Day 7 - 1/8/11

Day 7 was to be a short trip down to the Marine Park Stadium near Miami.  During the morning, Beth went for a walk on the beach, as the marina was only 1/2 mile from the beach.  I stayed behind adjusting the back stays which were extremely loose.  I will adjust the rest of the rigging before we head off shore.  Dennis and Mary were to get a pump out at the marina, but that never happened due to a problem with the fittings available.  And their trip to the pump out dock did not go smoothly either.  A gust of wind blew them into an anchor on another boat, bending one of their stantions and scratching the top of their cabin.  The next almost fiasco happened while they were leaving the pump out dock.  The draw bridge was open and they thought the bridge tender saw them, but he didn't and started lowering the bridge.  They reversed course, but the bridge tender saw them and held the bridge open.  Fortunately for us we had a relatively easy exit from our berth!!!!  As a result, we lead the way south to Miami. 

One thing to note that from Fort Lauderdale south, we enter the tropical waters.  Beautiful azure water.  Heading south from the marina, we run through several areas where the channel is surrounded by walls.  Most of the channels in the area require a slow, minimum wake, but some allow up to 15 inch wakes, which most of the power boats ignore.  We had a boat go by us that threw a 3 foot wake that then reverberated in the channel for the next 1/2 mile.  Another, rather than slow as we were entering the no wake zone sped right through the sign slowing several yards after the sign, again sending us rocking. 

During our run down Biscayne Bay, we encountered 15 - 20 knot winds making it extremely choppy.  Combine that with the muscle boats, we felt like we were being initiated for our crossing. 

We entered Marine Park Stadium about 5, and anchored, which was not uneventful.  Another lesson learned; wear boat shoes.  I was wearing flip flops which had little to no tread and slipped into the life lines, giving me a nice contusion on my upper thigh and some road rash from the deck.  After nurse Beth administered some first aid, I marinated some fish for dinner, not fresh caught, as we had little time for that.