is a major bummer that we are not there with him to celebrate. At least we got to FaceTime with him.

The last couple of days were somewhat uneventful. Yesterday, we swam in the bay again and cleaned the waterline of the boat. It gets fuzzy when you sit for awhile, but a gentle scrub takes it off. Then we went ashore for another dose of South Beach. This time we walked down Lincoln Road to the beach. Lincoln is pedestrian only for about 7 blocks and there are all kinds of street side restaurants and shopping options. Not the best, but here is a picture of one section:

Then we walked all the way down South Beach again, got parched in the heat, and decided to go for some beverages. We walked a few blocks off of Ocean Drive because we wanted to find some place that was more reasonably priced, stopped in a CVS and asked a woman selling tours where the best happy hour was. Her face lit up and she said “Oh, not here…go up 5 blocks and go left to the Miami Beach Marina. There is a bar called Monty’s that is right on the water. They have good drinks, good food and good prices!” So we did. It was a great spot, and we found out that we could dinghy to the marina and could dock the dinghy there for no charge if we bought something at the bar or restaurant. It is around 2 miles to dinghy, but if the bay isn’t rough it would be a good place to land to go to South Beach. We then walked back to where the dinghy was tied up and went to a restaurant called Burger and Beer Joint. Good food!

Monty’s:

Today, we hung out on the boat for the most part and did some reading. I also did some more work on the newest project…a boarding step for boarding the boat at the side gates. When at anchor, we usually board the dinghy or board the boat from the stern ladder (back of the boat). Our friends on Simple Life had a ladder that they lower at the boarding gate at the side of the boat. The boarding gates are used when at a dock usually. We liked their set up because it was easier that using the stern ladder. Then we met some folks on Rejoice that had a wooden step they hung from the boarding gate, so I took some notes and bought the materials I didn’t already have, and started making it. I’ll take a pic when it is done. We will try it for a bit before the last step of putting varnish on it.

Right now we are waiting on the weather. We think we are going to skip the Bahamas this year as we are hearing that the weather hasn’t been the best so far this season. We are going to target the Florida Keys for February, and then maybe head up the west coast of Florida and hit the Dry Tortugas either on the way up or on the way back. Looks like we will be here for another week. As always, this could change, but we will keep you all posted.