December 20, 2008, Miami's Marine Stadium

aaaaah ! This is kinda like being back home. We’re in a little cove on the north end of Biscayne Bay’s Virginia Key where we’ve spent countless nights over the past 25 years on Summer Breeze and previously on Wet Seasons. There are only about 10 boats in the anchorage and the view of downtown Miami just across the bay just makes you say “wow” everytime the sun goes down in the evening. You usually get to see this view, and exactly where we’re hanging on anchor, from a 200-foot elevation helicopter’s perspective if you ever watch CSI: Miami on tv. It’s on every show somewhere. It is seriously cool. The actually “marine stadium” is now closed and properly graffitied; this was where Jimmy Buffett held one of his most famous concerts years ago. At the end of it, he jumped into the anchorage off of the floating stage. We love it here.

It’s very safe, weather-wise; however, weird things do seem to happen here, boatwise. The first night, I awoke to the rumble of a big motor boat sneaking slowly into the anchorage with all of its lights off, like it was on tippy-toes. At the fartherest inside point it turns on its big blue Marine Patrol lighting system and whips over to shore to talk to a little boat at the shore’s edge. No noise. About a minute later, the Marine Patrol boat floors it and goes screaming up through all of the anchored boats at about 50mph. So what was that about? The next night we had a 1 a.m. episode with three high powered skimmers that blew through the anchorage chasing each other at top speed. We always bounce out of bed when this kind of thing happens so we don’t miss anything. Sleep is usually light anyway, since the two bars on a nearby shore normally party until 5 a.m.; that’s when the police show up yelling into bullhorns telling all of the drunks to “get out!” I kid you not. Thank goodness cars don’t float, or we wouldn’t like this place so much. It’s safe, beautiful, and entertaining. Not only is the people-watching entertaining, at 7:30 p.m. every evening we had a front roll seat for the Miami Seaquarium’s Christmas fireworks show overhead. Cool, but not as good as the sunset though.

Well, no weather window appeared this week so we decided to scoot back up to Fort Lauderdale to spend Christmas with Spring, Mat, & the kids. As an extra bonus, my brother John, came down from Orlando to join us for a couple of nights on the boat. We cruised around Biscayne Bay and Stiltsville one day, and then John rode back up the Intracoastal Waterway to Ft Laud with me, while Nancy drove his car. It’s only 25 miles as the crow flies, but that can be a whole day in the boat on the Intracoastal. The day after celebrating Christmas, Nan & I zipped back down to Miami again to restock the boat and resume our watch for a Gulf Stream crossing opportunity.

Ahaa! Here comes one, disguised as three back-to-back weak “cold fronts”.