Miami to Riviera Beach, FL

Today:    88 miles, 11.3 hours, ICW St. M 1551.6

Total:     1588.2 miles, 260.37 hours

     The alarm went off at 5:30 am. In order to leave at 6:30, Bailey and the dinghy need to be dealt with first, but we had the anchor up and were underway by 6:35.

The city wakes up

    

The strange, MY SEAFAIR

As we were passing under the bridge, we were cut off by a sailboat coming out of the Marine Stadium. We passed him and were the second of 3 sailboats heading towards of the inlet.  It was a surprise to see 6 cruise ships at the terminal.  While motoring along the opposite side of the terminal, we were hailed by a tug and barge that needed to swing around the pilots’ station with his fuel barge for the cruise ships.

The condos along Government Cut

Bailey hangs on
in rough seas

     With the current outbound and the winds inbound, it was a very rough ride out of the inlet.  Bailey has become increasingly uncomfortable with rocky rides.  We don’t know what started her anxiety, but it appeared last year on our trip north.  Once clear of the inlet, it was a slightly better ride, but the winds were about 20 over the rear starboard quarter. To make time we once again motor sailed.  We are hoping to get to Riviera by 4 so we can dock at slack tide. 

The day started pretty,
but the clouds came later

Look carefully. The black smudges
are really the kits used for fishing.

     The ride was very rocky, but we were able to cruise any where between 7.5 and 8.9 mph.  We only picked up some help from the gulf stream once we were about 40 miles into the trip.  We didn’t want to head out about 8 miles off of Miami to use it.  The furthest from shore we traveled was about 3 miles.  Winds were from the East, but the longer ocean swells, were from the South East made for slightly confused seas and bumpy ride.

     Outside of Ft. Lauderdale, we encountered a number of boats Kite-fishing.  These crazy people spend way too much money on expensive kites and rigging and don’t understand that we who travel in sailboats with Binimis can’t see the kites. There is nothing on the boat that indicated the kites are being used. The fishermen go ballistic when we get close.

4 out of the 5 cruise ships in Port Everglades
And there were 6 cruise ships in Miami
That is a lot of people!

     We hit some rain squalls toward the end of today's travels.  It slowed to just sprinkles as I was securing the docking lines, but the rains returned when docking. We docked with Jim’s help, but we had a challenge getting the power cord to reach. After a quick dinner, we took showers ashore and called it an early night.

     Sunday, 3/11 –Traced the leak to the Seaward water heater.  Emptied the sugar spoon and lazzarette. Pete squeezed into the lazzarette. Pete was able to find a new Kumo water heater in stock at West Marine, Delray Beach, with the same 11-gallon tank, same dimensions and same hookups.  We plan to the installation tomorrow.

Our dead water heater

      When we returned to the Marina, the Sunday’s Farmer’s Market busy.  I perused the area. There was clothing, jewelry, fruits and veggies, plants, live entertainment, and food. I brought a delicious looking Tart from the French bakery, which we enjoyed after dinner.

     Monday, 3/12 – We thought it was going to be a shoe-in.  The Kumo was exactly like the Seaward 11-gallon hot water heater with one exception…it has rivets instead of screws!  The means we can’t take it apart to get it into the lazzerette. Apparently, Catalina put the water heater into the hull before they put the decks in place.  That’s cheating!!! And it makes it so much more challenging to replace. As a result, we ordered a new Whale hot water heater though Amazon, which will be here late Tuesday night. Unfortunately, that means more showers ashore.

     Laundry, food shopping and defrosting the refrigerator were all accomplished today as tomorrow we shuttle our car up to St. Augustine. Rivera finally replaced their broken dryers with 3 new ones.  Laundry was more pleasant than it has been for the past two years with the broken dryers.  I did thank the harbormaster for the new dryers.  He told me that he has been trying to get much needed work/repairs done to the bathrooms and showers.  Unfortunately, being a municipal facility, he has to get 3 quotes for the repairs, and contractors don’t want such a small job, they would prefer to remodel rather than repair so he is unable to get 3 quotes.

On the road, again!

     Tuesday, 3/13 – We were on the road at 7:30 am to pick up the rental car and head to St. Augustine.  We did OK traffic wise and with stops, we were back at the marina at 5 pm. Bailey came with us, but had to be dropped back at the boat so we could meet Ann and Howie for dinner.

     Before we went to Ann & Howie’s, we stopped at the cleaners.  I had found a dry cleaner’s slip from January in the Acura. I thought we had picked up everything at the cleaners, but I was wrong. One of Pete’s shirts was still there.

     We had a great dinner at Jack’s New York Style Pizza.  Their lasagna is to die for! We also retrieved our mail and the new hot water heater before heading back to the boat.

     Wednesday, 3/14 – Pete had a busy work day, so we opted to wait to install the water heater once we are at Ft. Pierce.  I did some light house cleaning in preparations for being on the move tomorrow. Pete had work and taxes to keep him busy most of the day.

~ ~ ~ /) ~ ~  K & P