1/5/14
North Sunset Islands Cove, Miami Beach FL
Position: 25 48.493N, 080 08.539W
Posted by Bill

Our last two days in Fort Lauderdale were pretty fun. There was the Arts Festival one day, and First Sunday Jazz the next. Both were only blocks away from our dock. The Jazz Band was a full orchestra and they were phenomenal, but the people watching was the best…OMG…there was every definition of weird walking around. Jimmy Buffett’s song, Fruitcakes, kept running through my mind. I can see where he gets his inspiration. We also took a dinghy ride further up the New River. It is mostly residential until you get to the mega-yacht facilities. Now we know why there were so many mega-yachts being towed up the river, as this is where they work on them. It was impressive. It was really nice to stay put for a few days and explore Fort Lauderdale, and Cooleys Landing was a perfect location.

Time to head to Miami. The coastal Atlantic Ocean marine forecast was for light winds out of the east and moving to the northeast in the afternoon. Waves 2-3 feet. No rain, 86 degrees. We prepared to sail before we left the dock. I think I mentioned that the current in the New River was pretty wicked at times and that you need to leave Cooleys Landing at slack tide (when the water stops moving as it prepares to reverse, for you land lubbers…lol), and I calculated slack tide to be around 9:30, so we left at 9:35. We were docked right next to a bridge, so I didn’t have any room for error, and we got out ok even though the tide was still flooding a tiny bit. We made it through the bridges and past a large ship in tow, and timed the 17th Street bridge near the ocean inlet perfectly. (I’ll do a special post about what we learned for navigating the New River. Hopefully it will help someone who is going there.)

The marine forecast was pretty close this time except the winds were out of the southeast, just enough in our nose that we couldn’t really sail, but we could use the main sail to steady the boat motion through the swell. The waves were a little rough but once you got used to the motion it was fine. Shortly after we passed Hollywood Beach the water turned a clear teal color. It is beautiful. It ended up being a great passage until we got to the inlet at Miami, Government Cut. The tide was coming out and it made the inlet really wild, but fortunately the wind was pretty much at our back so we had a following sea for the most part. With much concentration, I was able to keep the boat from rolling or getting pushed all over the place, and after we got past the rock jetties it got progressively better.

Government Cut is where all of the cruise ships dock in Miami, and for security reasons, the coast guard will shut it down sometimes. They are supposed to announce the shut downs on the marine radio so you know, and when it is closed you can take Fishermans Channel which parallels the cut, forking off just inside the inlet. We go cruising on down Government Cut, and I just said to Tricia “I can’t believe how few boats are in this channel…I mean for Miami…”, and I hear on the marine radio, “sailboat traveling west bound in the cut…the cut is closed…turn your vessel around immediately!” By the tone, you could tell they weren’t messing around, but I half wanted to see how many gun boats they sent after us if we kept going. Instead I turned and headed back to the entrance of Fishermans. That cost us about an hour.

We worked our way through the Venetian Causeway bridge and along the northern side of the Venetian Causeway, lined with mega-homes on the water, then up the Sunset Islands to a channel that takes you back into a lagoon called Sunset Lake. It is pretty small and lined with mega-homes owned by famous people and lucky sperm club members, who don’t like their view spoiled by cheap vagabond cruisers like us. They have reportedly gotten pretty nasty with cruisers, even to the point of shooting the boats with paintball guns, so we were a little leery of anchoring there, but it was very protected and beautiful. We tried to anchor several times but couldn’t get the anchor to set, so we went back out and up to the cove to the north of the Sunset Islands. There were 6 other boats and lots of room so you could anchor out of range of paintball weapons. There is a beautiful view of the Miami skyline, especially at night. The only negative is the 6 lane road beside us that is the main connection between Miami Beach and the mainland. There is some traffic noise, but nothing we can’t deal with.
We will probably be here for a couple of days until we find a mooring or dock for the front coming through Thursday. It is supposed to pack 30 knot winds.

Here is a cruise ship that we passed going out of Fort Lauderdale. Jim/Linda, we thought this might be yours:

Captain Bill at the helm. See the water color:

We stayed about a mile off shore with the shoreline looking pretty much like this the whole way:

Coming in the inlet at Miami. Miami Beach on the right, downtown Miami in the background:

Cruiseship row along Government Cut:

In Fishermans Channel we passed many container ships and working docks:


Coming in to downtown:



Passing cruise ship row on the west end:

Tricia got to see the reverse view of the Marriott she stayed at one time:

Sunset at our anchorage: