April 5-7 - Marathon Yacht Club to Miami

April 5     
     The day had come to pop the dock lines and begin our quest for exploration.  Now which route to take?  The outside course out Channel Five through Hawks channel to Miami is deep and well protected by an ocean reef but you’d miss the life of the Everglades National Park, the challenges of the Florida Bay, as well as, the beauty of Biscayne Bay in its entirety.  So we decided to run the inside channel to be closer to the Keys’ many islands and their splendor.  
     We had a grand departure at 0900 before a send-off committee that consisted of the Club’s officer's in uniform standing at attention and what seemed like half the Club membership.  We had music to inspire, roses for a safe return, and a canon salute for a heart attack.  It was a grand finale to a "Marathon" farewell for the Commodore & Commodorable (Admiral Jann) that seemed to last a month. Unfortunately we made it about a quarter of a mile out of port when Ivory Lady sounded a port engine sea water flow alarm forcing them to return to the dock for repairs.  Fortunately, the send-off crowd had departed so embarrassment was held to a minimum!  Commodore Bill, in his email to all the participants, thanked them for their rose petal ceremony but acknowledged that he did not expect the safe return to be sooo soon!  
     Ivory Lady's problem was not serious (thank goodness for lots of spare parts aboard) and she was underway about an hour later. Meanwhile, Navigator continued on through beautiful clear waters not journeyed before and found a great mooring east of Shell Key at N24°55.438' W080°40.408' and tied to a mooring buoy at about 1300; Ivory Lady captured the last (4th) mooring ball when she arrived at 1445.  Shell Key is a small Key off of Upper Matecumbe Key, a part of the Lignumvitae State Park and near Islamorada.  A quick dive to clear the crab pots from Navigator's props followed by a leisurely swim by Princess Caryn and Captain America were a mere prologue to a wonderful day of relaxation and dinner aboard Navigator with the four amigos.  Cuban was the theme with Black Beans & Rice, a fabulous Columbia 1905 salad, a great Malbec from Argentina and of course cigars rolled by our favorite Cuban Master.  Finally, a quick dinghy ride to deposit the Commodore & Admiral back aboard Ivory Lady proved she (the dinghy) can handle the night.

April 6
     Mooring balls are so secure and worry-free, a good night's sleep was our reward. Our travels this day took us through some very skinny water in Florida Bay, but the dolphins playing in our wake, the gin clear water and countless other wildlife species made it all worthwhile. We entered Card Sound and found our anchorage in the lee of Pumpkin Key. Pumpkin Key is just west of Angler's Club and the ritzy Ocean Reef community.

Navigator at Pumpkin Key sunset

     Anchors set, we enjoyed a swim and were joined by our other 2 amigos for fish tacos aboard Ivory Lady. Discussion centered on the fact that Pumpkin Key was for sale for $110M. A dinghy ride around the key didn't reveal much of anything that would be worth that kind of money! We discussed an offer of about 5M, but decided that the cruising life was for us. So why bother?  Let's see, buy the view - $110M; see the view from our boat - priceless! 

April 7
     As we didn't need to leave early, we enjoyed home cured salmon for breakfast before weighing anchor. Before we could do so, Ivory Lady seems to have decided that it was time to depart as she suddenly dragged anchor about a hundred yards after good holding all night. Thankfully, we had no obstructions astern and we suffered only an unexpected early start.  We cruised only about 25 miles to arrive at Coral Reef Yacht Club in Miami after 1400 hours. Beautifully clear water in Biscayne Bay as we ran downwind revealed so many colors of bottom. As we neared Miami, we passed the few remaining structures in "Stiltsville" just south of Key Biscayne. Stiltsville is a community of houses built on stilts just beyond the jurisdiction of the Miami authorities in the 20’s and 30’s that allowed for a free spirited anti-authority populace to exist in the United States.  Only seven structures remain today with colorful histories as gentlemen’s clubs, bars, fishing camps, boating clubs and much more.
     After successfully finding the correct channel into Coral Reef, we were unable to contact the dockmaster for docking instructions. We nosed around all of the club's docks in about 25 knots of east wind before a member was able to contact the new dockmaster who finally appeared to show us our slips. Coral Reef is in Coconut Grove so we looked forward to some good provisioning at Fresh Market only two blocks away and a nice walk and shopping in the "Grove". Sadly, while this campy little area of shops and boutiques was once the hottest districts, many of the retailers and good dining spots have migrated to South Beach which is today's hot venue. Still, we were able to find a good dinner at LuLu's and a new watch (silver) for the Commodore and Admiral's 25th wedding anniversary. 

Celebrating 25 wonderful years!

     We stayed in port another day as a stormy cold front was approaching. Commodore Bill & Admiral Jann were treated to a wonderful anniversary dinner aboard Navigator prepared by Princess Caryn & Captain America. Perhaps a little more celebrating than was prudent given a planned early departure the next morning.
     We noted in the ship's log tonight that we have traveled over 100 nautical miles since departure. Only about 6000 to go!