Miami, Teddy, and the divine providence of low canal bridges
How do you get an adult son who is super busy with work, lives on the West coast, and barely has any time off work, to come and visit us in Florida?
In the last couple of years, with Covid-19, and his work demands, we have not had a chance to see our children so much. Perhaps Teddy had made his decision to book himself a flight to Miami when we told him we were thinking of selling the boat soon. He combined visiting us with attending a launch of the SpaceX rocket carrying satellites made with his very hands.
We keep our car at Orlando airport, which allowed Ted to use it to drive to Cape Canaveral, then to Miami.
But prior to that, we had sailed down from Fort Lauderdale to Miami on a wonderful sunny day.
Miami is a busy place! As we entered Government Cut, the entrance to Biscayne Bay at Miami, there were fast boats going in front of us in every direction. It was a Saturday, and boaters were everywhere. Not every boat observed the right of way, and then there were jet skis going every which direction. Heading to what we thought was the bridge we needed to go under for our anchorage, we began to doubt if the bridge was tall enough for our mast. No, it wasn’t, not by 30 ft! We turned around and looked for another split in the waterway. No, this way is for cruise ships, there is a police boat sitting just inside that route as if to dare a boat to enter. Then as we proceeded to stop and go at the “intersection”, totally confused, we heard a horn and this on a radio: “Sea Biscuit, WHAT’S THE DEAL?” We clumsily apologized, but got an earful of insult back at us. Yikes, welcome to Miami! We went with the flow and made our way past several manmade Venetian islands to the anchorage.
The turquoise water looked amazingly clear, the impressive downtown skyline was beautiful, especially at night. We were ready to rest for days.
This anchorage is known for dinghy access to Publix via the Collins Canal, a narrow canal which cuts through Miami Beach from the little cove at Belle island. Like many times before, we learn as we go. It turns out the dockage at Publix isn’t exactly legal, or maybe it is. There are signs indicating it’s illegal to tie-up in the canal. But then there is a sign indicating there is a one-hour time limit to tie to a small dock near Publix. Regardless, people do it. As we tied the dinghy, another boater told us that the vessel that tows boats for the police, can’t reach us because of the low bridges over the canal. Haha. We were fortunate we didn’t tie our dinghy to a different little dock. It has a sign posted stating a 20-minute limit. Our new friends Chad and Yulia docked there several days with their new dinghy, ignoring the posted time limit like everyone else. They and others got away with it many times, until they didn’t. They and about six others were towed away resulting in a crazy ransom. It cost them $1400 to free their dinghy!
It was so convenient to go back and forth to the shore that we took care of some chores (UPS, West Marine runs) and stayed in Miami longer than planned.
We found Miami Beach ocean front and devoured a perfect Cuban sandwich along with mojitos. What else, right? People poured on the Main Street, seemingly just strolling, some rollerblading and biking. Music and atmosphere of a never-ending party was all around and soon we just wanted the long day to end.
Teddy arrived in Florida early. He was greeted by a heavy rain squall in the dark parking lot as he looked for our car. The weather delayed the rocket launch for a bit, but he got to see the launch and proceeded to drive south to Miami. Since it was his first visit to the boat, we showcased all the boat features and I flaunted my new sailor lingo. Windlass, not a winch.
The next day, Ted tried a paddle board out, then we took the dinghy to the shore and drove to Government Cut and the beach, walking in the beautiful shore parks. It’s always fun to meet interesting people who also sail, and going back and forth to the dinghy dock, we exchanged quick greetings with Gus from the same anchorage. Gus is a young guy from Maine, sails solo, and flies a raggedy American flag on his trawler. And then there was this young couple with a German Shepherd. We always talk about our Biscuit to other dog owners.
On Sunday, with Teddy aboard Sea Biscuit, we motored past Miami and just into the central part of Biscayne Bay. We checked out Marine Stadium, an area built for boat races. We were told it’s also the location for the annual Miami Boat Show.
It’s always nice to see our kids, it doesn’t happen nearly enough. We are thankful for the two days of Ted’s visit. We continue on towards Key West.
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