12/4/16
Marine Stadium, Miami FL
Position: 25 44.505N, 080 09.984W
Posted by Bill

We really enjoyed Stuart while we were there, and also some rest from traveling almost every day for weeks. The next stage of travel was to get through Fort Lauderdale, into Miami and Biscayne Bay, then head into the Florida Keys. Miami and Fort Lauderdale have placed several anchoring restrictions that severely limit the number of places you can anchor, which forces you into renting a slip. The slip prices in these places are pretty stiff, so we were looking to skip Fort Lauderdale all together and travel off shore from Lake Worth (Palm Beach) to Miami in one really long day. There are over 30 bridges to negociate when you take the ICW from Lake Worth to Miami, which is a major pain in the ass, so missing those by going off shore was a large factor in choosing that route. The next window of decent weather was looking like 12/2-12/3, so we left Stuart and traveled to Lake Worth, anchoring just off the inlet at position: 26 46.102N, 080 2.673W. Along the way, Byrd Ketcher broke an alternator belt, so we waited while Kurt put on a new one, and off we went. One of the things that I hate about south Florida are the power boaters. They are assholes. In the Carolinas and Georgia, everyone waves when we pass each other , and most power boats are aware of the effect of their wake on smaller boats and sailboats, so they are courteous. Not so in south Florida. You say hi…they ignore you like you are not there. They will throw a 4 foot wake flying right next to you with no regard of the effect. So here is Byrd Ketcher, anchored just off the channel, clearly broken down, and the power boats just go flying by! It is just unbelievable how rude and egotistical these people are. Really tough to work on a boat at anchor with power boats throwing wakes at you. End of rant…

We met up with Tricia’s cousin Bob and his wife Lynn in Lake Worth. They live nearby and really wanted to have dinner with us. We took the dinghy ashore to Riviera Beach Marina, paid a tie up fee, and they picked us up and treated us to a fantastic dinner. It was really nice talking to them and enjoying the meal. We had planned to leave at 4AM the next morning so we beat it back to the boat and checked the weather…window closed for leaving the next day off shore, but Friday looked OK for going off shore from Lauderdale to Miami (which we have to do because our mast is too tall to take the ICW for that stretch), so we decided to take the ICW to Lauderdale and try to find a place to anchor.

We left early on the 2nd, and about 2 hours into the trip Byrd Ketcher develops an engine overheating problem (rough luck for them this trip). It looks like they need to replace the water pump which will require an overnight stay at Boyten Beach to get parts. Sofia Jeanne and Byrd Ketcher can go ICW all the way to Miami since their masts are lower than ours, and the weather window for us to go off shore is about an 8 hour window, so we reluctantly leave them behind to deal with the issue and press on. We anchored in Sunset Bay in Fort Lauderdale in position: 26 08.577N, 080 06.525W. It was a great anchorage and there were only 2 other boats with us:

The next day we went out the inlet at Fort Lauderdale and motored to Govenors Cut inlet at Miami. We stayed about a mile and a half off shore and had pretty calm seas until the last 3rd of the trip:

The seas were following, so it was pretty comfortable. Pictures of arriving in Miami:





We seem so small next to the big ships!

We pulled into Marine Stadium, which is an abandoned stadium where they held boat races and ski competitions, etc… It is now a really nice anchorage with a fantastic view of the Miami skyline:


As we pulled in, the bilge pump kick on, which it never does. We don’t get much water in the bilge normally, never enough to kick on the pump. Couple of minutes later, it kicks off again, and it kept doing it while we were looking for a spot to drop the hook. I did a quick drop, enough to find out what was dumping water into the bilge. You get a real sour feeling in the gut when you know the boat is taking on water, trust me. After troubleshooting, we found that a hose fitting on the hot water heater had broken and fresh water was being dumped into the bilge as fast as the pump would push it, then subsequently dumped into the bay by the bilge pump. Easy to stop it by switching off the fresh water pump, but we didn’t have a spare for that part of the system. I should also note that Marine Stadium is at least 4 miles away from anything that could potentially provide a new part. After digging through our spare plumbing parts, we found a fitting that matched from the air conditioner condensation drainage plumbing…an absolute miracle! It took some effort to remove the broken part, and we had to move all of the stuff out of the “garage” (aft berth) to do the repair, but all went well. Next, since we dumped more than half of our tank of fresh water, we needed to commission the new water maker I installed. We hadn’t been in decent water to run the thing until now, so yesterday I started it up, and we had issues. One, I had switched the output fittings on the pressure cylinder, so brine water was coming out of the fresh water hose. Two, the pump that we use to provide sea water wouldn’t push the air out of the system. I spent most of the day in the cockpit locker where all of the stuff is installed, and finally got it working. We made about 15 gallons of water in an hour and then called it quits for the day. Today we will do some exploring and make more water.

Meanwhile, our traveling partners continued to work on Byrd Ketcher several times along the way, and we expect them here this afternoon. I think the overheating problems are finally solved. Fingers crossed.